Staunton, April 5 – Given the nature of Vladimir Putin’s regime and reflecting the Kremlin leader’s own understanding, “Russians do not exist,” émigré writer Boris Shumyatsky says. Instead, “people from the former Soviet Union are united [by] their experience of life under a dictatorship.” In a comment to Die Zeit this week, the writer argues […]
Staunton, April 5 – Russian nationalists in Crimea and in Russia are expressing their outrage at and opposition to what they see as Vladimir Putin’s “Tatarization” of Crimea, a policy that they argue does not reflect the ethnic balance on the peninsula and that calls into question Moscow’s portrayal of itself as a defender of […]
Staunton, April 5 – The constant invocation by Russian officials of the right of peoples to self-determination in the support of the Kremlin’s policy on Crimea is “inspiring Russian regionalists to call for the self-administration of their territories” and is being regularly invoked by them as “a precedent.” As a result, Ulyana Ivanova writes on […]
Staunton, April 5 – The annexation of Crimea is already becoming “a powerful catalyst” for serious changes in Moscow’s nationality policy and even on the current principle of the national-territorial division of the Russian Federation, according to Margarita Lyange, head of the Guild of Inter-Ethnic Journalism. In an essay on the Nazaccent.ru portal yesterday, Lyang […]
Staunton, April 4 – In the wake of Putin’s Crimean Anschluss, according to some Kazakhstan news sources, the government of that country plans to shift 300,000 ethnic Kazakhs to the still predominantly ethnic Russian northern portions of Kazakhstan to block any Moscow effort to undermine that country’s territorial integrity. Kazakh officials have denied the specifics […]
Staunton, April 4 – Organizers have collected some 1500 signatures on an Internet petition calling for a referendum on the transfer of part of Russia’s Smolensk Region to neighboring Belarus, a step they say would correct an “historic injustice” because that area belonged to Belarus before World War II and one that echoes what Vladimir […]
Staunton, April 4 – Activists in Khabarovsk Territory, Tver Region, and Vologda Region are responding to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea by calling for the central Russian government to “join” their territories to Russia so that they do can benefit from the center’s largesse, have higher living standards, and escape from local authoritarian rulers. These […]
Staunton, April 4 – Vladimir Putin’s exact plans for Crimea now that Russia has annexed it are as yet uncertain, but the Kremlin leader’s willingness to talk about restoring a Crimean Tatar Republic within the Russian Federation is already sparking discussion — precisely because of the far-reaching consequences of such a step. One Russian commentator […]
Staunton, April 4 – Vladimir Putin’s statements and actions concerning Crimea and Ukraine are not ad hoc responses but rather represent a new “’Putin doctrine’” for Russian action in foreign affairs, a doctrine that dispenses with many of the most fundamental principles on which the international system has operated, according to Vladimir Ryzhkov. In a […]
Staunton, April 3 – In a move highlighting the demographic plight of ethnic Russians, Moscow has announced that it will now draft North Caucasians without the restrictions it had imposed on them in recent years, a move some in that region are welcoming but that others, including some Russian officers and the Soldiers’ Mothers Committees […]
