Tag: Buryatia

Staunton, November 3 – In the final decades of the Soviet Union, many in the non-Russian union republics began to ask why some of them were headed by members of their titular nationalities and others by Russians and increasingly demanded that members of the titular nation occupy key posts. Over time, Moscow backed down, first […]

Staunton, October 6 The Moscow media have long focused on the extent to which Islam is recovering among the historically Muslim peoples of Russia and on the acceptance of Islam by a limited number of ethnic Russians, but these outlets have devoted far less attention to the spread of Islam among non-Russian groups not historically […]

New York State’s Department of Financial Services is probing Deutsche Bank over a $6 billion trade involving Russian clients that may involve a bribe and money-launering. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. […]

Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. UPDATES BELOW Russia This Week: – What Happened to the Slow-Moving Coup? – Can We Be Satisfied With the Theory That Kadyrov Killed Nemtsov? – All […]

Staunton, March 31 — Foreign intelligence services are seeking to drive a wedge between the various peoples of Buryatia, a Kremlin official told a Novosibirsk meeting on ethnic relations and national security yesterday, a latest indication of Moscow’s increasing nervousness about that strategically important republic and a signal to Buryats of just how important they […]

Staunton, March 2 — The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, having offended many Russian liberals by its obscurantism and slavish subordination to the Kremlin and having angered many of Russia’s Muslims by its backing for missionary work among them, now appears set to offend a group it had hitherto largely ignored: Russia’s Buddhists. […]

Staunton, February 28 — For most of the last generation, people in Eurasia and around the world have been on a death watch for the Aral Sea. That vigil is now over: the Aral Sea has died. But a serious new if quite different crisis has now broken out regarding Lake Baikal, relations between a […]

Staunton, January 15 – Many in Russia and the West are celebrating Yevgeny Primakov’s argument presented at the Mercury Club this week that hyper-centralization, a policy associated with Vladimir Putin, is a threat to the Russian Federation and its economic recovery and his call for devolving more powers to the regions of the country. But […]

Staunton, December 20 – In the minds of some, Vladimir Putin used his press conference December 18 to demonstrate his conviction that he will remain president of Russia forever, ever more Russian commentators are asking “What will be the situation after Putin?” Among those doing so is Daniil Kotsyubinsky, a historian and journalist, who gave […]

Staunton, November 7 – Russians who voted online for the title “Mrs. St. Petersburg” complained that one of the 25 competitors was a Buryat and charged her with Russophobia, a accusation Viktoriya Maladayeva denied. Organizers said this was the first such situation in the five years of the competition and awarded her the consolation title […]