Staunton, December 25 — Vladimir Putin rose to power with a promise to suppress Chechnya’s drive for independence, but his actions in recent years, including his new decision to hand over to Grozny the oil refinery there have put that North Caucasus republic on “the final stage” toward the establishment of an independent country, according […]
Staunton, November 16 Vladimir Putin should be compared with Stalin rather than with Hitler, Avraam Shmulyevich says, not only because he is seeking to use an east-west alliance to legitimize his seizure of territory but also because Putin has played “no less a role” in the creation of ISIS than the Soviet dictator did in […]
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 […]
Yesterday, October 5, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov received Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the first vice president of Afghanistan, to discuss cooperation in their struggle against ISIS. 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. […]
Staunton, July 8 – “Unfortunately, Russia is different from present-day Ukraine in many ways,” Lilya Shevtsova says; and consequently, if a Maidan does occur there, it is likely to be different as well, violent rather peaceful, destructive rather than constructive, and divisive rather than unifying. In the course of an interview this week with Artyom […]
Staunton, June 15 – Chechnya under Ramzan Kadyrov has challenged Moscow in many ways, but now it has taken on a new one. The center has discouraged the non-Russian republics from promoting the survival and use of their titular languages outside their borders. But now Chechnya is doing just that – and adding insult to […]
Staunton, June 15 – That Vladimir Putin lives in a different reality than do other world leaders is now more or less common ground. Now, two commentators have described respectively what the Kremlin leader dreams about and what his worst nightmare might turn out to be. In a commentary in Kyiv’s Novoye Vremya, Yury Felshtinsky, […]
A death treat was made by the deputy editor of an official Chechen government publication against Yelena Milashina, special correspondent for Novaya Gazeta who has covered a number of controversies in Chechnya, including the razing of the homes of terrorists’ relatives and forced marriage. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely […]
Staunton, May 27 – The leaders of the Caucasus Emirate have declared themselves part of ISIS, but such declarations, given that many Salafis in the North Caucasus view ISIS as not being an Islamic project — an attitude Russian officials need to promote and exploit — may have the effect of weakening the group there, […]
Staunton, May 21 — Many in Russia and elsewhere have been horrified by the personal tragedy of the forced marriage of a young girl to a 57-year-old Chechen that Ramzan Kadyrov and some Russians have defended, but they should be more concerned about how this event sets the stage for a new Chechen war in […]
