Staunton, June 11 – The reduction in the role of non-Russian languages and their being driven out of many public spaces even in their homelands is “no accident and no indication that a multi-lingual society cannot be built but rather evidence of the existence of an intentional state policy for building a Russian nation state,” […]
Staunton, October 19 – Refugees from Ukraine apparently will not have to study non-Russian languages as required by the legislation of the non-Russian republics but instead will be exposed to more intensive Russian language instruction, yet another way in which Moscow is undermining the status of non-Russian tongues. Because of the sensitivity of language issues […]
Staunton, October 11 Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea has had many unintended consequences but one that may ultimately prove to be especially important is the way in which the illegal inclusion of the Crimean Tatars inside the Russian Federation has affected that country’s “linguistic map,” something likely to have political consequences as well. In a […]
Staunton, October 8 – Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cheboksary, the capital of Chuvashia, October 9. In advance of his arrival, local officials linguistically “cleansed” the streets along which he passed, removing those which were in Chuvash and leaving only those in Russian. This violation of both the Russian law on languages and the Chuvash […]
Staunton, September 24 – Like its Soviet predecessors, the Putin regime has adopted three strategies in dealing with the non-Russian quarter of the population: increasing repression, divide-and-rule efforts within these communities and among them, and suppressing the dissemination of information about their plight. But these strategies are proving less effective than they once were, the […]
Staunton, September 4 – A campaign by Chuvash language supporters to get businesses and other institutions to put up signs saying “Here We Speak Chuvash” is spreading across that Christian Turkic republic in the Middle Volga and has now inspired activists in the nearby Finno-Ugric Republic of Udmurtia to do the same. Last spring, members […]
Staunton, May 2 – The Crimean Tatars today are an inspiration and model for the non-Russians of the Russian Federation because they simultaneously defend the fundamental rights of their own nation and insist that they are part of the Ukrainian state, according to a Chuvash journal. “Looking at that energy with which the Crimean Tatars […]
Staunton, April 15 – That Russia’s Anschluss of Crimea has re-ordered the international landscape is now common ground as countries around the world recalibrate their foreign policies in the face of what appears to be a fait accompli. But this annexation is also having a dizzying impact on the Russian Federation’s own nationalities. Indeed, in […]
Staunton, March 27 – Even though polls show Vladimir Putin’s approval rating close to its highest level ever, his Anschluss of Crimea is upsetting many citizens of the Russian Federation, with ethnic Russians at least so far concerned mostly about its cost and non-Russians upset about the rights Moscow says it is defending in Crimea […]
