Staunton, March 20 — Since the Maidan, a new Kyiv poll shows, the share of Ukrainians favoring EU integration has risen from 41 percent to 47.2 percent since the Maidan, while the share of those backing integration with Moscow has fallen from 35 percent to 12.3 percent. At the same time, the portion of Ukrainians […]
Staunton, November 1 – In a move that recalls the ending of Costa-Gavras’ 1969 classic film “Z” about the Greek junta, a group of Putin loyalists from his United Russia Party are calling for dispensing with the word “democracy” in Russia, closing the independent Higher School of Economics and Ekho Moskvy, and restoring choral singing […]
Staunton, October 13 – Many people in Ukraine and the West have convinced themselves that if Vladimir Putin were to leave the scene, Russian aggressiveness would also end. But that view, Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev says, is dangerously “naïve” because it ignores present-day Russian realities. In an interview to Ukrainian outlets that has been reposted […]
Staunton, September 29 – Vladimir Putin’s decision to end direct elections for mayors in the name of increasing central control will in fact have the opposite effect, Roman Revunov says, because it will allow governors to amass unprecedented power and be in a position to challenge Moscow or even lead their regions out of the […]
Staunton, August 17 – Most Western commentators focus on the absence of genuine democracy in the so-called “hybrid” regimes but fail to notice that such regimes are also characterized by a lack of genuine dictatorship, according to Yekaterina Schulman, a Moscow legal affairs commentator. “It is easy to see that the democratic façade [of such […]
Staunton, July 25 – Vladimir Putin’s increasing authoritarianism has sparked a new round of suggestions in Russia and elsewhere that “Russians are organically incapable of democracy and European values.” But such views ignore the history of the Novgorod Republic which, until Moscow occupied it, was among the most democratic parts of Europe for four centuries. […]
Updated Daily. A critical review of Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide by noted Russian intelligence and cybersecurity expert Andrei Soldatov reveals how little is known about Snowden in Russia. Another NGO has lost its court case attempting to challenge the prosecutor’s designation of “foreign agent,” even as the Russian Constitutional Court ruled that […]
Staunton, April 16 – It has become fashionable to call for liberals and patriots to compromise, to agree to “call the naked king ‘half-dressed,’”, as Russia’s latest attempt to build a state in which people live in freedom and sufficiency and one which enjoys the respect of the surrounding world has failed, Georgy Kunadze says. […]
