Staunton, April 16 — For the last three months, the Russian population has been declining, and Moscow has coped with this by not publishing its usual monthly data collections or calling attention to the data in any way. But the regime is not capable of functioning without at least some officials having data, accurate or […]
Staunton, March 30 — Many are taking comfort in the notion that just as Russians appear to have reduced their hatred of immigrants when encouraged by the Kremlin to hate Ukrainians instead so too their hatred against the latter could be ended relatively easily if Moscow changed course — and in any case won’t expand […]
Staunton, March 5 – Two weeks ago, Vladimir Putin named Aleksandr Levintal to head the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) in the Russian Far East, an action that Konstantin Kalachev says has reopened talk about the future of a region rich in natural resources but which “in fact is cut off from the rest of Russia” […]
Staunton, January 12 – Some activists among Russia’s numerically small peoples of the North would like to open casinos on their territories in the hopes that such facilities would provide them with jobs and money of the kind that some of the native peoples of America have obtained by doing so. On the one hand, […]
Staunton, VA – November 12, 2014 Moscow no longer has the funds or access to foreign investment to promote either growth or equalization in Russia’s regions and instead has opted for a regional policy within the country based on geopolitical considerations and fears of Russia’s possible disintegration, according to a Moscow State University geographer. In […]
Staunton, October 15 – Three demographic developments in the Russian Federation reported by media outlets there — the dying out of predominantly Russian areas, labor migrants coming out of the closet in Moscow, and the possibility that a Ukrainian region will re-emerge inside Russia in the Far East — have obvious and potentially destabilizing consequences. […]
Staunton, October 5 – The Russian occupation of Crimea has affected residents of the Ukrainian peninsula in large ways and small. Now, Novy Region-2 has published a list of 21 ways in which life has changed for all the residents of that region, establishing a useful checklist for all concerned. There are other, more high-profile […]
Staunton, September 9 – In his latest update on Stalinism as “effective management,” Vladimir Putin has disbanded Russia’s Regional Affairs Ministry, yet another sign of his drive to further centralize the country, eliminate any serious discussion of Russia’s regions and their problems, and thus undermine any chance that Moscow will have an effective nationality policy. […]
Staunton, June 12 – Russian writers occasionally refer to the existence of the Zelyonyi Klin [“Green Wedge”] in the Russian Far East as an historical oddity, but now in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, they have gone all out not only to blacken its reputation by linking Ukrainians there to foreign intelligence services but […]
Staunton, June 6 – Moscow officials say that an increasing number of Ukrainians are seeking refuge from the turmoil in their country by moving to the Russian Federation, and experts note that unexpectedly for the central Russian government, many of them are seeking to settle in the Russian Far East. But as Ulyana Ivanova points […]
