Staunton, February 22 — The Kremlin-organized Anti-Maidan demonstration in Moscow should not make Vladimir Putin feel secure because it was in reality an updated version of the Day of the Black Hundreds, Boris Vishnevsky says, groups organized by the tsarist regime to show support for the autocracy but that later did nothing to defend it. […]
Tag: Fifth Column
Kadyrov Calls for Purge of ‘Traitors in the Kremlin’
Staunton, December 23 – Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov says that “traitors in the Kremlin, government and other power structures,” people who do not carry out the decisions of President Vladimir Putin, must be purged from office in order to improve the economy and block Western efforts to destabilize Russia. In an interview published in Izvestia yesterday, […]
Moscow’s Talk about ‘Fifth Column’ Leading Directly to Revival of Anti-Semitism, Analyst Says
Staunton, November 17 – Anti-Semitism has a long and horrific history in Russia, Olga Irisova writes, and every time Moscow has “tightened the screws” and focused as now on the supposed existence of “a fifth column,” Russians will focus on nationality – the notorious “fifth line” in Soviet passports – and attacks on Jews will […]
‘Patriots’ of Putin’s Party Want to Dispense with Democracy
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 […]
Lukashenka Quietly Purging Pro-Moscow ‘Fifth Column’ in Belarus
Staunton, September 29 – Concerned that Moscow might engineer a regime change in Belarus as a follow on to its actions in Ukraine, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been purging pro-Russian officials from his regime – but in a very quiet way lest he provoke Moscow as a result, according to Nasha Niva. The Belarusian daily reports […]
Is Colonel Strelkov Making a Comeback or Has He Been Tamed?
On 14 August, the popular and enigmatic Col. Igor Strelkov resigned from his position of “Defense Minister” and “Commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic Militia” after reports that he was wounded. He then disappeared for weeks, and was rumored to be in Sevastopol, in a rest home. When he surfaced yesterday September 11 for a […]
‘Novorossiya’ and the ‘Fifth Column’ Around the Kremlin: Novaya Gazeta Interview with Boroday
Pavel Kanygin, special correspondent for the independent Russian online newspaper Novaya Gazeta has been interviewing a number of the pro-Russian separatists and other political figures in Ukraine for some time. [See our translation of his interview with former Yanukovych Aide Anna German—The Interpreter). Kanygin himself was once kidnapped by the Russian-backed separatists and freed on […]
Russians, Not Ukrainians, Likely to Become Greatest Victims of Putin’s Policies
Staunton, July 25 – Despite the horrors Vladimir Putin’s regime continues to inflict on Ukraine, increasingly frequent calls in Moscow for the Kremlin leader to conduct a Stalinist-style crackdown and his disposition to follow them could very well mean that the citizens of the Russian Federation will in the end be the greatest victims of […]
Right-Wing Parties are Russia’s Fifth Column in Europe Against NATO and the US, Baburin Says
Staunton, May 18 – Sergey Baburin, a prominent leader of the Russian right, suggests that right-wing political parties in Europe now form a veritable fifth column for Russia on the continent which can be counted on to support Moscow against their leftist governments and against NATO and American policies as well. In an interview entitled […]
Dugin Says Putin Being Undermined by Insiders Who Don’t Back Him All the Way
Staunton, April 29 Aleksandr Dugin, the influential leader of the Eurasian Movement, says that Vladimir Putin is not just being attacked by “a fifth column” of opposition figures but also is being undermined by what he calls “a sixth column” consisting of those within his regime who are actively working to undermine the Kremlin leader. […]