Russia is the unquestioned aggressor in Ukraine. It has built up powerful forces all along its borders with NATO members in Europe, to the point where it enjoys a very visible conventional superiority against them there. Recently, NATO’s new chairman said that the Russian military could overrun the Baltic States in just two days. Furthermore […]
Staunton, January 11 – Ten months after the Anschluss of Crimea, the Russian occupation authorities have succeeded in changing that Ukrainian peninsula to such an extent that Crimea now resembles Belarus, a place where one can live “in sufficient comfort” as long as one doesn’t have “any need to have any contact with the state,” […]
Staunton, May 12 – A government’s priorities and plans are most clearly shown in its budget, and over the last four years, the budgets Vladimir Putin has proposed and imposed are those of a leader preparing for war rather than someone concerned about the needs of the Russian people, according to Boris Nemtsov. In a […]
With the September 8 election fast approaching, the Moscow mayoral race is heating up. Thus far, the campaign has been the most contentious in a major Russian election in recent memory, with mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s surprise resignation and bid for reelection, and activist Alexei Navalny’s dramatic entry onto the electoral scene, despite a conviction for […]
Among the many debates surrounding the endless bloodshed in Syria, one of the loudest has been over Russia’s defense of its sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles (S-300) to the Assad regime. Pointing to the fact that the contracts were signed before the conflict, and justifying their fulfillment as legal under international law, the sale has nevertheless […]
