As Moscow has announced that it will boost defense spending over the next three years, a Russian expert has warned Moscow can’t afford a new arms race and could suffer the fate of the USSR.
Staunton, April 12 – Writing in Warsaw’s Gazeta Wyborcza a week ago, Wacław Radziwinowicz argued that Moscow’s victory in World War II has become “the new civic religion” in Russia, a suggestion that has provoked a strong negative reaction in that country with many Russians saying that the Polish journalist had insulted their national history. […]
Staunton, March 16 — A Russian nationalist with a long track record of hatred toward Belarus says that, on the basis of the logic Moscow has used to annex Crimea, Moscow should take back the portions now within the borders of the Belarusian Republic that were once part of the RSFSR. Not only does his […]
Staunton, March 12 — It is an article of faith for Vladimir Putin and many Russians as well that, despite what he and they are sometimes willing to concede were Joseph Stalin’s excesses, the Soviet dictator was absolutely necessary in building up a strong Soviet Union that was then capable of defeating Nazi Germany. But […]
Staunton, March 12 — Yesterday, Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Putin’s Security Council, warned that Russia will face a serious terrorist threat if and when militants from Russia who have been fighting with various Islamist groups in the Middle East return home. But he said nothing about what may be a more immediate and serious threat: […]
Staunton, March 8 – Despite his efforts, Vladimir Putin is not a remake of Stalin and thus could be overthrown in a coup because he has not only violated the social contract he had with the Russian people but has with the murder of Boris Nemtsov shown that he is prepared to kill members of […]
Staunton, March 5 – On the 62 anniversary of his death today, Stalin continues to cast an ever darker shadow over Russia, sparking debates about how he should best be remembered. But beyond these symbols, the influence of Stalin on the thinking of Vladimir Putin and his regime is increasingly obvious and strong, as Moscow […]
Staunton, January 25 – Aleksandr Sytin, an historian who quit the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies because of its imperialist and anti-Western views, says that despite widespread support for Vladimir Putin, no one in Russia “will die” for the Kremlin leader. According to Sytin, those who are prepared to die now in Ukraine are a […]
Staunton, January 5 – Following Vladimir Putin, who suggested Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown by a clutch of “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes, and anti-Semites,” commentators in Russia and sometimes in the West suggested that anti-Semitism was widespread in Ukraine. Indeed, they have made it a major theme in their presentations. But Boris Vishnevsky, a Yabloko deputy in […]
Staunton, September 29 – Following the Crimean Anschluss, Russians have stopped focusing their anger on Nikita Khrushchev, who transferred Crimea from the RSFSR to Ukraine, as a primary source of their problems with Ukrainians and shifted attention to the role Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin played in creating the current tensions between the two nations. […]
