Staunton, October 18 – At his press conference yesterday, Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka made so many remarkable statements that it is hard to know where to begin. But perhaps the most significant was that “Smolensk and Bryansk,” two oblasts now within the Russian Federation, are “ours, but Belarus doesn’t need them now.” While most people […]
Staunton, September 29 – The 100,000-strong Muslim community of Kaliningrad is running out of options in the Russian legal system to secure land for the construction of a mosque in that Russian exclave and consequently will now appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, according to their lawyer Dagir Khasavov. But meanwhile, continuing opposition […]
Staunton, September 25 – Western leaders may still refer to Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka as “the last dictator in Europe,” but in the wake of the events in Ukraine, they will not do anything to challenge him that might lead to instability in Belarus, according to a Mensk analyst just back from a visit to […]
Staunton, August 13 – Despite Moscow’s apparently successful efforts to block a march in Novosibirsk this Sunday, the Russian authorities have failed to prevent the ideas behind it from spreading not only to other Siberian cities like Yekaterinburg but also and more seriously to Kaliningrad and Kuban. Feliks Rivkin, an activist in Yekaterinburg, says that […]
Staunton, July 2 – Nikolay Tsukanov, the governor of Kaliningrad, says that people he suspects are Maidan activists are arriving in his region alongside genuine refugees from Ukraine and that they are being sent by Western “special services” to “unleash a Maidan” in that Russian exclave and others as well. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta today, […]
Staunton, June 25 – Moscow has already imposed restrictions on Russian security service personnel from travelling abroad, but now interior officials in Kaliningrad are “overfulfilling the plan” and restricting the ability of police and procuracy officials in Kaliningrad from travelling to other parts of the Russian Federation unless they can accord to fly. According to […]
Staunton, June 17 – In the corridors of the Russian foreign ministry, commentator Ruslan Gorevoy says, people are saying that Moscow would hardly have annexed Crimea if other separatist movements had not appeared elsewhere in Ukraine that Moscow could use as leverage against Kyiv and block its turn toward the West. In the new issue […]
Staunton, June 5 – Russia is redirecting its trade flows away from Lithuania in order to punish Vilnius for its outspoken support of Ukraine and opposition to Russian aggression there, a shift that has cut the flow of oil through the Butinge terminal by more than a third from a year ago and is costing […]
Staunton, May 15 – Separatist and pro-German sentiment among ethnic Russians in Kaliningrad reflects not only German revanchist efforts but the threat of “the alienation of young from the Russian world” if they are “cut off” for a lengthy period from Russia and if Moscow acts as if “’there are no problems’” with such people, […]
Staunton, May 2 – Moscow is threatening its own country even more than it is threatening Ukraine by presenting those now in revolt against Kyiv as heroes, a portrayal that could lead to an upswing in extremist views and actions in the Russian Federation itself, according to Vladislav Inozemtsev. In an article in Vedomosti just […]
