Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. UPDATES BELOW Both government and opposition have advanced various theories about the people behind the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, ranging from a jealous lover […]
Staunton, February 24 – Both those who support Vladimir Putin and those who oppose him overestimate the Kremlin leader, Vitaly Portnikov says, with the former assuming there is nothing he cannot do and the latter explaining away their own shortcomings and failures by making the same assumption. As a result, the former assume that whatever […]
Staunton, February 1 – There are denials, “non-denial denials,” and then denials that have the effect of confirming exactly what those doing the denying are seeking to disown and providing additional information as well. A classical example of the last is provided by the head of a Kremlin think tank who was trying to undercut […]
This is turning out to be a bad week for Europeans hoping to resist the advance of Putinism. Ukraine continues to dither, rather than fight Russian invasion seriously. While Kyiv at last termed Moscow’s violence against their country “aggression,” they demurred from calling it a war, which it is, seemingly not realizing that if Ukraine […]
At the beginning of this week, President Barack Obama explained that Russia, hit hard by Western sanctions, is losing in its confrontation with the West and NATO caused by Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. In his State of the Union address, Obama displayed similar swag and bluster against both the Kremlin and Congressional Republicans, seemingly […]
Yesterday Russia announced a revised military doctrine, signed by President Vladimir Putin, that names NATO as the Kremlin’s main adversary and clarifies that Russia’s military reserves the right to respond to conventional threats with both nuclear and conventional weapons. This is no big change, since it only amplifies existing doctrine, but its explicit emphasis on […]
Staunton, December 18 – The Soviet security agencies from Lenin on were infected by an often vicious Russian nationalism which led their officers to attack non-Russians far more frequently than Russians, according to a new study based on archival sources by Aleksey Teplyakov, a Novosibirsk historian. Many researchers Russian and foreign have considered the national […]
Staunton, December 6 – Moscow must restore the term “enemy of the people” as a criminal charge in order to defend Russia against the information war that has been unleashed against it by the West, according to Ilya Belous, a Yekaterinburg blogger and “patriotic” — that is, pro-Putin — activist. Speaking to a session of […]
Staunton, September 20 – Leaders of various countries have exploited terrorist attacks against their countries for their own purposes, but Vladimir Putin has made terrorism an integral part of Russian state policy, not only exploiting attacks but involving Russian security agencies and forces in terrorist actions as needed, according to Konstantin Plamenyev. “Historical experience shows,” […]
Staunton, September 19 – Moscow officials have confirmed that they will not declassify documents concerning the Soviet security services for another 30 years, a decision that was anticipated by a resolution of the Inter-Agency Commission on the Defense of State Secrets and one that means that it will remain impossible to research many key events […]
