Staunton, September 5 – “Import substitution” may be the latest term to enter the vocabulary of Russians, but experts say that Russian farmers will not be able to produce enough additional food for the domestic market to compensate for the embargo the Kremlin has imposed on imports unless that measure stays in place for at […]
Staunton, September 3 – Because of the failure of the Putin regime to develop the Russian Federation’s medical industry, thus forcing the country to purchase abroad up to 80 percent of its medicines, the Kremlin’s planned imposition of restrictions on their import will hurting the ill, a group to whose plight Moscow has long shown […]
Staunton, August 29 – The Russian military has the ability to seize Donetsk and Lugansk if no one provides assistance to Ukraine, Russian military affairs specialist Aleksandr Golts says, but he argues that Moscow “does not have the resources” it would need for “a full-scale occupation” of these and other Ukrainian regions. In an interview […]
Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. View Ukraine: April, 2014 in a larger map For […]
Staunton, July 6 – An article of faith among many commentators on Russia since the Crimean Anschluss is that the patriotic wave the Kremlin has promoted has swept across the entire country and is likely to be even stronger in traditional areas than in Moscow and other major urban centers. That view in some cases […]
Staunton, May 27 – In yet another example of Vladimir Putin’s restoration of some of the ugliest features of the Soviet past, his government has “politicized any public criticism and marginalized any who disagree,” thus ensuring that opponents of the Kremlin have no possibility of winning elections and transforming them into Soviet-era-style dissidents. That is […]
Staunton, May 23 – Igor Strelkov, defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic, has attracted attention because of his Moscow ties, but now a Russian news agency has suggested that he represents “an Orthodox Chekist at the head of a revolution” and asked the broader question — can an Orthodox oligarch carry out a […]
Staunton, May 8 Failed states come in a variety of shapes and sizes, one of Russia’s leading regionalist writers says, but on at least one important dimension, the Russian Federation is an example of a failed state while Ukraine, despite all its problems and Russian attacks, is a remarkably successful one. In a commentary on […]
Staunton, April 20 – Vladislav Surkov, who has served as a behind-the-scenes ideologist and operator for the Kremlin, has been involved in the funding of a Russian website that has done everything it can to boost Vladimir Putin and that now is producing lists of “national traitors,” according to Valery Shiryayev of Novaya Gazeta. That […]
Staunton, April 19 – Throughout history, Russians have been often been enthusiastic about government programs proclaiming “the in-gathering of Russian lands,” only to discover that such efforts inevitably involve increasing repression against themselves and are in fact “a holy war” by the government against them in the name of strengthening itself, Oleg Noskov says. In […]
