‘If the Russians Come Back Again, They Won’t Be Constrained by Communism’ 2016-12-18 17:17:05 Staunton, VA, December 13, 2016 – Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who has just completed his service as president of Estonia, once remarked that “if the Russians come back again, they won’t be constrained by communism” and the rule they would impose on non-Russians […]
A Double Baker’s Dozen of Neglected Russian Stories – No. 23 2016-03-08 02:14:25 Staunton, VA, February 19, 2016 – The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way […]
Staunton, June 22 – Because Moscow has so centralized revenues and decision making and radically lowered the quality of those who head the federal subjects, the Russian Federation faces something worse than disintegration along their borders: it faces radical destabilization as Moscow cannot pay and regional officials cannot hold the line, according to Vladimir Golyshev. […]
Staunton, April 19 — On April 18, 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev imposed an economic blockade on Lithuania, an action that harmed the USSR as much as it hurt Lithuania but that did nothing to dissuade Lithuanians from seeking the recovery of their independence – a reminder of the limits of economic actions when a […]
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 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev’s current call for the “perestroika” of the international system is just as much a “cynical political scam” as was his original one, something that led many to conclude he wanted something more than just a more effective form of “authoritarian modernization,” according to Yevgeny Ikhlov. With the passage of […]
Staunton, December 4 – Since Vladimir Putin became president, the Muslims of Russia have erected 7,500 mosques or slightly more one per day, a statistic in which the Islamic community of that country can take great pride but one that may disturb some of Putin’s supporters who believe that he is committed to making Russia […]
Staunton, November 14 – The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago did not end the division between East and West as some imagine. Instead, that division, although it now runs along a line several hundred kilometers further east, has turned out to be far more significant and longer-lasting than many want to believe, […]
Staunton, October 7 – At the end of the Soviet era, a joke circulated in Moscow that appears to be having an echo today. According to the story, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze met President Mikhail Gorbachev at the airport when the latter was returning from Estonia. “What have you done?” Shevardnadze supposedly asks. Gorbachev […]
Staunton, August 24 – Unlike some Western leaders who suggested that the leaders of the August 1991 coup in Moscow included reformists on the model of Mikhail Gorbachev, Stanislav Shushkevich, then deputy chairman of the Belarusian Supreme Soviet and later president of Belarus, understood instantly that they were committed to “the revival of the old […]
