Staunton, September 1 As Russian schools reopen, only three of Russia’s non-Russian nations – the Tatars, the Khakass and the Yakut — have government-approved textbooks in their native languages, something that makes a mockery of Moscow’s claims that it is supporting instruction in various subjects in 24 languages and offering language courses in 73 of […]
Staunton, July 5 – Since the peoples of Altay learned that the elections staged to ratify the Kremlin’s choice of their governor showed that he failed to win in electoral districts dominated by the non-Russians, their leaders have been struggling to unite in order to put pressure on the government there in the name of […]
Staunton, June 22 – Seventy-four years ago today, Hitler turned on his ally Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, an action that continues to echo in the post-Soviet states with Moscow now routinely but falsely accusing Ukraine of having become fascist while Vladimir Putin’s Russia is rapidly on its way to becoming exactly that, according […]
Staunton, June 6 – The economic crisis is leading to the de-industrialization of parts of the North Caucasus and that in turn is contributing to the flight of ethnic Russians from the region, a departure that is fundamentally changing the ethnic balance in many republics in that region. That trend can be clearly seen in […]
Staunton, February 4 – A proposal by Federation Council member Zhanna Ivanova to restore a nationality line in Russian passports has sparked concern among many who remember how such a line was used against Jews in Soviet times, worry that it may become a test of loyalty under Putin, and amusement about how Russians might […]
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, and see also our Russia This Week stories ‘Anti-Maidan’ Launched by Nationalists, Cossacks, Veterans, Bikers and The Guild War – How Should Journalists Treat Russian State […]
Staunton, December 9 – The Chuvash, a Christian Turkic nation which has its own republic in the Middle Volga, are, by virtue of their activism on behalf of their own language and culture, becoming the bridge between the Turkic nations like the Tatars and Bashkirs and the Finno-Ugric peoples like the Mari. They have traditionally […]
Staunton, September 24 – Like its Soviet predecessors, the Putin regime has adopted three strategies in dealing with the non-Russian quarter of the population: increasing repression, divide-and-rule efforts within these communities and among them, and suppressing the dissemination of information about their plight. But these strategies are proving less effective than they once were, the […]
Staunton, August 13 – In yet another throwback to Soviet days designed to distract attention from what it is doing to other groups, Moscow has announced that it has taken under its protection two small nations in occupied Crimea, the 850 Karaims and 350 Krymchaks, even as it continues its campaign against ethnic Ukrainians and […]
