Staunton, November 30 – Many people in many countries are angry about this or that aspect of their lives, but they do not become a political force until they decide that the solution to their problems requires either a change in the policies of the government or, more radically, a change in the regime itself. […]
Staunton, November 30 – Ignored by Russian officials in Moscow and Pskov, some 2,000 people and businesses of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region have organized a Union for the Rebirth of Pskov Region to provide assistance to those who need it most in one of the most economically depressed regions of European Russia. The […]
Staunton, November 25 – Some draftees in the Russian army are inflicting injuries on themselves in order to avoid being sent to the fighting in southeastern Ukraine, an indication of their fears about what might happen to them there and of growing opposition to the Kremlin’s aggression, according to Elena Vasilyeva. Vasilyeva, a Russian human […]
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, November 15 – Russian drinkers looking for a second or a third to share a bottle of vodka have long been a feature of public life in their country. Now, the Internet is helping them to find one another more quickly: on the web, what Russians are calling a “Facebook for alcoholics” helps them […]
Staunton, November 20 – Given the low level of formal institutionalization of Russian social and political life, those who seek to understand it regularly discuss it in terms of bands or clans, typically analytic constructs in which the individuals involved are linked together by personal ties based on economic interests, past service in particular organizations […]
Staunton, November 20 – Russian civic identity “does not contradict” ethnic identities either of ethnic Russians or non-Russians, Leokadiya Drobizheva says, as long as economic and social conditions are good. But when they are deteriorating as now, ever more people in Russia connect that development with ethnic factors and the two identities begin to split […]
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, October 7 – Russia’s close connection with the Mongols has never been doubted either as victim of the Mongol Yoke or as the continuer of many the approaches first adopted by Chingiz Khan. But now a Duma deputy from Buryatia has added a new wrinkle by suggesting very publicly that even the name of […]
Staunton, September 23 – Just as the purpose of terror is to terrorize, the purpose of provocation is to provoke – and if the targets of a provocation understand what the one engaging in it wants to provoke, they will be in a much better position not only to prepare for it but also to […]
