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 […]
Staunton, December 13 – The Kremlin has announced plans to make “ethno-politics” a course of study in three leading Russian universities and to quadruple the number of stipends for students in this field, an indication of Kremlin nervousness about nationality problems and of its interest in forming a new orthodoxy on how to address them. […]
Staunton, October 30 – An article on Lenta.ru this week about the ethnic backgrounds of Russia’s 200 wealthiest businessmen, one that could have been expected to spark anger among Russians at minorities including Jews, has in fact called attention to something else: As in Soviet times, many who call themselves ethnic Russians in fact are […]
Staunton, October 29 – Officials in Dagestan, the most linguistically diverse republic in the Russian Federation, are preparing a new language law that calls for official support of 28 languages and effectively makes the others “illegal” by depriving them of any chance for support and in some cases for survival, according to Kavkazskaya Politika. While […]
Staunton, October 23 – Aleksey Fedorchenko, a Yekaterinburg director, was awarded the Marcus Aurelius of the Future prize by the Rome Film Festival today for his new move, “Angels of the Revolution,” which tells the story of the rising in the early 1930s of two numerically small peoples of the North, the Khanty and Nentsy, […]
Staunton, October 8 – Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cheboksary, the capital of Chuvashia, October 9. In advance of his arrival, local officials linguistically “cleansed” the streets along which he passed, removing those which were in Chuvash and leaving only those in Russian. This violation of both the Russian law on languages and the Chuvash […]
Staunton, October 8 – Media attention to Ukraine has “eclipsed” all other cases of inter-ethnic tension in Russia, according to a survey of 70 specialists on nationality issues there. And that neglect, they say, has allowed these problems to worsen because officials are not paying attention and outside forces are exploiting the situation. In its […]
Staunton, September 26 – Rashit Akhmetov, the editor of the Kazan weekly Zvezda Povolzhya, says that Vladimir Putin’s promotion of the idea of a “Russian world” is the death knell for a civic Russian identity and that this, combined with his authoritarian and great power chauvinist approach, is exacerbating ethnic identities of Russians and non-Russians […]
Staunton, September 20 – The Gagauz Autonomy was established in Moldova to protect and promote the Gagauz language, but according to Todur Zanet, editor of Ana Sozu those who proclaim themselves leaders of Gagauzia not only do everything in Russian but have failed to support the national language. “Our language,” he said during a broadcast […]
Staunton, September 10 – This week, the Republic of Tuva or Tyva as it is also known marked the 100th anniversary of “the union of the republic with Russia,” an event that sparked various events including academic conferences and the erection of a new monument to the center of Asia as well as attracting various […]
