Staunton, March 12 — It is an article of faith for Vladimir Putin and many Russians as well that, despite what he and they are sometimes willing to concede were Joseph Stalin’s excesses, the Soviet dictator was absolutely necessary in building up a strong Soviet Union that was then capable of defeating Nazi Germany. But […]
Staunton, March 12 — Yesterday, Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Putin’s Security Council, warned that Russia will face a serious terrorist threat if and when militants from Russia who have been fighting with various Islamist groups in the Middle East return home. But he said nothing about what may be a more immediate and serious threat: […]
Staunton, February 22 — Ever more often, life in Vladimir Putin’s world imitates not art but Soviet anecdotes. The latest move of his agents in occupied Crimea — to deny registration to and thus set the stage for shutting down Crimea’s QHA news agency — brings yet another of those anecdotes to mind. The story […]
Staunton, July 14 – Vladimir Putin has positioned himself as a defender of conservative values and won enormous support from many in Russia and the West who identify as conservatives, but Putin’s conservatism and the conservatism found in the West are two very different things, according to Ilya Shablinsky, a specialist on constitutional law. In […]
Staunton, June 12 – Many commentators have pointed out that Russia’s strategy and tactics in Ukraine are a more or less complete copy of the ones Hitler used against Poland and Stalin used in the Baltic countries. But if one looks beyond Ukraine, it is entirely possible that Vladimir Putin will copy another Nazi operation. […]
Staunton, June 8 – There are few place names more disturbing to those who live between Europe and Moscow and to those who care about human freedom more generally than Yalta, the site where near the end of World War II, Western leaders agreed with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on the division of post-war division […]
Staunton, May 26 – Vladimir Putin “has lost the shortest cold war in history,” Yevgeny Ikhlov says. After having seized Crimea for Russia 12 weeks ago and effectively challenged the West to a contest, the Kremlin leader has backed away from his larger plan to counterpose a “Russian world” to everyone else. In a commentary […]
Staunton, May 4 – Had Vladimir Putin accepted the Maidan’s ouster of discredited Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and agreed to accept the results of the upcoming elections, nothing that has occurred in Ukraine since that time would have happened, according to a Ukrainian commentator. “Thousands of people would not have suddenly discovered in themselves an […]
Staunton, March 29 – Many have drawn parallels between what Vladimir Putin is doing and how the West is reacting with the Cold War or with the appeasement policies of Munich. But now that Putin has carried out the Crimean Anschluss, a far better analogy for today may be to “the phony war” between the […]
