Staunton, June 23 – Anti-Americanism has become part of the discourse of ordinary Russians over the last year, but senior government officials have generally been restrained in their use of such phobias. But that has now changed, Nezavisimaya gazeta says, and “anti-American phobias have acquired the status of the official picture of the world in […]
Staunton, June 16 – Transbaikal officials are working on a deal with China that would allow Chinese firms to rent more than 300,000 acres of land in that Russian region, but a Beijing official says that the deal won’t go through unless Moscow agrees to a massive influx of Chinese workers because there are no […]
Staunton, June 9 – Russian actions in Crimea and the Donbas “have weakened Russian arguments about the change of power in Kyiv” at the time of the Maidan and thus cost Moscow support in European and other Western capitals, according to a lead article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta today. In his interview with Corriere della Sera, […]
Staunton, April 20 — Gas pipeline issues have attracted far more attention, but a plan for a unified energy network among European Union members appears likely to have serious consequences for Kaliningrad, the non-contiguous Russian exclave that is bordered by Poland and Lithuania, both of whom are EU members, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In a […]
Staunton, December 24 – Two reports this week, one suggesting that the events in Ukraine have distracted the attention of many Russians from ethnic conflicts at home and a second noting that the ruble’s collapse has in turn eclipsed Ukraine as an issue for many of them suggests an increasingly short-term approach by the population […]
Staunton, December 22 – Vladimir Putin has agreed with proposals by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to require the heads of the federal subjects to bear responsibility for mobilization and fighting against diversionary forces, a step that makes them into something like tsarist-era governors general and could presage a new territorial delimitation of the country. At […]
Staunton, December 15 – Many have seen the statements of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and the official hierarchies of that country’s Muslim community as an indication that they are moving toward greater mutual understanding and cooperation, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. But is a misreading of the situation, the paper suggests in a […]
Staunton, August 28 – The traditionally Buddhist Kalmyks and ethnic Russians living among them have already sent numerous volunteers to fight for pro-Moscow groups in Ukraine, but now they propose to create an international Dzhungarian Regiment within the National Cossack Guard. As Kalmyk political expert Sanal Kuvakov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s Andrey Serenko, the tsarist-era “80th […]
Staunton, August 28 – Vladimir Putin can continue to lie and deny that Russian forces have invaded Ukraine, but he can no longer conceal this from Russians, Ukrainians or the West. A reality that means there is no way out except admitting defeat or acknowledging that he has invaded, neither of which Putin will do, […]
Staunton, August 23 – Both Russian and Asian analysts say that Moscow’s focus on Ukraine is allowing Beijing to accelerate the process of transforming both Russia east of the Urals and Central Asia into its “near abroad,” thus undercutting in the east the very policy goals Vladimir Putin has proclaimed in the west. In Nezavisimaya […]
