Staunton, August 4 – Many members of the Russian intelligentsia are repeating the mistake their predecessors made a century ago, engaging in what can be called an updated version of the ‘Change of Signposts’ movement to justify collaboration with an authoritarian regime, according to Livejournal blogger Kitty Sanders. In a post yesterday, she noted that […]
Staunton, August 4 – Moscow’s adoption of ‘imperial federalism’ as a strategy to extend its power over neighboring countries is sparking a variety of demands within the Russian Federation for moves toward making that country a genuine and not only a nominal federal system, according to Vadim Shtepa. In an article on Rufabula.com, Shtepa, one […]
Staunton, August 4 – Despite the expectations of many in the West and the past behavior of the Russian government, politics, not economics are the driving force behind Vladimir Putin’s policies now: his Russia must now pursue survival rather than growth and thus “victory or death,” according to Konstantin Gaaze. In a commentary on Slon.ru […]
Staunton, July 31 – Moscow is directing predominantly ethnic Russian refugees from the fighting in southeastern Ukraine into non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation in a transparent effort to change the ethnic balance in those republics and further Russianize them, according to Marat Kulsharipov, a historian at Bashkortostan State University. In an interview to RFE/RL’s […]
Staunton, July 31 – The census in Crimea that the Russian occupation authorities plan to conduct in October will be extremely detailed but may not be accurate because Moscow experts have already indicated that they believe that there are far more Russians in Crimea and far fewer Crimean Tatars than have been counted hitherto. Such […]
Staunton, July 19 – The two countries Moscow views as its closest partners, Belarus and Kazakhstan, have refused to join its sanctions campaign against Moldova, another indication, the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta say today, that as a result of its recent actions, “Moscow is losing its allies.” That, in turn, suggests two things, the editors […]
Staunton, July 30 – Vladimir Putin has eliminated elections at the regional levels at least in part to ensure that nationalist parties do not have the opportunity to challenge his hand-picked party of power officials. But some nationalist groups are using elections at the city level to advance their cause. In Karelia, Yekaterina Yemelyanova and […]
Staunton, July 30 – This year, the Russian Orthodox ‘Day of the Baptism of Rus’ coincided with the Muslim holiday of Uraza Bayram [The Sugar Feast, when Muslims traditionally break the fast – The Interpreter]. On Monday, in what many will see as symbolic, Moscow’s churches, with the exception of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, […]
Staunton, July 30 – Commentators in both Moscow and the West typically view the ideological competition in the post-Soviet countries as a simple one between pro-Russian and pro-Western groups, but in the Muslim-majority states, there is a third trend, the pro-Islamic one, and that is becoming stronger as the others and especially the Western one […]
Staunton, July 30 – Commentators in Moscow and the West ever more frequently draw parallels between Vladimir Putin’s ideas and actions and those of fascist regimes in the first part of the 20th century, but few have focused on the fact that one of the Kremlin leader’s most-cherished ideas, that of the ‘Russian Spring,’ was […]
