Staunton, July 30 –Some Russian nationalists are already looking beyond the defeat of the militants in eastern Ukraine by the Ukrainian military and arguing that “even if the revolt in Novorossiya is suppressed, Ukraine will no longer exist,” an assessment now less about pushing Moscow to intervene than about trying to put the best face […]
Staunton, July 29 – Russia’s Regnum news agency is reporting something that Moscow’s policies in Ukraine have helped promote: a Hungarian leader in Transylvania is now demanding “total national independence” from Romania, a move that could thoroughly destabilize not only Romania and Hungary but much of Eastern Europe. Lazlo Tokes, whom Regnum describes as “one […]
Staunton, July 26 – Individual Russians can “struggle against the US” by boycotting American products, a Russian site says: this appeal highlights not only the high level of penetration of US firms in the Russian market but also the apparent reluctance of many Russians to take part in any formal action of this kind. In […]
Staunton, July 28 – More than 19,000 residents of Tajikistan have de-Russianized their names so far this year, dropping the “–ov” or “–ev” endings that had been de rigueur in Soviet times, according to Rustom Shohmurod, the Central Asian country’s minister of justice. The current effort to restore Tajik spellings began following the publication of […]
Staunton, July 29 – The Russian government should reduce the attention it is paying to ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in the former Soviet republics – a group he calls “Russian World-II” – and expand its attention to ethnic Russians and those who feel an attachment to Russia elsewhere, a group he calls “Russian World-I,” […]
Staunton, July 28 – Moscow commentators like to talk about the existence of “two, three or even more Ukraines” and argue that Ukraine will disintegrate, Igor Losev says, but the reality is that there are far more ‘Russias’ than that, and the Russian Federation is thus at far greater risk of falling apart. In a […]
Staunton, July 29 – Most commentaries assume that the Moscow-backed secessionist “ Donetsk Republic” arose in response to the Maidan at the end of last year and the beginning of this. Now, Sobkorr.ru reports an online group promoting that idea appeared on Russian VKontakte pages as early as 2008. This prehistory is important for two reasons. On […]
Staunton, July 29 – As the Ukrainian military closes in on Moscow-backed forces in southeastern Ukraine, Russian commentators are scrambling to explain why the Russian-speaking population in that region have not flocked to the banners of the secessionists in Donetsk and Lugansk. Not surprisingly, these commentators have not focused on the fact that the population […]
Staunton, July 29 – Many in Moscow and the West, seeing the ways in which Russian television has mobilized Russians in support of Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, believe that the Internet can transform Russians into opponents of the Kremlin. But the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta warn that the web on its own does not […]
Staunton, July 28 – Russian businesses have little interest in working with Russian researchers in universities and institutes, an attitude that precludes “the innovative development of the economy,” according to scholars at the Moscow Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge. The experience of other countries shows that “close and effective interaction between enterprises […]
