Staunton, March 31 – Confronted with Moscow’s seizure of Crimea and its demands for the federalization of Ukraine, the Ukrainian foreign ministry has countered by calling for every republic within the Russian Federation to hold a referendum about their future status and possible independence. Moscow has been pushing for the federalization of Ukraine for two […]
Staunton, March 27 – The Chukchis, a numerically small nation in the extreme far northeast of the Russian Federation on the Bering Straits, have long been the object of Russian humor. Some “Chukchi jokes,” as they are known, focus on the absurdities or problems of Soviet or Russian life, but others make fun of the […]
Staunton, March 25 – Not only have the Crimean Tatars become “the main problem for Russia” on the peninsula, Aleksey Makarkin says, because of their opposition to unification with Russia, but they represent an issue that won’t be resolved any time soon and thus are something that “will create ever more problems” in the future. […]
Staunton, March 24 – Vladimir Putin’s transformation of Russia into a totalitarian, militarist and chauvinist state mean that the Kazan Tatars can see no future for themselves in that country as long as he is its president and is carrying out such policies, according to a declaration of the Millli Mejlis of the Kazan Tatar […]
Staunton, March 20 – Xenophobia and hate crimes against members of other ethnic groups, after having declined in Russia between 2009 and 2012, have now risen to unprecedented levels, the result of what many see as the Putin regime’s backing for ethnic Russian pride, according to experts in Moscow. In yesterday’s Yezhednevny Zhurnal, Vera Alperovich says […]
The war of words between Russia and the EU and USA is intensifying. While the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, is attending meetings in Paris to persuade France, an arms supplier to Russia, to oppose sanctions, Russian state media have released potentially damaging phone recordings between EU diplomats. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For […]
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a statement (translated by The Interpreter) explaining why he did not attend the nationalist “Russian March” which was held on November 4. The march is an annual a protest against immigration and internal migration policies, as well as against the policies that allow employers to bring migrant workers to work […]
This editorial, translated from the pro-Kremlin Izvestia, attempts to analyze the decision made by opposition leader Alexei Navalny to avoid the “Russian March,” widely attended by Neo-Nazis, for the 2nd year in a row, while still calling his supporters to attend. There are several possible readings of Sokolov’s statements. One reading is that he is […]
News of the stabbing death of a 25-year-old ethnic Russian by a non-Russian, and the subsequent rioting in Biryulyovo, a district of Moscow, was not particularly surprising – Russia has been experiencing inter-ethnic violence and subsequent protests with alarming frequency. What set the Biryulyovo pogroms apart was both the extreme nationalist catharsis that characterized the events […]
Yesterday, November 4, Russian nationalists gathered for a rally, the “Russian March,” to protest against immigrants and the policies of the Russian government that brings them there. Nazi slogans, racist posters, depictions of migrants as green aliens… some of the worst aspects of Russian society were on proud display. The march is growing in popularity, […]
