Staunton, July 10 – Given both Vladimir Putin’s moves to centralize almost all decisions and the sensitivity of many Russians to the possibility that the eastern portions of the Russian Federation will fall under Chinese domination, the statement of Moscow’s top official in the Russian Far East is striking. Yury Trutnyev, deputy prime minister and […]
Staunton, March 26 — Ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian Far East, the descendants of Ukrainians who moved there voluntarily in late tsarist times and forcibly in Soviet ones, are being harassed by Russians there for their support of Ukraine, even as Russians in Crimea are threatening the Crimean Tatars with deportation to that faraway region. […]
Staunton, March 5 – Two weeks ago, Vladimir Putin named Aleksandr Levintal to head the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) in the Russian Far East, an action that Konstantin Kalachev says has reopened talk about the future of a region rich in natural resources but which “in fact is cut off from the rest of Russia” […]
Staunton, September 23 – Sometimes the fact that someone is asking a question at all is more important than the answer he or she offers. That is almost certainly the case with a new article by an anonymous Russian military commentator concerning whether or not Russia can avoid “losing Siberia and the Far East” to […]
Staunton, September 11 – Moscow’s earnings from the export of oil and gas, a figure that reflects both world prices and domestic production, are likely to continue to decline until new fields in the Far East come online two to four years from now, given that world prices are soft and Russia’s production is falling. […]
Staunton, June 16 – Attacks in Russia on gastarbeiters from Central Asia and the Caucasus are a major reason for a 20 percent decline in the number of such immigrants over the last year, and human rights experts predict that the rising tide of xenophobia there will increase the frequency and possible violence of such […]
Staunton, March 26 – The view of some Russians that Moscow should get Alaska back from the United States has attracted a certain amount of bemused attention both in the Russian Federation and abroad. But the idea has been around so long that most people do not pay it much attention. But it is indicative […]
