Russians continue to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine following a mass march against Putin’s forcible annexation of Crimea last week. (Go here and here for the last weeks’ news.) Defendants in the Bolotnaya Case charged with “instigating riots” remain on trial. The Russian government continues to make moves to suppress dissent, chiefly by blocking […]
Staunton, March 28 – Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin has said and official Russian news agencies have reported that that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is going to have extremely deleterious effects on the Russian economy, including massive capital flight, and any hope of real economic growth this year. Kudrin said yesterday that Russia will […]
Staunton, March 22 — Since World War II, Western governments have often imposed sanctions to show their displeasure about this or that action, but such sanctions “never were effective” in returning the world to “the status quo ante.” Instead, they highlighted the lack of accord within the West and were even used by powers like […]
The deadline for the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers from Crimea is passing, and the interim government has signed an agreement with the European Union, an agreement ripe with symbolism as this fulfills the wishes of the protesters that started this revolution in the first place. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and […]
In 1733 Voltaire published a series of works called “The Letters of the English Nation” or “Lettres philosophiques” which were a compilation of his observation of politics and religion on the Island. He remarked on the love and high regard that monetary pursuits and commerce were held, such that they transcended all religious or ethnic […]
Staunton, March 20 – Vladimir Putin may be seeking to restore a Russian empire, but his annexation of Crimea is destroying many of the things that had tied the former Soviet republics together and simultaneously allowed Moscow to be able to count on influence across that region and permitted outside analysts to speak of it […]
Staunton, March 19 – In the past, “every country had its own map, each of which was more or less different,” a Georgian writer says, but with Marco Polo and Google, most came to accept a similar map of the world, one in which borders are clear and fixed. But Russians remain an exception. According […]
Following an attack on a Ukrainian military cartography building in Simferopol that left a Ukrainian soldier and a member of Crimea’s defence forces dead, the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol has been taken over. Will other military installations also come under attack? Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing […]
Crimean parliament has voted to secede from Ukraine. Now, on March 16th, a referendum will be held. The Crimean people get to vote, and they have two options: rejoin Ukraine, or rejoin Russia. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see see our latest podcast. Please help The […]
The West and Russia continue to bicker over who can attend the much vaulted Geneva II peace summits, and the death and destruction has not stopped in Syria. While it seems that, for the moment, Syria is adhering to dismantling its chemical weapons programs, thousands of civilians continue to be killed by Assad, through a […]
