Many Russian commentators have pointed out that the way in which Vladimir Putin is exploiting Victory Day is about the legitimation of the Soviet past, but a Ukrainian analyst says that the most important function of this day is to exploit victory over Germany as the only positive thing linking the former Soviet republics together.
Staunton, October 5 – One of the characteristics of Vladimir Putin’s behavior — just as has been the case with other dictators in the past — is that he has often signaled what he intends to do by blaming those he intends to attack for something they have not done and have no intention of […]
Staunton, September 26 – The pro-Moscow militants in Ukraine’s Donbas backed by Russian forces represent a threat not only to the territorial integrity of Ukraine but to the future of Russia because the leaders of “Novorossiya” combine nationalism and socialism in a way that recalls some of the greatest evils of the 20th century. In […]
Staunton, September 25 – At a time when Vladimir Putin has made what was earlier unthinkable into reality, it would be a major mistake to ignore a recent statement by Vladimir Zhirinovsky about how Ukraine will be reduced in size or even eliminated altogether in the coming years, according to Andrey Illarionov. In an article […]
Staunton, July 2 – Moscow should consider the problems that overly ambitious expansion has brought to both the European Union and NATO and not seek fall victim to the notion that it must expand the Eurasian Union as quickly and as far as possible, according to Aleksandr Krylov, a leading Russian specialist on the Caucasus. […]
Staunton, June 30 – Three unwritten laws which governed the lives of Soviet people have resumed operation in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and increasingly set the terms for the interaction between his country’s population and the state, and they are “just as universal and all-embracing,” a Russian blogger suggests,” as the laws of Newton. These three […]
Staunton, June 11 – Even as Vladimir Putin pursues what many see as an effort to restore an empire centered on Moscow, polls show that ever fewer Russians regret the end of the Soviet Union – something the Kremlin leader has said was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century – and ever more […]
Staunton, June 7 – In yet another example of the Kremlin’s shamelessness about its plans to use its power across the former Soviet space in what constitutes an updated but geographically smaller Brezhnev doctrine, FSB head Aleksandr Bortnikov says his agency will react quickly and harshly to any attempt to overthrow existing regimes in the […]
Staunton, June 6 – Vladimir Putin has adopted the rhetoric of national self-determination and federalism in Ukraine, but a leading Russian regionalist site says that this is “hypocrisy and a farce” which should deceive no one and especially not regionalists and federalists in Russia because it is only “a cover for an aggressive imperial policy.” […]
Staunton, May 24 – Igor Eidman, who has argued that Putin’s Russia represents the coming together of the worst features of the Soviet past and Western capitalism, says that this “negative convergence” involves far more than economics. In a post on Kasparov.ru yesterday, the Moscow analyst argues that almost wherever one looks in Putin’s Russia, […]
