Tag: Stalin

Putin and His Entourage Part of ‘Most Soviet Generation’ of All, Schulman Says

November 11, 2014

Staunton, November 10 – The primitivism in the thinking of Vladimir Putin and his entourage reflects the fact that he and they are members of the generation that was “the most Soviet of all those who arose after 1917,” cut off from those who could remember pre-1917 conditions and fully socialized in the communist system, […]

Ukrainians Feel Themselves Masters of Their Own Country But Russians Don’t, Shtepa Says

November 7, 2014

Staunton, November 6 – Ukrainians and Russians differ in many ways, Vadim Shtepa says, but perhaps the most important is that Ukrainians “feel themselves masters of their own country” but Russians “do not feel” the same way. Instead, among residents of the Russian Federation, there is a sense that the powers control everything and the […]

Western Leaders ‘Don’t Understand at All’ What is Happening in Russia, Sotnik Says

September 23, 2014

Staunton, September 20 – Aleksandr Sotnik, who has set up an independent television studio in Moscow, says that “unfortunately Western politicians absolutely do not understand what is happening in present-day Russia” and thus are incapable either of assessing the nature of the threat Vladimir Putin represents or countering it effectively. In an interview with NR2.com.ua, […]

If Putin Isn’t Stopped in Ukraine, He Will Move against Baltic Countries, Piontkovsky Says

Staunton, September 20 – If the West does not stop Vladimir Putin’s campaign to subordinate Ukraine to Moscow, then the Kremlin leader will move against the Baltic countries even though that carries with it the direct threat of a military conflict with NATO, according to Andrey Piontkovsky. But if Putin and his concept of a […]

After Crimea, Russian Germans Press for Restoration of Their Republic

September 2, 2014

Staunton, August 31 – Seventy-three years after their republic was disbanded by Stalin and 24 years after the two Germanies were reunited, some of Russia’s remaining Germans have been inspired by the creation of a Crimean Republic within the Russian Federation to increase their efforts to restore a German Republic within Russia. Given the radical […]

Putin Commits Himself to ‘Novorossiya’

August 29, 2014

Staunton, August 29 – Given how often Vladimir Putin lies, it may be a mistake to make too much of any of his statements as an indication of where he is heading. But his use of the term “Novorossiya” in his statement yesterday, the first time he has talked about that space within Ukraine as […]

Putin has Turned the Clock Back to July 1938, Felshtinsky Says

August 7, 2014

Staunton, August 7 – During the Cold War, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists rated the level of danger of a nuclear war in terms of the number of minutes the clock was running before midnight. Now, Russian historian Yuri Feltshtinsky has told a Polish newspaper that Vladimir Putin has set the world’s clock back […]

Putin Now Insuring Himself Against Nationalists Returning from Ukraine, Ikhlov Says

July 28, 2014

Staunton, July 28 – Vladimir Putin is ensuring himself ideologically against a nationalist challenge to himself if Russian militants fighting in Ukraine are forced to return to the Russian Federation where their popularity among many Russians, thanks to the Kremlin’s earlier ideological effort, remains extremely high, according to Yevgeny Ikhlov. The Moscow commentator says that […]

‘Stalin Was a Greater Fascist Than Bandera or Mussolini,’ Zubov Says

Staunton, July 25 – The way in which many in Russia and elsewhere view Stepan Bandera and his anti-Soviet movement during World War II is “an example of the big lie of the Soviet system” and its influence in post-Soviet times, according to Andrey Zubov, the MGIMO historian who was dismissed from his post for […]