Staunton, July 1 The passing of Yevgeny Primakov “unexpectedly unified Russian society no less” and quite possibly more than the Crimean Anschluss, and the basis of this – an “indisputable faith in the greatness of the old Soviet nomenklatura” represents “a real diagnosis of the illness of Russian or more precisely post-Soviet society,” Vitaly Portnikov […]
Staunton, May 12 – People of decency and good will around the world have been horrified by Vladimir Putin’s defense this week of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which made Hitler and Stalin allies, opened the way to World War II, and allowed the Soviet Union to occupy Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, portions of Poland and Bessarabia […]
Staunton, February 1 – There are denials, “non-denial denials,” and then denials that have the effect of confirming exactly what those doing the denying are seeking to disown and providing additional information as well. A classical example of the last is provided by the head of a Kremlin think tank who was trying to undercut […]
On February 10, Marina Perevozkina of Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) published an interview with former intelligence officer Leonid Reshetnikov, now director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI) headlined “Idea of Minsk Agreements was Born in Finland.” It is a fascinating expose of the role some American scholars of Russia played in the confidential preludes to […]
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here, and see also our Russia This Week stories ‘Anti-Maidan’ Launched by Nationalists, Cossacks, Veterans, Bikers and The Guild War – How Should Journalists Treat Russian State […]
At the beginning of this week, President Barack Obama explained that Russia, hit hard by Western sanctions, is losing in its confrontation with the West and NATO caused by Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. In his State of the Union address, Obama displayed similar swag and bluster against both the Kremlin and Congressional Republicans, seemingly […]
Earlier this month, EU finance ministers gave their approval for Latvia to become the eighteenth member of the Euro in January 2014. It seems counterintuitive that the country of two million people would want to enter the perpetually distressed and recession-stricken economic zone. But for Latvia it has a variety of benefits, not the least […]
Today the personnel of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Federal Security Service (FSB), Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Central Bank submitted their income statements. None of the officials declared any property registered abroad, and in terms of income the leader is the CB Chairman Sergei Ignatiev, who is stepping down this June. The SVR […]
