For Some in Europe, ‘Better Red than Dead’ has Become ‘Better Putin than a...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 6 – During the Cold War, some on the European left routinely chanted “better red than dead” to show their opposition to the United States. Now, their descendants...
View ArticlePutin’s Nomenklatura is a ‘Real New Class,’ Portnikov Says
Paul Goble Staunton, August 6 – Milovan Djilas and Mikhail Voslensky popularized the terms “new class” and “nomenklatura” as the Soviet system assumed final shape after World War II, but...
View ArticleBy Destroying Food at the Border, Putin has Hurt Himself with Ordinary...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 6 – Russians overwhelmingly support Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine “but only because this war does not require from them any victims while giving them a...
View ArticleMoscow Wants a Chechen Solution for Daghestan But May Get an Even Worse Outcome
Paul Goble Staunton, August 6 – What is taking place in Daghestan now, a “Vzglyad” journalist says, “can be compared with the second Chechen war” in that as in Chechnya, Moscow wants to...
View ArticlePro-Moscow Republics in Ukraine Likely to End as Did Serbska Kraina in...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 6 – The analogies people employ, even if they are far from exact, often say more about how people see a situation than do more immediate descriptions....
View ArticleTen Classic Examples of Official Stupidity in Russia This Week
Paul Goble Staunton, August 7 – As longtime readers of Window on Eurasia know, for much of this year, Kyiv’s “Delovaya stolitsa” newspaper featured a weekly roundup of the top five...
View ArticleMost Russians Like Soviet Symbols But Lack Knowledge about Soviet Past – and...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 7 – A VTsIOM poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Russians have a positive attitude toward Soviet symbols but that a significant share of them do not know...
View Article‘Chemical Chernobyl’ Near Petersburg Almost a Certainty After 90 Percent of...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 7 – Russian officials have laid off “about 90 percent” of the staff at a chemical waste dump containing about two million tons of toxic chemicals only six...
View ArticleA Measure of Tone Deafness: Duma Deputies say Complaints about Destruction of...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 7 – A measure of Moscow’s tone deafness or perhaps of the callous disregard by elites in the capital of anything that affects others but not themselves is...
View ArticleChina, Not Russia, Beneficiary of Moscow’s Turn to the East, Russian...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 7 – As the dust settles from Vladimir Putin’s hoopla about the enormous benefits that Russia will supposedly reap by its “turn to the east,” ever more Russian...
View ArticleEven the Mention of Sovereignty Frightens Russian Officials in Karelia
Paul Goble Staunton, August 8 – Tomorrow, Karelians will quietly mark the 25th anniversary of their republic’s declaration of sovereignty. Today, interior ministry officials called in some...
View ArticleCrimean Anschluss Divides Russian Left Just as Much as It Does Russian Right
Paul Goble Staunton, August 8 – That Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea has divided Russian nationalists has been obvious since the opening days of Russian aggression against Ukraine, with...
View Article‘Homo Putinus’ the Successor to ‘Homo Sovieticus,’ Yakovenko Says
Paul Goble Staunton, August 8 – Many observers view the behavior of Russians today as a revival of “homo sovieticus,” the special kind of human being the communists created over the course...
View ArticleRussians Dying as a Result of Putin’s ‘Optimization’ of Medical System
Paul Goble Staunton, August 8 – It is bad enough that Russians and the world have to watch the horrific spectacle of the Putin regime destroying perfectly good food on the borders of the...
View ArticleMoscow Seeks to Use Food Weapon to Divide Moldova
Paul Goble Staunton, August 8 – Even as many in Russia and abroad are transfixed by the ugly spectacle of the destruction of embargoed foodstuffs at the Russian border, Moscow is deploy what...
View ArticleKazakhs Come to the Aid of a Ukrainian Russians in Almaaty Tried to Beat Up
Paul Goble Staunton, August 9 – In Soviet times, it was sometimes said that the best illustration of the meaning of “friendship of the peoples” was when a Russian, a Ukrainian, and an...
View ArticleMoscow Wants to Ease Punishments for Russian Officers Convicted of Corruption
Paul Goble Staunton, August 9 – Vladimir Putin may be tightening the screws on much of Russian society, but he is easing them on yet another group on which he would have to rely in the event...
View ArticleFaced with Any Kremlin Action, Russians Want Explanations Not Change,...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 9 – Many analysts in Russia and the West are speculating about whether the burning of food at the Russian border will finally be enough to spark major protests in...
View ArticleConfining Islamists to Separate Prisons 'Plays Into Their Hands,' Baku Rights...
Paul Goble Staunton, August 9 – Many governments around the world have been concerned about the way in which they believe Islamist radicals confined to prison use their time to spread their...
View ArticleKremlin Apparently Planning to Get Back in the GONGO Business in a Big Way
Paul Goble Staunton, August 9 – Having sought to destroy real non-governmental organizations (NGOs) because Vladimir Putin was angered by their democratic qualities and exposure of his...
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