Putin’s Use of Nuclear Blackmail Makes Him a Fanatic or an Adventurist,...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 11 – Vladimir Putin’s increasingly frequent statements that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons in local conflicts not only contradicts the official military...
View ArticleFSB Defector’s Claims about Moscow’s Ties to ISIS Consistent with Other...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 11 – An FSB defector says that Moscow is very closely tied to ISIS and has been involved with groups that have carried out terrorist actions in Europe. He has...
View ArticleImprisoned Russian Environmental Activist May be Near Death
Paul Goble Staunton, December 11 – Yevgeny Vistishko, an environmental activist who was put in prison by the Russian authorities for exposing the abuse of the environment by senior officials...
View ArticleTatarstan Says Moscow Violating Russian Constitution
Paul Goble Staunton, December 11 – Even as the government of the Republic of Tatarstan is seeking to ensure that it will be able to retain the post of president after January 1, Farid...
View ArticleNew Calls for Dialogue with Moscow Show West has Learned Nothing from Past...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 12 – Once again as so often after Moscow has behaved badly, voices in the West are again calling for a return to “’normal dialogue’” with the Kremlin, arguing...
View ArticlePutin has Brought the World to ‘the Brink of War,’ Gazeta Wyborcza Says
Paul Goble Staunton, December 12 – By his orders to the Russian army to respond “harshly” to any challenge to them in Syria, Vladimir Putin has brought the world to “the brink of war,” in...
View Article‘Will Russia Survive Until It Produces Its Own Medicines?’
Paul Goble Staunton, December 12 – Russia faces a serious challenge in producing medicines domestically that it had been importing until Moscow’s counter-sanctions effort, a challenge...
View ArticleCould Buryat Republic Head’s Problems Lead to Amalgamation of Buryatia with...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 12 – The Kremlin does not yet know what to do with Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, the increasingly unpopular head of the Buryat Republic, according to a Siberian...
View ArticleRussian State Prepares to Go After All Faiths Russian Orthodox Church Doesn’t...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 12 – A Duma roundtable this week shows that deputies are preparing to further gut the 1997 Russian Freedom of Conscience Law and bring the power of the Russian...
View ArticlePutin’s Russia on the Way to Complete and Proud Barbarization, Regnum...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 13 – Russia didn’t succeed in modernizing itself, Sergey Shelin says; instead, “on all fronts, archaic forms and values are triumphing;” and Russia is achieving...
View ArticleRussian Special Services, Ever More Active in Latvia, Threaten that Baltic...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 13 – Russia’s special services are increasingly active in Latvia not only in gathering intelligence but also in carrying out influence operations intended to...
View ArticleMoscow Cutting Back Support for Chernobyl Victims in Russian Regions
Paul Goble Staunton, December 13 – Moscow has cut the benefits it had been providing for Russians in Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryel, and Tula oblasts who suffered from the impact of the 1986...
View ArticleMoscow’s ‘Nuclear’ Diplomatic Option on Turkey – Denouncing 1921 Kars Treaty...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 13 – Vladimir Putin has talked casually about the use of nuclear weapons and has shown himself willing to violate Russia’s commitment, but in the current...
View ArticleCorruption and Repression behind Islamist Radicalization in North Caucasus,...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 13 – Widespread corruption and human rights violations by Russian officials and force structures are responsible for the rise of extremism in the North...
View ArticleMoscow’s Arguments Now that Russia will Survive Resemble Those It Made in...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 14 – Prophets, it is sometimes said, are ignored twice, first when they make their predictions and then when their predictions turn out to be true. But also...
View ArticleTwo Million More Russians Fall into Poverty over the Last Year
Paul Goble Staunton, December 14 – The Russian statistical agency says that 20.3 million Russians, nearly one in seven, now live in poverty according to official measures, a number that does...
View ArticleMoscow’s Goal in Syria is to Undermine West Not Support Asad, Belarusian...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 14 – Moscow’s primary goal in Syria is not to support its ally Bashar Asad against all challenges but rather to destabilize the situation in the Middle East,...
View Article‘It is Easier for a Camel to Pass through the Eye of a Needle than for Russia...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 14 – Russia today faces a stark and for many unwelcome choice, Vladimir Pastukhov says. It can remain an autocracy and face inevitable disintegration over the...
View ArticleSalafis Missed ‘Historic Chance’ to Be Part of Daghestan’s Power Structures...
Paul Goble Staunton, December 14 – Most commentators suggest that Salafi Muslims and traditional ones are completely incompatible. In fact, they are not as far apart as many...
View ArticleDid Putin Occupy Crimea for Same Reason Stalin Deported Crimean Tatars?
Paul Goble Staunton, December 15 – Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples from the southern portions of the USSR because he was preparing for a war with Turkey,...
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