Russia admits complicity in abduction of Crimean Tatar activist through refusal to investigate
It is two years since 31-year-old Ervin Ibragimov, member of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, was abducted by men in road patrol uniform from near his home in Bakhchysarai. Despite video footage showing the abduction, the Russian occupation regime effectively never carried out a real investigation, which has only...
Under No Illusions
As new textbooks on Russian history, close to the Kremlin playbook, are rolled out in the country’s high schools, some teachers make clear that they are not so easily fooled. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Getting Out from In-Between
The West and Russia currently find themselves locked in a dangerous competition. Meanwhile, other states in the region, including Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia, remain to varying degrees unstable, unreformed, and rife with conflict. The approaches to regional order seem likely to exacerbate these problems. The panelists will discuss these...
Russia’s Active Measures Architecture: Task and Purpose
Russia’s latest iteration of the Soviet-era tactic of “active measures” has mesmerized Western audiences and become the topic de jour for national security analysts. In my last post, I focused on the Kremlin’s campaign to influence the U.S. elections from 2014 to 2016 through the integration of offensive cyber hacking, overt...
Russian Big-City Mayor Quits in Protest
The popular, controversial Yevgeny Roizman is one of few regional politicians willing to take on the ruling establishment. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
What If North Korea Makes an Offer Trump Can’t Refuse?
Doug Bandow North Korea has just reminded the United States that it is intent on negotiating with the United States, not accepting an administration diktat, especially one explicitly modeled after the Libya deal, which ultimately ended in the gruesome death of Muammar el-Qaddafi, who agreed to its terms. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently...
Russian prosecuted for posting that USSR invaded Poland in 1939 denied asylum in Czech Republic
The Czech authorities have found no grounds for giving Vladimir Luzgin political asylum, and say that they cannot “get into a discussion about historical facts”. No ‘discussion’ is, in fact, required, since 38-year-old Luzgin was prosecuted in Russia for reposting a text that quite correctly states that both Nazi Germany and the Soviet...
Film Industry from Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia Clean Up at Cannes
A Kazakh actress and a Polish director win prestigious awards at the film festival, as some of the region’s appraised films touch on sensitive social and political issues. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
The End of the Annexation
The Kerch Bridge is the conclusion of Crimea’s incorporation into Russia, both physically and politically. Any haggling over on what terms Russia might return Crimea to Ukraine is now definitively null and void. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
On the arrest of RIANovosti journalist Kiril Vyshynsky & the defence of “alternative news” in Ukraine
There has been a startling divergence in the reaction to the arrest of RIA Novosti Ukraine’s General Director Kirill Vyshynsky and the search of the agency’s offices. Prominent Ukrainians known for their opposition to censorship in any form stress only that the charges must be fully proven, while a number of western media watchdogs...
