Section: The Jamestown Foundation (USA)
Legal Case in Chelyabinsk Raises Specter of Regional Separatism in Russia
As more and more low-level or hushed-up evidence makes clear, the Kremlin’s Ukraine gambit may have serious, unexpected domestic ramifications for the Russian Federation, such as increasing the likelihood of regional separatism—a prospect not seriously considered since the early 2000s and the end of Russia’s second war in Chechnya. In...
Russia Raises the Stakes in Aleppo
Russia’s air campaign in Syria initially provoked critical remarks and skepticism from Western governments and commentators. However, the intervention, which involves targeted air strikes and close air support (CAS) for Syrian regime and allied forces, has made dramatic advances in recent days. The Russian defense ministry and the media...
Belarus and Its Powerful Neighbors: A Master Class of Raw Geopolitics
As January 2016 drew to a close, news pertaining to Belarus’s relations with its two large neighbors—Russia and Europe—again overshadowed any developments emanating from the Eastern European country itself. First, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issued its report on Belarus’s recent presidential...
The Kremlin Becomes Hostage to Its Own Imperial Propaganda
In January 2016, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the formation of three new divisions in the Western Military District of Russia. Two of them will be located near the border with Ukraine and one—near the Belarusian border (Vedomosti, January 12). At first glance, this military orientation contradicts official Russian policy...
Russia Watches and Puts Own Spin on Moldova’s Crisis (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Western officials and commentators seem, on the whole, to overestimate Russia’s capacity and intentions to recapture Moldova by exploiting that country‘s current crisis. This overestimation partly explains the recent decisions in Washington, Brussels and Bucharest to accept billionaire Vladimir...
Russia Watches and Puts Own Spin on Moldova’s Crisis (Part One)
Many international observers anticipated that Russia would move to exploit the anti-government protests in Moldova in order to (as the assumptions went) “destabilize Moldova’s pro-Europe government,” “halt and derail Moldova’s European course,” or even stage a “Maidan in reverse” in Chisinau. The Kremlin was, at a minimum, expected to...
Ethnic Russians Leaving Central Asia and With Them, Putin’s Hopes for Influence
Because Vladimir Putin has made the presence of ethnic Russians in other countries so central to his efforts to expand Moscow’s influence, their departure from any region or country means far more now than it did a decade ago. Nowhere has their exit been more massive—and, consequently, the influence of ethnic Russians on local governments...
Confrontation With the West Becomes Personal for Putin—and Inescapable
Last week’s (January 26) reporting in the Western media that the United States government was linking Russian President Vladimir Putin to corruption has rocked Russian domestic politics. Specifically, a recent BBC documentary carried remarks to this effect by Acting US Treasury Department Under Secretary Adam J. Szubin, who heads the Office...
Crimea’s Annexation by Russia Returns to Kyiv’s International Agenda
Up to now, the shaky ceasefire in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region has mostly continued to hold (see EDM, January 21). And thus, the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in early 2014, has returned near the top of Kyiv’s international agenda. Following the severance of Ukraine’s economic ties with occupied...
Russian Opposition and Chechens Living in Europe Condemn Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Kadyrov and his Russian critics have squabbled for the last two weeks. Most of those who criticized Kadyrov are either members of the Russian political opposition or rights activists who are also opposed to President Vladimir Putin. Kadyrov regards all opposition to the Russian president as pro-American and anti-Russian. Speaking to...
