For Russia, size matters; Why some lawmakers want to make promoting separatism illegal

Russian Duma Building

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – November 21, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is an editor and correspondent at themoscownews.com Earlier this month, a lawmaker known for his loyalist legislative proposals introduced a bill that would criminalize even talking about separatism in Russia. In an apparent attempt to emulate the law that bans promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors, […]

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Pravda.ru: “Can Russia collapse and fall under Western control?”

Russian Duma Building

(Pravda.ru – Anton Kulikov – November 12, 2013) The Russian State Duma deputies proposed an introduction of the “Separatist Propaganda” article in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and establishing a prison sentence of three to six years for said propaganda. So far this is only a draft bill, and its future is unclear. The document was proposed for […]

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Interfax: Attack on Russian Embassy in Warsaw was unprecedented in scale – spokesperson

Polish and Russian Flags

MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – An attack Monday on the Russian Embassy in Warsaw by Polish nationalists was unprecedented in its scale, Russian Embassy spokesperson Valeria Perzhinskaya said on the Voice of Russia radio on Tuesday. “Nationalists take some actions against our diplomatic mission from time to time. However, this is the first time we see it on such a […]

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Putin Tells Zhirinovsky to ‘Tone it Down’

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 7, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has urged Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky to show more restraint in his speeches, most likely in reference to the lawmaker’s recent remarks about the North Caucasus that provoked outrage in the region. Zhirinovsky said during a television show last month that the North Caucasus should be surrounded […]

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Interfax: Russian March assesses degree of public discontent – policy expert

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Nov 5 (Interfax) – The relative serenity of the Russian March was based on the wish of its organizers to avoid “rocking the boat” and instead to assess public sentiment about migration and inter-ethnic relations, policy expert Nikolai Mironov said. “It seems the March organizers did not want to disturb the peace. I think it was a test; they […]

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Russian March: Scattered, divided, leaderless

Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

(Moscow News – – Anna Arutunyan, Editor and Correspondent at themoscownews.com – November 5, 2013) According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, nationalism is defined as “loyalty and devotion to a nation; a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above others.” National Day of Unity on November 4 has become an annual venue where nationalists across the spectrum can gather together […]

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Rally Shows Rise of Nationalist Sentiment

Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – November 5, 2013) Thousands of Russians poured into the streets of dozens of towns across the country Monday to voice nationalist sentiments on a holiday that was established by the government in 2005 to celebrate the unity of Russia’s diverse population. Nationalism has been on the rise in Russia since the collapse […]

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Russian Nationalism Never Linked with Liberalism, Moscow Scholar Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 4, 2013) Unlike its counterparts in Europe and other parts of the world and despite the hopes of many inside Russia and beyond, Russian nationalism has never a partner of liberalism, the result of its different origins and evolution, according to Vladimir Malakhov, a senior scholar at the Institute of Philosophy […]

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Opposition leader Navalny not to take part in nationalist Russian March

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, November 2, 2013) Opposition activist Aleksey Navalnyy will not take part in the “Russian March” in Moscow on 4 November, he wrote in his LiveJournal (blog). “I still support the ‘Russian March’ as an idea and an event, I am willing to give it information support and or some other support, but in the new situation I […]

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Grassroots nationalism is commonplace in Russia – Alekseyev

Lyudmila Alekseyeva file photo

MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Lyudmila Alekseyeva, chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group and Russia’s oldest human rights activist, believes Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has crossed the line of aggressive nationalism. “Let’s put barbed wire around Zhirinovsky, not the Caucasus,” Alekseyeva told a press conference on Thursday. Alekseyeva said grassroots nationalism is commonplace in Russia, but some people […]

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The mean streets of Russian nationalism; Who are Russia’s real nationalists? And why are they rioting?

Biryulyovo Riots file photo

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan, Natalia Antonova – October 31, 2013) In the past, Maria, a sales manager, never attended the nationalist Russian March, an annual rally commemorating Russia’s Day of National Unity. This time, less than a month after taking part in a violent nationalist protest in southern Moscow’s Biryulyovo district, is different. “I’m ready to go,” […]

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Interfax: Patriarch Kirill: Biryulyovo events demonstrate government unwillingness to solve excessive migration problem

Patriarch Kirill file photo

MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – The latest events in Moscow’s Biryulyovo district show that only the forces seeking to destroy Russia will gain from further disregard of the opinion of the Russian majority, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia. “The latest clashes in the Moscow Biryulyovo district demonstrated that a deaf ear turned by the authorities to the […]

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The Most Important Question in Russia Today – What’s Your Nationality?

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 30, 2013) A writer for the official newspaper of the Russian parliament says that today “the most important question” for residents of the Russian Federation is “what’s your nationality?” a question that is not easy for everyone to answer but one which is asked with such insistence that those of mixed […]

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Under Putin, Russia Becoming a Third World Country, Nationalists Say

File Photo of Vladimir Putin at Valdai Club 2013 Meeting, Adapted from Screenshot of Valdai Club Video at youtube.com

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 28, 2013)  Russian nationalists and others have regularly criticized Vladimir Putin for building an economy and hence a state that relies on the export of raw materials rather than the development of industry and investment in human capital. But now two of them have stepped up this attack and argued that […]

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Russia Again Caught Between Disintegration and Dictatorship, Editor Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 17, 2013) The Russian Federation finds itself in a Zugswang, a German term for a situation in which any move leads to a loss, according to the editor of “Kulturolog.” And in its case, the situation is especially dire because the country increasingly finds itself forced to choose between disintegration and […]

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Russian Political Debate has Shifted from Liberals vs. Derzhavniki to Left vs. Right Nationalists, Pain Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 15, 2013) Nationalism is now at the center of Russian political discourse, that country’s leading specialist on ethnic conflicts says, and as a result, the core of Moscow’s political debate has shifted from one between liberals and derzhavniki to a very different one between left nationalists and right-of-center ones. Emil Pain, […]

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By Backing Those Who Make Nationalist Appeals, Russia’s Liberals are Destroying Themselves, Petersburg Student Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 21, 2013) Russian liberals who back candidates that make nationalist appeals either out of calculation or conviction in the hopes that this will boost their poll numbers are sacrificing their own values and helping the authoritarian regime in the Kremlin, according to a St. Petersburg University student. In a letter to […]

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EVENT & CALL FOR PAPERS: ASN 2014 Convention Call for Papers

Columbia University Campus with Main Building

From: Dominique Arel <darel@uottawa.ca> Subject: ASN 2014 Convention Call for Papers Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 Call for Papers 19th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) International Affairs Building, Columbia University, NY Sponsored by the Harriman Institute 24-26 April 2014 www.nationalities.org ***Proposal deadline: 24 October 2013*** [Please note that the deadline is earlier than […]

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Increasingly Defined by Negation, Russian Nation Fraying at the Edges and Even at the Core

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 11, 2013) Their identity increasingly defined not by what they are or want to be but by what they fear and view as alien, Russians as a nation are fraying at the edges with some like the Siberians identifying in terms of a region, others like the Cossacks in terms of […]

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RIA Novosti – Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity Key for Russian National Identity – Poll

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – Howard Amos – MOSCOW, September 11, 2013) ­ Besides drunks, who do Russians not want most as neighbors or work colleagues? The answer: homosexuals, according to new research examining national identity released by a state-run pollster, the Russia Public Opinion Research Center, on Tuesday. According to the survey, 51 percent of Russians would not like “under any […]

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Russian Intelligentsia Prepared to Overlook Navalny’s Nationalism

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 3, 2013) Driven by their hatred of Vladimir Putin as a personality and their lack of a place in today’s Russia, the liberal intelligentsia has been willing to overlook xenophobic, nationalist and even anti-Semitic remarks by Aleksey Navalny, even though such ugly comments would have ended the careers of Western politicians […]

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From protests to pogroms

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(opendemocracy.net – Emil Pain – August 27, 2013) Emil Pain is a professor at the National Research University­Higher School of Economics, Moscow, and the General Director of the Center for Ethno-Political Studies. As the level of inter-ethnic violence reaches disturbing proportions, Emil Pain asks if Russia’s protest moment has turned nasty.   In the middle of 2012, Russia’s influential Centre […]

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Russians Must Take Nationalism Away from the Nationalists, Writer Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 22, 2013) Like Americans, most Russians view nationalism in a negative way, according to a Russian Jewish émigré living in New York, but they will not  be able to integrate their society and escape from the Soviet past unless they take nationalism away from those who call themselves Russian nationalists and […]

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Russian nationalism: tip of the iceberg

Map of European Portion of Former Soviet Union

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – August 5, 2013) Every few years, the specter of Russian nationalism rears its head, sending people who think they understand a thing or two about this country screaming in horror in all directions. The reason, I think, is that in Western democracies, “nationalism” is understood as a chauvinistic sense of supremacy that […]

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Russia’s Aleksei Navalny: Hope Of The Nation — Or The Nationalists?

Alexei Navalny file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – July 28, 2013) Aleksei Navalny has been called the best hope for liberalization in Russia. And he has been called the most dangerous man in the country. Navalny has risen quickly to become the de facto head of Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition — a rise based almost entirely on his relentless exposure of high-level […]

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Navalny and the Moscow Mayoral Election; Far-right nationalist group throws its support behind Navalny in Moscow mayor race

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 136 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Richard Arnold – July 24, 2013) The announcement by Vladimir Tor, the leader of the unregistered far-right National Democratic Party (NDP), that he will support anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in the election for Moscow mayor (http://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/20/navalny/) may have gone unnoticed in the West, but it is one […]

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Defending the Indefensible

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(opendemocracy.net – Grigory Tumanov – July 11, 2013) Grigory Tumanov is a Moscow based journalist and blogger. He is a staff correspondent for Kommersant daily, one of Russia’s most respected publications. Favourite lawyer of the Russian far right, Dmitry Bakharyev is developing a network of ‘sports’ clubs for like-minded nationalists ­ teaching knife, rather than ball, skills. He hopes the […]

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Russia’s Liberals Share Blame for Survival of Moscow’s Imperialist Impulses, Rodionov Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 24, 2013) Russia’s liberals played a key role in pushing through the economic reforms which made a return to communism impossible, but they failed to help the country to make the transition from an empire to a nation and thus must bear part of the blame for continuing strength of Moscow’s […]

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Even Russian Nationalists Now Reject Slogan ‘Russia for the Russians,’ Demushkin Says

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 9, 2013) Dmitry Demushkin,, the leader of the “Russians” political movement, says that “even Russian nationalists do not support the slogan ‘Russia for the Russians’ because it has to be qualified in so many ways that it is useless as a mobilizing tool and dangerous it if is applied in a […]

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The Kind of Russian Nationalism Putin Needs and the Kind He Doesn’t

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 9, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-kind-of-russian.html) There are many kinds of Russian nationalism on offer today, a Russian Communist Party commentator says, but a major divide now lies between the kinds of Russian nationalism that President Vladimir Putin wants to promote and use and other kinds of Russian nationalism that he views as […]

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Ethnic nationalism threatens Russia’s unity

Map of Russia

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Sergei Markedonov, special to RBTH – April 5, 2013) Sergei Markedonov is a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. The country’s authorities should undertake drastic reform of the nationalities policy. “The nationalities issue” remains a priority for Russia’s social and political development. In the 1990s-early 2000s, the […]

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Russian Nationalists ‘Gathering Strength,’ Moscow Expert Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia, Paul Goble, Staunton, March 28, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-russian-nationalists.html) Russian nationalist parties are likely to form in the near future and to gain enough support to put their representatives into the next Russian Duma, according to a Moscow specialist who has examined polling data, monitored the Russian media and talked to other members of the expert community in […]

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Russian Nationalism ‘Far More Terrible’ than Non-Russian Extremism, Novocherkassk Scholar Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 25, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-russian-nationalism.html) In a review of the literature on the attitudes of young people toward members of other ethnic groups, Aleksandr Skorik, a professor at the South Russian State Technical University, says that research suggests that “Russian nationalism is far more terrible than non-Russian extremism” as a source of […]

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Few Russians Want to Identify as Putin Wants Them To, Survey Suggests

File Photo of Crowd of Russians with One Waving Russian Flag

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 17, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-few-russians-want-to.html) More than 90 percent of ethnic Russians taking part in an online survey do not want to identify as “Rossiyane,” the non-ethnic civic identity President Vladimir Putin has been promoting as the primary self-designator for citizens of the Russian Federation, preferring instead to identify as ethnic Russians […]

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Xenophobic Attitudes Growing Across Russian Political Spectrum, Moscow Expert Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 26, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-xenophobic-attitudes.html) Xenophobic attitudes are now to be found among communist, nationalist, liberal and pro-Kremlin parties and groups, according to Moscow’s leading specialist on inter-ethnic relations, a development that reflects the efforts of these organizations to tap into popular attitudes and win votes. Such outreach programs are not likely […]

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Putin’s Nationality Policy Won’t Work as He Intends

Migrant Workers file photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 20, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-putins-nationality.html) Both the five specific planks of his nationality policy that Vladimir Putin outlined yesterday and problems underlying his entire approach to this issue guarantee that the Russian president will offend both Russians and non-Russians and produce the very outcome he says he is trying to avoid ­ […]

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Aggressive Nationalism and Anti-Americanism Are the Kremlin’s New Ideological Pillars

File Photo of Partial FSB Headquarters Building Facade

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 28 – Pavel Felgenhauer – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – February 14, 2013) This week, speaking at a meeting of Russia’s top security officials­the so called “extended collegium” of the Federal Security Service or FSB­Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB chief, announced: “Geopolitical pressure on Russia, coming from the United States and its allies who still […]

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Aggressive Nationalism and Anti-Americanism Are the Kremlin’s New Ideological Pillars

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 28 – Jamestown Foundation: jamestown.org – Pavel Felgenhauer – February 14, 2013) This week, speaking at a meeting of Russia’s top security officials­the so called “extended collegium” of the Federal Security Service or FSB­Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB chief, announced: “Geopolitical pressure on Russia, coming from the United States and its allies who still consider […]

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‘The Russian People No Longer Exists,’ Russian Nationalist Says

File Photo of Crowd of Russians with One Waving Russian Flag

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 12, 2013 –  http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-russian-people-no.html) Maksim Kalashnikov, a leading Russian nationalist commentator, says that “the Russian people no longer exists” and that its disappearance as an integral collective threatens the future of the country because there is no one left to defend it against challenges domestic and foreign. In an interview with “Svobodnaya […]

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