Putin Laments Soviet Breakup As Demise Of ‘Historical Russia,’ Amid Ukraine Fears
Putin, a former agent of the Soviet KGB security service, has previously lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union […]
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Kremlin Denies Eyeing Territorial Claims After Putin’s Comments In Documentary
The Kremlin has denied it has any territorial claims on former Soviet republics after … Putin appeared to question the redrawn borders of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “BOOK REVIEW: THE LONG HANGOVER” – Irrussianality/Paul Robinson
“Shaun Walker, the Moscow correspondent on The Guardian, has a new book out, entitled The Long Hangover: Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past. It advances the thesis that … and this is where I run into a problem because he never explicitly says what his thesis is. But it’s sort of something like this: in an effort […]
» Read moreRussian Workers an ‘Invisible Class’ Since Collapse of Soviet Union, New Study Concludes
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, January 11, 2018) Russians employed in factories have become “an invisible group” in society since 1991; and as a result, the identity even now is based largely on memories of the Soviet past as exacerbated by their sense of growing social inequality, according to a new study by the Higher School of […]
» Read moreFrom Post-Soviet to Neo-Soviet
(The Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – EDWARD C. HOLLAND – January 4, 2017) Edward C. Holland is Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arkansas. His research interests range across a variety of topics, including political violence, religion, and critical geopolitics, and are generally focused on the Russian Federation. He has recently published on […]
» Read morePutin still sees USSR break-up as catastrophe – spokesman
(RIA Novosti – December 21, 2016) Russian President Vladimir Putin still believes that the break-up of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe, his press secretary has said. Dmitry Peskov said while the break-up could not be reversed there was no alternative to “new integration” in post-Soviet space. “Putin still thinks that it was a catastrophe for all the peoples that […]
» Read moreInterfax: Ukraine crisis caused by USSR’s “reckless” dismantling – Gorbachev
(Interfax – Moscow, December 30, 2014) Former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev believes that the world was on the brink of a major disaster in 2014. In an interview with Interfax he said this concerned not just relations between Russia and Ukraine, Russia and the European Union, but events in global politics as a whole. As for relations between Ukraine and […]
» Read moreStalin: Still a Dividing Legacy Among Russians
(www.opendemocracy.net – Alexei Levinson – March 5, 2013) Alexei Levinson is sociologist and senior researcher at the Levada Center, Russia’s leading polling organisation, Moscow On the 60th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death, with Russian and international TV news bulletins showing old footage of his life and his funeral, Alexei Levinson looks at how his legacy still divides Russians today. Why […]
» Read moreJewish Library Not the Only Thing Russia Isn’t Giving Back
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin said last week that returning a Jewish book collection confiscated after the Bolshevik Revolution was impossible because it would open a “Pandora’s box” of claims on such property. “[If Russia] starts satisfying these sorts of claims, there would be no end to them and no telling […]
» Read moreLife goes on in Russian ghost towns
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Daria Gonzales – February 5, 2013) Today, the provocative label of “dead town” smothers a thousand human tales of departure, relocation, and long waits in the hopes of a flat in a new city. Yet, not all residents of these nearly uninhabited places have the desire to leave. RBTH explores the lives of […]
» Read more$3.3 Billion to Clean Up Soviet Pollution
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – January 23, 2013) The government is preparing to allocate 100 billion rubles ($3.3 billion) to clean up pollution left over by Soviet-era industry. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi told President Vladimir Putin that a bill to allocate that sum as well as define responsibilities for cleaning up decades-old industrial waste […]
» Read moreLenin fans: a tribute of flowers; Lenin’s acolytes may be morbid, but they also have community
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – January 21, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News Let’s call her Valentina Petrovna. Standing with her bundle of red carnations, she looked at me, a little indignant, and said, “I’m here to lay flowers at Lenin’s monument, of course. The Mausoleum is closed.” For the 89 years […]
» Read moreRussians think Soviet breakdown could have been avoided, many have no regrets – poll
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) – Fifty-six percent of Russians regret the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. The indicator stood at 65% a decade ago, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Saturday. Mostly, the Soviet Union is mourned by people older than 45 (70-83%), people with little education (72%), non-Internet users (75%), Muscovites and St. Petersburg […]
» Read moreRussian President Denies Trying To Resurrect USSR
(RIA Novosti – Dec. 10, 2012) President Vladimir Putin has rejected suggestions that Russia’s drive for closer ties with other former Soviet republics is an attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union. Speaking on 10 December at a meeting in Moscow with his “authorized representatives”, who acted as his election agents during this year’s presidential election campaign, Putin dismissed such claims […]
» Read moreInterview: Legendary Russian Journalist Says ‘People On Top Are Scared’
(RFE/RL – November 17, 2012) As one of the most recognizable personalities on Russian television, Vladimir Pozner is no stranger to the spotlight. But the 78-year-old veteran journalist found himself in the midst of a controversy last month after lambasting the state of justice in the country during his popular show on state-controlled Channel One. Pozner harshly criticized the abduction […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: Prospect of show trial stirs some Russians’ memories of Stalinism; Some Russian activists are drawing parallels between a potential ‘mega-trial’ for leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov and Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s. But the comparison remains controversial.
(Prospect of show trial stirs some Russians’ memories of Stalinism; Some Russian activists are drawing parallels between a potential ‘mega-trial’ for leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov and Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s. But the comparison remains controversial. – Christian Science Monitor – By Fred Weir – October 30, 2012 – http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/1030/Prospect-of-show-trial-stirs-some-Russians-memories-of-Stalinism) The Christian Science Monitor reports on concerns by some onlookers […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: ‘Love of dead tyrants a common human error’ – Medvedev
(“‘Love of dead tyrants a common human error’ – Medvedev” – Russia Today – October 31, 2012 – http://rt.com/politics/love-dead-human-error-654/) Pro-Kremlin Russia Today reports on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s criticism of Soviet Dictator and Mass Murderer Joseph Stalin, and Medvedev’s critique of those nostalgiac for the Stalin era: It is safe to be a Stalinist when you know that […]
» Read moreVigils for victims of political repressions held across Russia
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – October 30, 2012) The victims of Soviet political repressions are being commemorated on Tuesday with vigils held across Russia. Seventy-five years since the Great Purge was started by Soviet leader Josef Stalin, Moscow’s now disused Butovo firing range hosted events honoring the hundreds of thousands who suffered, according to Interfax. The site […]
» Read moreRussian PM says Stalin’s crimes deserve ‘the harshest assessment’
(Interfax – Perm, 30 October) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev thinks that Iosif Stalin and other leaders of the Soviet state of that period deserve “the harshest assessment,” because they “conducted a war against their own people”. “For what was taking place back then, it is not only Iosif Stalin but also a host of other leaders who certainly deserve […]
» Read moreVictims of Stalin’s Terror to Be Remembered in Moscow
MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax) – Victims of Stalin’s terror will be remembered at the Solovetsky Stone monument on Moscow’s Lubyanka street on October 29 in a ceremony titled “The Return of the Names.” The ceremony will be held ahead of the Day of Memory for Victims of Political Reprisals, marked on October 30, and it is being organized by the […]
» Read moreOctober Marks 50th Anniversary of Cuban Missile Crisis
(Andre de Nesnera – Voice of America – October 9, 2012) This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Historians say there were several key events that led to the decision by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to […]
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