Current Issue

Issue 23, Summer 2022
Log in

Russia

News

Serbia Won’t Recognise Russian Referendums in Ukraine

Despite its ties with Russia, Serbia announced it won’t recognise the results of the referendums held in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Serbia’s own problems with Kosovarian independence, as well as warnings from the EU, play into that decision.

David Boos —

News

Hungary to Consult Citizens on Sanctions Against Russia

Hungary will be the first European country to launch an official survey amongst its citizens on the European sanctions against Russia. Prime Minister Orbán also continues pleading for peace negotiations to try and put an end to the war in Ukraine.

David Boos —

News

New EU Sanctions on Russia

The new sanctions package is expected to pave the way for the EU to declare a price cap on the oil it imports from Russia.

Sven R. Larson —

News

At Least 15 Dead in School Shooting in Russia

A school shooting in the Russian city of Izhevsk cost the lives of at least 15 people, including 11 children, and injured 24 more. The same day, a young man about to be mobilized started firing shots at an enlistment office in Siberia.

David Boos —

News

EU Considers New Sanctions Against Russia

Following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of partial mobilization, leading European politicians have renewed their call for more sanctions. Only Viktor Orbán pleads for a removal of sanctions, as he claims they have hurt Europe more than Russia.

David Boos —

News

Putin Announces Partial Mobilization

Ahead of the upcoming referendums in the occupied regions in Eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of 300,000 men and renewed his nuclear threats towards the West.

David Boos —

News

Poland and Baltics Enact Visa Ban for Russians

While the EU blocked a complete visa ban against Russians in August, Poland and the Baltic States have now followed up on their earlier promise to close their borders to most Russian tourists, making Finland the only remaining point of entry into the EU.

David Boos —

News

Lukoil Chairman Dies After Falling From Hospital Window

The chairman of one of Russia’s largest energy companies has fallen to his death from the 6th floor of a Moscow hospital. While officials are still figuring out whether it was an accident or suicide, an unnamed third explanation makes its rounds.

David Boos —

News

EU Suspends Visa Agreement with Russia

Stopping short of a complete visa ban on Russian citizens, the EU decided to suspend the existing agreement that eases visa issuance for Russians. Some Eastern European nations are now considering putting regional bans in place.

David Boos —

News

Serbia Caught in Proxy War Between East and West

The Serbian leader appears caught in a juggling act. At home, he must retain the good graces of his conservative base; abroad he must maintain relations with China, Russia, and the ‘progressive’, staunchly anti-Russian, European Union.

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

News

UK: New Price Hike Promises Bleak Winter for Consumers

The announcement comes only days before PM Boris Johnson’s successor is announced. Johnson has thus far undertaken little action in resolving the crisis, leaving this farrago for the next prime minister to untangle instead. 

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

News

Lukashenko: If Provoked, We Will Use Nuclear Weapons

The Belarusian leader touted his country’s fighter jets, now retrofitted with nuclear weapons. While Belarus has no nuclear arsenal of its own, after a referendum held earlier this year, it receives nuclear weaponry from its Russian ally.

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

News

Estonia and Latvia Pull Out of ‘China Club’

Arguing for its replacement, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeted that “China’s 17+1 format was already redundant and divisive long before Lithuania quit.”

Tristan Vanheuckelom —

News

Germany Pulls Out of Mali

This is the latest in a reduction of European troops in the country which were there to help the Malian government fight jihadist insurgents.

Bridget Ryder —

News

Nord Stream 1 Turbine Still in Germany

With the missing gas turbine stuck with Siemens in Germany, Gazprom blames the delay for delivering only 20% of its capacity via Nord Stream 1. Meanwhile, Germany’s gas reservoirs are steadily filling up.

David Boos —

Commentary

Yale Russia Report Gets an F

I wanted to read irrefutable evidence that the Russian economy had suffered deeply and perhaps irreversibly from the war. As I kept reading the report, my hopes fell flat. This is nothing more than an academic propaganda pamphlet.

Sven R. Larson —

News

Russia Declares Azov Regiment Terrorists

In a statement on August 2nd, the Azov Regiment accused Russia of using the judicial declaration to justify war crimes, and called on Washington to designate Russia a terrorist state.

Bridget Ryder —

Commentary

Putin and the End of History

What Putin has seen is this collapse of courage in the West, an inability to protect itself from external existential threats and a peculiar, weak slavishness to liberal culture, whilst it erodes the values of traditional societies.

Brian Patrick Bolger —

News

EU Commission to Propose 15% Gas Reduction

The Commission wants to make member states save gas and then be able to redistribute the block’s overall supply as a response to the possibility of Russia cutting off Europe’s gas supplies.

Bridget Ryder —

News

Canada Returns Gas Turbine to Russia

Canada’s return of a repaired gas turbine to Russia has left Germans relieved that the gas flow through Nord Stream 1 may soon resume. But Ukrainian officials are disappointed about the circumvention of sanctions.

David Boos —

News

Euro Weakens vs. Ruble

In the first quarter of this year, the euro area ran a combined trade and financial deficit vs. Russia of €-26 billion. Only the deficit vs. China was bigger, at €-38.8 billion.

Sven R. Larson —

News

Russia Eyeing Alaska?

Billboards claiming “Alaska is ours!” have been spotted in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. While part of a marketing campaign of a company called ‘Alaska,’ some Duma members are openly considering reclaiming Alaska for Russia.

David Boos —

News

EU Commission Warns of Social Strife This Winter

Frans Timmermans, the executive vice-president of the European Commission, said that making people suffer this winter in order to stay on track with the energy transition would ultimately be disastrous for solving ‘the climate crisis.’

Bridget Ryder —

News

Russian Pranksters Call European Mayors

A Russian comedy duo continues to dupe Western politicians and celebrities with prank calls in which they pretend to be either Vitaly Klychko or Volodymyr Zelensky. This raises questions about the quality of security at some of the EU’s highest offices.

David Boos —

News

Last Ukrainian Stronghold in Luhansk Falls

Zelensky assured Ukrainians in his regular address later on July 3rd that this was not the end of Ukraine’s defence of Luhansk and that Ukraine’s military would seek an opportunity to recapture the region.

Bridget Ryder —

News

Sanctions Force Russia Debt Payment Default

The default has been reported as “mostly symbolic” of “the worst economic contraction” in Russia in many years; Russian President Vladimir Putin has a different account of the Russian economy.

Sven R. Larson —

Commentary

The Impending Death(s) of Vladimir Putin

A recent U.S. intelligence report claims that Vladimir Putin is “definitely sick,” received cancer treatment in April, and survived an assassination attempt in March. But this isn’t the first time such rumors have been voiced.

David Boos —

News

Macron Refuses to “Humiliate Russia”

Since his first election in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has tried with some consistency to develop a specific “Russian policy,” aiming to always maintain communication with Vladimir Putin, regardless of the context. This earned him repeated criticism from his political opponents in France in 2018. The outbreak of a war between Ukraine and Russia, […]

Hélène de Lauzun —

News

EU Commission Allows Gas Payments in Rubles to Russia

On Thursday, May 19th, the EU Commission decided to allow gas importers to open ruble accounts for gas payments to Gazprombank. For a long time, the EU Commission had rejected the Russian demand for payment in rubles, as it was considered to violate EU sanctions against Russia. The condition for this turnaround is that European […]

David Boos —

News

G7 Promises Russian Oil Embargo

Only now, as it becomes clear that Russia is not buckling under the previous sanctions, have countries begun to put the most serious sanctions on the table: those that touch on Russia’s energy empire.

Bridget Ryder —

Essay

Modern Russia and the Russian Aristocracy

Contrary to what many Western journalists and politicians persistently assume, there exists little continuity between Imperial Russia and the Soviet regime, just as there was no ideological or political identity between pre-war France and the Vichy regime.

Nikolai Tolstoy —

News

New EU Sanctions Target Russian Oil and Orthodox Church

Experts warn that cutting off Russian oil imports will increase the price of gasoline for European consumers. They also caution that delayed onset of the sanctions will only give Russia time to sell its oil elsewhere before losing European business, weakening the effects of the sanctions.

Bridget Ryder —

Essay

The Rus and the Rescue of Nations, Part II

Eurasianism, with its glorification of the Mongol Golden Horde and eastward orientation, tends to divorce Russia from its European heritage, a divorce that is incompatible with any drawing closer to Ukraine. Geography and natural resources will motivate political conflict, but identity and national construction will determine what social cleavages can be exploited by local and foreign agents in that conflict.

Carlos Perona Calvete —

Commentary

How Should the West Deal with the War in Ukraine?

There are a few things that the West can do. One is to follow the Latin motto “Si vis pacem, para bellum,” or “If you want peace, prepare for war.” This certainly applies to the Benelux, Germany, and Sweden, whose armed forces have been severely weakened over the past three decades.

Pieter Cleppe —

News

Netflix in Decline

The 200,000 subscriber drop is just the beginning according to the company, which expects to lose another 2 million subscribers in Q2.

Hélène de Lauzun —

Commentary

The Lure of National Dependence

In Western Europe, meanwhile, our globalized, post-national era of peace and prosperity has wrought decadence and complacency. It has erased from the national consciousness the blood and tears needed to get independence and to keep it.

Jorge González-Gallarza —

Essay

The Rus and the Rescue of Nations, Part I

Organic association and the principle of subsidiarity are the rescue of nations. They allow for the political articulation of common roots without alienating local cultural differentiation. They also permit overarching identities to be honored along with overlapping ones. Keeping this principle in mind, we may trace the history of relations between Moscow and Kyiv with an eye to how it could have been, and may yet, be applied.

Carlos Perona Calvete —

Interview

Ukrainians Helping Ukrainians in Western Pennsylvania

“As an American citizen, I can’t wrap my mind around this, how people who share the same faith—because Russia is predominantly Orthodox, and Ukraine is predominantly Orthodox—could be so evil to each other. But then, we have to think about Cain and Abel, he killed his brother, so, nothing new under the sun, unfortunately,” Rev. Tomson said.

Robert Semonsen —

Commentary

Trump and America’s Moral Conscience

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, media was brimming with stories about how he had somehow colluded with Russia to gain some sort of unfair election advantage. Plenty of journalistic effort went toward confirming these allegations, and a so-called special counsel, Robert Mueller, spent almost two years investigating the matter.  Mueller found no […]

Sven R. Larson —

News

Hundreds of Civilians Killed by Russian Mercenaries in Mali

Moura and the surrounding area are semi-controlled by Islamist insurgents. They impose taxes and Sharia law, threaten those refusing to adhere to their strict behavioural code, and often attempt to recruit fighters from the Peuhl ethnic group in the region by exploiting their grievances against both the Malian government and other ethnic groups, according to Human Rights Watch.

Bridget Ryder —

News

Hungary to Pay for Russian Gas in Rubles 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—refusing to adopt policies that run counter to the interests of the Hungarian people—has agreed to pay Moscow in rubles for gas imports.

Robert Semonsen —