Despite the warnings of some commentators and the expectations of others, all polls conducted since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, both those controlled by the Kremlin and those which are independent, show Vladimir Putin’s standing...
One of the most dangerous trends in Russia today is the increasingly casual approach many people there have about the possible use of nuclear weapons in ever more places, something that goes far beyond commentators and officials who...
The passive aggressive nature of a significant portion of Russian society is the reason that the country has become increasingly Soviet again, Alina Vitukhnovskaya says. The dictatorship is not primarily to blame; instead, the country is...
In an interview with Vienna’s Die Presse, the Russian sociologist and pollster says that initially it appeared young Russians were focused on democratic models but it turned out that their attachment to them was superficial and soon...
Such views were more widely held among older Russians and less widely among younger ones, but, according to the polling agency, the idea that “Victory in the Great Fatherland War is a secondary or ordinary event in the history of...
Although serfdom was officially abolished in 1861, its underlying principles live on in Russian thinking and official practice, Kseniya Kirillova says, with most Russians accepting the idea, backed by the Kremlin, that someone born in...
In 2003, Leonid Kuchma published a book emphasizing that “Ukraine is Not Russia” in response to increasing Russian insistence that Russians and Ukrainians are not separate nations. Now, faced with Moscow’s continuing...
Many writers seek to place all the blame for Russia’s current state on the Soviet system and the inability of either its leaders or the population to escape from its poisonous and insidious influence, but in fact, Irina Birna says,...
Recently, Putin’s so-called “special Savchenko operation” has become the favourite topic of Russian propagandists, who are saying the Russian president let Savchenko leave in order to destabilize Ukraine. Russian media...
One of the most frequently heard arguments offered both by Western countries and some Ukrainians is that the best way for Ukraine to get the occupied territories back is to reform itself and become a wealthy and flourishing country that...
Putin’s goals and philosophy Sławomir Sierakowski: What is Putin’s ultimate goal in this war? Timothy Snyder: That’s no big secret: to destroy Ukraine as a state and exterminate Ukrainians as a nation. I’d...
