The new Ukrainian government has turned out to be a rather ugly bunch: coarse, corrupt, opaque and inexperienced from the President down. Not much different from the previous lot, then.
Kyrgyzstan’s ex-president Bakiev had not delivered on his promise to Russia to close the American airbase at Manas, Arkady Dubnov reminds us. But the Kremlin did not depose him. In Central Asia, Russia looks to other ways of tipping the board...
Russia’s people do not bow to government opinion on the subject of war, a revealing survey of public attitudes by the Levada Center shows. The only ‘just war’ is one fought in defence of home and country, like the World War II. By this token, Russia’s wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya were unjust w
Kyrgyzstan’s government has fallen, its provisional rulers are untested, and there is as yet no sign of a lasting political settlement. Yet that does not mean it will automatically follow the example of neighbour Tajikistan and descend into civil war, writes John Heathershaw
Kyrgyzstan’s violence underscores the instability of those former Soviet governments which are burdened by authoritarian and corrupt rule. To varying degrees, every Central Asian country faces serious threats at home and from the war in neighboring Afghanistan. They need help. The West and Russia
As another “colour revolution” is overthrown in Kyrgyzstan, Boris Dolgin reflects that it changed nothing. Will the country be able to sort out a more nuanced relationship with the USA, Russia and China?
With the death of Vladislav Ardzinba, Abkhazia’s first president, a period of post-Soviet upheaval passes further into history. Sergei Markedonov considers Ardzinba’s achievements in the wider context of the Caucasus
Why do Chechen women volunteer to blow themselves and their fellow citizens up on the crowded Moscow metro? The history of Russia’s attempts to quell the Chechens since 1721 explains a lot, suggests Oliver Bullough. Perhaps all they ever wanted from Russia was to be left alone
The terrorist bombs pose a problem for the Kremlin, Sam Greene reports from Moscow. Since tightening the screws has not worked, their new tactic appears to be to avoid the subject altogether
Henry Marsh, an English neurosurgeon, tells the story of his twenty-year friendship with Igor Kurilets, a young Ukrainian who resolved to drag Soviet neurosurgery into the 21st century
Henry Marsh, an English neurosurgeon, tells the story of his twenty-year friendship with Igor Kurilets, a young Ukrainian who resolved to drag Soviet neurosurgery into the 21st century
