Tag Archives: ukraine

NY Dispatches: Pompeo in Belarus

Last week US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Minsk amidst an ongoing dispute between Belarus and Russia over the price of oil following the “tax maneuver”, a revamp of Russia’s system of taxing oil extraction and exports, which Belarusian … Continue reading

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NY Dispatches: What we know and what we don’t

The past two weeks have seen seemingly transformative political developments happen at a breathtaking speed in Russia. Vladimir Putin proposed a series of constitutional reforms. In a little more than a week those reforms were spelled out in a draft … Continue reading

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Shoigu’s Game

One of the underreported stories of the past years in the Western media was how Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu became one of the most visible, most popular and strongest figures in Russian politics. This is perhaps because Shoigu has … Continue reading

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Looking farther in the near-abroad

One of the most amazing stories coming out of Russia this year was, in fact, coming out of somewhere else: Armenia. In April, Serzh Sargsyan, president in 2008-18, attempted to continue ruling the country from the newly empowered position of … Continue reading

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Putin’s endgame? Part 2: the problem of institutions

In the second part of No Yardstick’s series on the issues shaping Vladimir Putin’s fourth presidential term, we now look at the composition of the new Russian government, formed in May, and through it, the problem of institutions. The new … Continue reading

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The misgovernors

In Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term, foreign policy replaced improving living standards as a source of legitimacy. The significance of foreign policy and power projection, however, goes well beyond the “Crimean consensus” built around Putin following the annexation of the … Continue reading

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A performance to forget

Every series gets tired after a certain number of seasons. Viewers get tired of the running jokes, the catchphrases, the predictable storylines, the hammy actors, especially if no new characters are introduced. Authors gradually stop caring: plot turns become boring, dialogues … Continue reading

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