Russia & Central Asia

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Sun Tzu’s Seven Searching Questions for the War in Ukraine
March 10, 2022 8 min. read

Most of you will have heard of Sun Tzu- the Chinese author and military tactician who rose to prominence in the 4th century BC. Some of you may be familiar with his most prominent work- The Art of War.  By now, you have heard about Vladmir Putin’s unwarranted aggression and despicable drive towards conquest in […]

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The Izoliatsiia Grinder in Russia-Controlled Donets’k
September 14, 2021 6 min. read

Several detainees reported that in ‘Izoliatsiia’, a health professional was present during their interrogations and torture. The man revived those who lost consciousness, and guided the perpetrators about how to torture to inflict maximum pain without causing death. He also examined detainees before the torture and asked about their medical conditions; measured their blood pressure or pulse; and gave injections.

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Open Source: A Month of Sputnik Radio
June 7, 2019 7 min. read

Five years into operation and two years into its 24/7 radio broadcast in Washington, what’s Kremlin-sponsored radio talking about?  I listened for a month to find out. Of three main areas discussed on Sputnik Radio – the United States, U.S. foreign policy, and Russia/Putin – there is fairly little discussion of Russia/Putin.  With a studio […]

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Repurposing the Human Brain: Lessons in Russian- and our own- reality reversal
March 6, 2019 10 min. read

     At the “Valdai Discussion Club” in February 2012, Putin accused the West of employing “a matrix of tools and methods to reach foreign policy goals without the use of arms but by exerting information and other levers of influence . . . to develop and provoke extremist, separatist and nationalistic attitudes, to manipulate […]

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Post-Soviet Neo-Eurasianism, the Putin System, and the Contemporary European Extreme Right
September 28, 2018 42 min. read

Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia’s New Nationalism. By Charles Clover. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016.   The Gumilev Mystique: Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia. By Mark Bassin. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016.   Eurasianism and the European Far Right: Reshaping the Europe-Russia Relationship. Edited […]

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Why and How a New Democratization of Russia Can Happen and Be Supported: The West Should Get Ready for and Promote a Different Post-Soviet Future
September 21, 2018 18 min. read

Western comments on Russian domestic and foreign affairs have, during the last years, become more and more gloomy. Among other topics, this pessimistic discourse (to which I too have contributed) features Putin’s neo-imperial plans for the post-Soviet area, the many varieties of post-Soviet Russian ultra-nationalism, the fragility of the geopolitical grey zone between the Kremlin-dominated […]

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Politics and the World Cup
July 4, 2018 3 min. read

News about the 2018 World Cup in Russia will dominate sports headlines and television screens throughout the summer months as fans come out of the woodwork to support their nation’s soccer teams. And while the World Cup is a great way to unite people, it is important to think of the broader implications of this […]

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