World without Russia

Details: 17 March 2022; Vladislav Inozemtsev

The war unleashed by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine will have grave consequences for Russia—political, economic, cultural. However, contrary to the Kremlin’s thinking, Russia’s importance on the world stage, which is being rapidly reconsidered today, is in fact not so great. Modern Russia is beginning to fade into the past.

Details: Human Rights

February-March 2022: War, censorship, increased repression

Details: 29 March 2022; Diana Fishman

The results of the past two months have been devastating for Russian civil society: basic constitutional rights have been severely restricted; military censorship and the state’s monopoly on the truth have been officially introduced; and freedom of speech and assembly has been completely destroyed. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gave a powerful boost to the Putin regime’s repressive machine. Anti-war protesters are being detained and beaten en masse in police stations, and the courts continue to hand down harsh sentences on trumped-up charges. IMR compiled a list of the most egregious cases of suppression of human rights and freedoms recorded in Russia in February and March 2022.

Details: Opinions

Nowhere to retreat: Vladimir Putin is trapped in Ukraine

Details: 22 March 2022; Michael Wasiura

By nearly every available measure, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia. Yet even as military losses mount and economic sanctions reduce the living standards of ordinary Russians, there is little reason to believe that the Kremlin will change course. By ordering his tanks to cross the border into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may have made a catastrophic error, but it is an error that cannot be corrected so long as the current regime in Moscow remains in power.

Analysis

A big war in Ukraine: The Kremlin’s goals and consequences for world politics

Details: 16 March 2022; Mykola Vorobiov

On February 24, the Russian army crossed the Ukrainian border in several directions simultaneously, thus beginning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin employed most of its armed forces—around 130,000 people, according to various estimates—that had accumulated along the Ukrainian border over the past four months.

Russian Jews: a complicated narrative

Details: 08 March 2022; Dmitry Shlapentokh

Last October former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote an article focusing on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an ethnic Jew. Medvedev mocked and insulted him, implying that Zelensky is a treacherous Jew and a disgusting person. The article was criticized for anti-Semitism and attempts at undermining Zelensky’s political status in Ukraine, but it also reflects complicated attitudes toward Jews in the Soviet Union and Russia.

From victor to aggressor: A metamorphosis

Details: 03 March 2022; Ekaterina Mishina

On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine under the pretenses of “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the country. Legal scholar and professor at the Free University Ekaterina Mishina analyzes the legal aspects of the war and looks at the cultural ramifications of the actions of the Russian Federation, which, by President Putin’s will, has turned from a victor nation into an aggressor nation.

Opinions

Nowhere to retreat: Vladimir Putin is trapped in Ukraine

Details: 22 March 2022; Michael Wasiura

By nearly every available measure, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia. Yet even as military losses mount and economic sanctions reduce the living standards of ordinary Russians, there is little reason to believe that the Kremlin will change course. By ordering his tanks to cross the border into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may have made a catastrophic error, but it is an error that cannot be corrected so long as the current regime in Moscow remains in power.

War and gas

Details: 14 February 2022; Vladislav Inozemtsev

Is the surge in natural gas prices in Europe this winter related to the escalation in Ukraine following Putin’s ultimatum to the West and threat of war? According to economist Vyacheslav Inozemtzev, director of the Center for Research on Post-Industrial Societies (Moscow), the answer to this question is not as straightforward as it might appear.

Smoke and mirrors: Western misperceptions of Russia in Ukraine

Details: 11 February 2022; Ofer Fridman, Vera Michlin-Shapir

The consensus among Western politicians and experts is that the Kremlin is gearing up for war, which could be prevented by either deterrence or negotiations. However, recent research shows that policymaking discourse in both Russia and the West is “full of mutual misperceptions, mirror imaging, and attribution of non-existent intentions and capabilities.” One of the main reasons for possible misinterpretation of the Kremlin’s intentions in Ukraine is rooted in differences between the U.S. and Russian strategic cultures.

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