The Daily Vertical: Putin’s image police (transcript)

By Brian Whitmore, for RFE/RL Like any head of state, Vladimir Putin has an army of bodyguards to protect him. But unlike most heads of state,...

The Daily Vertical: More Than One Way To Undermine Your Neighbor’s Sovereignty (Transcript)

By Brian Whitmore, for RFE/RL There's more than one way to steal your neighbor's territory. There's more than one way to undermine your neighbor's sovereignty. There's more...

Militarily, Baltic region is stable; but in terms of information war, it’s not, Latvian...

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia The situation in the Baltic region militarily is “quite stable,” Andis Kudors says, not only because NATO has beefed...

Most people in the West make two fatal mistakes about Moscow ‘media,’ Yakovenko says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia Most people in the West continue to make two “fatal” mistakes about the media in Putin’s Russia, Igor Yakovenko...

Russians so overwhelmingly apolitical that poll numbers are meaningless, Kagarlitsky says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia Given that 90 percent of Russian society is “apolitical,” Moscow commentator Boris Kagarlitsky says, “it is impossible” to say...

Putin’s ‘hybrid peace’ more threatening to Ukraine than his ‘hybrid war,’ Portnikov says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric about Ukraine has changed in order to curry favor with Russians in advance of the presidential...

Edward Lucas: The repressive state

By Edward Lucas, for CEPA How many political prisoners languish in Russia’s jails and penal colonies? The short answer is that nobody knows. Harassment makes...

Edward Lucas: Russian political theater

By Edward Lucas, for CEPA Russia is having a presidential election this year. Right? Wrong. In fact, the Kremlin is staging a play about an...

Putin’s Russia now ‘an empire of lies,’ not ‘an evil empire,’ Pastukhov says

By Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia At the everyday level, Vladimir Pastukhov says, it is unlikely that Russians lie more than people in other countries...

Russia can only affect Lithuanian society with internal problems – analyst

By The Baltic Times The Kremlin can only have an effect on Lithuania's society, if it is shaken by internal problems, says Lilia Shevtsova, political...