Perestroika and New Thinking: A Retrospective
(Demokratizatsiya) Excerpt: More than three and a half decades have passed since the start of the process of change in the Soviet Union known throughout the world as perestroika. The…
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Kramer
60 posts
A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage
(Davis Center) The latest revelations about the penetration of Bulgaria’s national security bodies by Russian intelligence services have raised a host of troubling security questions for U.S. and NATO policymakers.…
Kramer: The Botyan legend, with its inherent assertion that the Soviets saved Krakow, continues to fuel bad relations between Poland and Russia
(NYTimes) As far as many Russians are concerned, Alexei Botyan, a Soviet spy during World War II, was a hero whose daring actions saved the Polish city of Krakow from destruction…
Kramer: Mr. Bukovsky emerged from his experience in the Soviet Union looking like such a remarkably admirable figure because he stuck to his principles
(Washington Post) hen Vladimir Bukovsky was released from a Soviet prison in 1976 in an event that drew front-page headlines around the world, he was 33 years old and had already…
What Putin’s Exit Could Mean for Chechnya: The Pitfalls of Kadyrov’s State-within-a-State
(PONARS Policy Memo) After the Soviet Union broke apart, the Russian government fought two highly destructive wars against insurgents in Chechnya—in 1994-1996 and in 1999-2009. Both wars caused immense bloodshed, dislocation,…
U.S.-Russian Relations and the “New Cold War” Metaphor
(PONARS Policy Memo) Over the past twenty years, observers such as Stephen F. Cohen have argued that relations between the United States and Russia have been plunged into a “new Cold…
Kramer: Putin has been to the US and met with US leaders many times, none of this has made him warm up to the United States
(Polygraph.info) In an op-ed published on the English language website of the Russian state-owned outlet RT.com, John Wight, a regular RT contributor, argued that visiting the United States might give Russian…
The August 1968 Red Square Protest and Its Legacy
(Wilson Center) Fifty years ago tomorrow, an act of great moral courage occurred against the backdrop of the Cold War. On August 25, 1968, four days after hundreds of thousands of…
Five myths about espionage
(NV Register) The poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in southern England, most likely by Russian intelligence agents, highlights the role of espionage in…
Kramer: WikiLeaks has become a convenient propaganda tool for the Russian government
(BI) Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange has been actively supporting Catalonia’s push for independence The Kremlin has seized on Assange’s support for Catalonia in an effort to destabilize the EU Edward Snowden, along with…