Russia

Photo: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marches on Tverskaya street on 26 March 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0

Reactions to Navalny's Poisoning Aren't Much Ado About Nothing

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Despite Western and European countries and many reputable international organizations calling for objective investigations that will inevitably establish facts about the alleged "poisoning" of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Russian officials have categorically turned down and confidently played against such suggestions.

He is a Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations and running for political office, to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, President Vladimir Putin, and Putin's government.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 07 September 2020

Photo: Protest rally against President Lukashenko, 16 August. Minsk, Belarus. CC BY-SA 3.0

Nonviolent Protests in Belarus Have More Chance Than Any Violent Activities

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – There have never been such massive crowds of anti-government protestors in the countries of the ex-Soviet Union as there are this week. In Minsk, the capital of Belarus and in other major cities they stretch as far as the television cameras can see. Not even the protestors in Ukraine seven years ago had numbers like these.

Moreover, they have a legitimate figurehead in Svetlana Tikanovskaya, unlike in Ukraine or unlike during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, (albeit she had to flee to Lithuania for the sake of her children).

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 August 2020

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong prepare for a group photo with ASEAN leaders at the ASEAN-Russia Summit in Singapore, 14 November 2018. Source: ASEAN

Russian Influence in Southeast Asia Will Struggle to Be More Than Marginal

Viewpoint by Joshua Bernard B Espeña, UP Diliman *

DILIMAN, Quezon City, Philippines (IDN) – The Russian people have voted in favour of constitutional reforms that give President Vladimir Putin the potential to stay in power until 2036 through a landslide victory in a national referendum on 2 July 2020. While critics complain about voting irregularities, the changes mean that Putin could become Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Peter the Great.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 17 August 2020

Never-Ending Russia-US-Africa Geopolitical Triangular Games

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Instead of concentrating on developing its newly-established strategy for Africa, Russia has locked horns with United States over its funding for educational programmes, media and NGOs.

Russia has also accused foreign players of adopting neocolonial tendencies and approaches in dealing with Africa, according to analytical reviews and observations by diplomats, policy experts and researchers.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 13 August 2020

Map: Soviet Invasion of Manchuria (1945), based on Glantz's maps in Levenworth Paper No 7 - Feb 1983. CC BY-SA 3.0

Soviet Advance Not U.S. Atomic Bombings Forced Japan To Surrender

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9 was premeditated mass murder.

President Harry Truman had a workable alternative to using the atom bomb – to cooperate with Stalin, as Roosevelt and Churchill had done on the Western front, in the Soviet advance on Japan, rather than making it a race for control.

Indeed, it was the Soviet advance that convinced Japan to surrender.** Although unaware of each other’s thinking both Truman and the Japanese leadership shared a common cause – they both wanted to pre-empt the possibility of the Soviet Union occupying parts of Japan before the U.S. had got its boots on Japanese ground. Truman did not want to be compelled to concede Soviet participation in the government of post-surrender, occupied, Japan.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 11 August 2020

Image source: Governing Africa: British records from African countries under colonial rule

Russia Sees Neocolonialism as An Investment Barrier in Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia not only supported African countries in liberating themselves from the yoke of colonialism and attaining political independence but also facilitated in the UN General Assembly adopting in 1960 the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. It's a landmark document which states that all people have a right to self-determination and proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.

Russia has now embarked on fighting “neo-colonialism” which it considers a fortified barrier on its way to regain Soviet-era multifaceted influence in Africa.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 August 2020

China-India Conflict a Potential Threat to Five-Nation BRICS

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Tension between China and India threatens to paralyse BRICS – the association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. While struggling to manage the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, China and India have locked horns over issues in their "bilateral relations", ranging from border security to trade conflicts and information war.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 17 July 2020

Photo: Moscow, Kremlin. Bird's Eye View from the southwest. Source: TASS. CC BY 4.0

Not Western Meddling But A Russian Leader with the Power of a Moral Voice Will Replace Putin

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Change is absolutely necessary in Russia, but how to bring it about? One doesn’t have to be a prejudiced Western ideologue to point this out. As the weekend’s demonstrations in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk underline, there are a good number of people, mainly young, who feel the political system, as is presently organized, doesn’t give them the chance to express their feelings.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 14 July 2020

Photo: U.S. arms control envoy Marshall Billingslea speaks to the media in Vienna on June 23 after holding talks the day before with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. (Photo: Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)

New START's Future Continues to Hang in the Balance

By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos

While Kingston Reif is director for disarmament and threat reduction policy, Shannon Bugos is research assistant at the Arms Control Association. The analysis below was first published in July/August 2020 issue of Arms Control Today

WASHINGNTON, D.C. (IDN) – The United States and Russia concluded the latest round of their strategic security dialogue on June 22 without agreeing to extend the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last remaining arms control agreement limiting their nuclear arsenals.

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 13 July 2020

Photo: Voting station in Kamchatka Krai in the Far East region of Russia, with a population of 322,079. CC BY-SA 4.0

Putin's "Soft Authoritarian" Regime and Russian Freedom

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the founders of Russia's Pussy Riot rock band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, was interviewed at length on the BBC this past weekend. She has no time for President Vladimir Putin. When the group played inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour she was sent to jail for two years for "religious hatred". She doesn’t seem bitter but she seems damning. She thinks that last week’s referendum on a new constitution was only held to cement Putin in power for another couple of decades. She barely discussed the other articles of the constitution.