Russia’s foreign ministry has just issued a new statement lecturing the U.S.-led coalition “to take additional steps” to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Presumably, in this post-Osama Bin Laden era, Moscow is trying ingratiate itself with Afghan public opinion, and ultimately, the Taliban. If so, then it’s time for some reality checks: Reality Check 1: […]

Oddly, the death tolls in both wars stand at 440. In Afghanistan, 440 American soldiers were killed by hostile action last year. In Russia’s Caucasus, 440 Russian police and soldiers were killed by Islamic insurgents last year. The death of Osama bin Laden has many Americans thinking: let’s declare victory, crank up the brass bands, […]

When I last talked to Andrei Sannikov, on the night of Dec. 19, he was partly leading, partly being swept along, by a river of Belarussians who filled the largest avenue in Minsk, protesting yet another fraudulent presidential election. Dressed in a business suit and tie, speaking English polished during a five year diplomatic stint […]

Calling all political biographers: We have here on the eastern edge of Europe a quirky modern dictator in desperate need of a world-class writer to tell his tale. Alexander Lukashenko, the long running ruler of Belarus, never ceases to surprise. For starters, there is his 6-year-old son, Nikolai. The president dresses him up in various […]

When a massive bomb goes off in a police state, one can only ask: where were the police? Belarus is the Cuba of Central Europe — a police state. Type “List of countries by size of police forces” into Wikipedia and you will find that Belarus is the champion, with 1,442 policemen for every 100,000 […]

I remember standing in a field in southern France one evening in the summer of 1962. My father watched a blinking red light slowly arcing across the night sky. “That,” he said pointing. “That is a sputnik.” It could well have been the night flight from Paris to Algiers. But the uneasiness in his voice […]

Do a Google search on “Kadyrov cars,” or “Kadyrov palace,” or “Kadyrov racehorse.” Russians often wonder what happens to the billions of rubles the Kremlin pours into Chechnya to prop up Ramzan Kadyrov, the chief of the long rebellious republic. Five minutes on Google gives a juicy hint. Russia is riding the rocket of some […]

Soldiers long ago shot the dogs and cats. Today, the only sound on Lenin Avenue is a chill wind blowing dead leaves. In the summer, thick vegetation obscures six-story apartment blocks, once homes for the city’s 50,000 residents. Once a model Soviet community built for Chernobyl’s nuclear power station, Pripyat now looks like a post […]

The Soviet Union vetoed. Russia abstains. Is Russia’s U.N. vote on Libya part of a wider, post-Imperial foreign policy in the Kremlin? That is the question Moscow is debating as Russians watch from the sidelines as needle-nosed Western jets bomb military targets in Libya, once a Soviet ally. Diplomats schooled in Soviet ways would have […]