For the moment, Russia tends to downplay the scope of US Coast Guard operations against its ghost tankers, which are withdrawing from the Caribbean seas to circumvent sanctions, limiting themselves to circumnavigating Eurasian territories. But advocates of war view the abandonment of “friendly countries” with concern, fearing the risk of being left with only North Korea at its side.
The “Donroe doctrine”, as enunciated by Trump, now corresponds perfectly with the principles of Putin's Russkij Mir: both the US and Russia assess the countries within their sphere of influence, be it the American double continent or the former Soviet Eurasian space, as countries to be controlled, conquered, invaded and exploited.
Although Rosstat has decided to keep the data secret until 2025, many independent demographers believe that the decline in the Russian population is accelerating. The only areas bucking the trend are the Muslim-majority regions of the North Caucasus. Where religious practice is already much more intense than among the faithful of the Orthodox Churches.
The founder of the Viasna Human Rights Centre was released a few weeks ago, along with a hundred other Belarusian political prisoners. He spoke with Radio Liberty from exile in Lithuania about his four years in jail for protesting Lukashenko's election fraud. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate noted that a thousand more people are still jailed in a “never-ending vicious circle.”
The famous formula of 19th century tsars, Autocracy-Orthodoxy-Nationality, is being reinterpreted today by Putin's ideologists as the new triad: Sovereignty-Traditionalism-Welfare State. Yet, it is precisely "moral and spiritual values" that are the least clear reference, incapable of going beyond the opposition to the “destructive and degraded” values of the West.
Political scientists, philosophers, analysts and representatives of various associations meet at the annual conference of the Sakharov Centre in Berlin. What emerges is a picture of a society divided between the Z-Patrioty, the ‘turbo-supporters’ of the special operation in Ukraine, and the Uklonisty, the ‘reluctant’ who do not want to openly express their opinions on the war.
