November 25:
In another sign of flagging morale within the Russian military, soldiers are now reportedly injuring themselves to avoid being sent to the Ukrainian front. In his Window on Eurasia blog, Russia expert Paul Goble cites human rights activist Elena Vasilyevna - who spent two months in Ukraine researching Russian casualties - as saying that some Russian draftees as causing self-inflicted wounds in order to avoid deployment to southeastern Ukraine. The phenomenon, Goble notes, is "an indication of their fears about what might happen to them there and of growing opposition to the Kremlin's aggression."
November 26:
A new investigative report has shed light on at least one dimension of how Russia's government wields asymmetric political influence abroad. The investigation by the Reuters news agency focuses on Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who has emerged as a key ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin over the past decade. Firtash, the report outlines, rose to prominence thanks to sweetheart energy deals brokered by associates of president Putin via Gazprom, Russia's state natural gas company. In turn, the Ukrainian helped pro-Kremlin strongman Viktor Yanukovych capture the presidency in Kyiv, cementing Russian interests there.
Firtash's story is instructive, the news agency notes. It "demonstrates how Putin uses Russian state assets to create streams of cash for political allies, and how he exported this model to Ukraine in an attempt to dominate his neighbour, which he sees as vital to Russia's strategic interests."
November 27:
Is Europe beginning to look for an exit from the Ukraine crisis? Kyiv's Mirror Weekly reports a top EU official as suggesting that the federalization of Ukraine is a possible solution to the current conflict. "We need to find a way for Ukraine to become [a] decentralized (or federalized) and inclusive country" in order to create a more durable ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy has suggested.
[EDITORS' NOTE: Rompuy's suggestion is bound to be music to Moscow's ears. Russian officials, including president Putin himself, have long advocated a "federated" solution for Ukraine, one under which the country’s various regions - including Luhansk and Donetsk - acquire greater autonomy and political independence, akin to the status currently held by the Republic of Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.]
Russian president Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is defending his policy in Ukraine. The Washington Post reportsthat, in a lengthy interview with the state-run Itar-TASS news agency, Putin termed the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula to be a "strategic decision," rather than an "arbitrary" one. Putin's comments amounted to a rejection of growing criticism of Russian policy in Ukraine from both domestic and international observers, who allege that the Kremlin's conduct was impulsive and created unforeseen repercussions for the Russian state - chief among them the raft of sanctions that have been levied to date by the United States and Europe.
November 28:
Discontent among ordinary Russians, is rising, The Moscow Times reports. Citing a new poll by the Levada Center, the paper notes that Russians are reporting "price inflation, falling quality of life and problems in the wider economy." But, according to the poll, respondents were still divided over the causes of Russia's mounting economic malaise - alternatively citing the falling price of world oil, Western sanctions and Kremlin foreign policy as causal factors.
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