Category: Moldova

From Moldova to Crimea Lies an Uncertain Future for Russia

January 22, 2026

A changing situation exists along coastal Ukraine, Moldova, its neighbor to the west, and Crimea in the east. It threatens the unwitting Russian intruder more than the nations it has menaced.

Russia escalated its aerial assault upon Ukraine’s major coastal city and seaport, Odesa, beginning in December, 2025 and continuing into 2026. The city has considerable strategic value as Ukraine’s major throughway for foreign trade accounting for 65% of its imports and exports. Its rail connections, in turn, extend nationally to provide for both the efficient concentration of goods for export and quick distribution of imported needs. In its usual fashion, Russia has destroyed residential buildings, hospitals, electrical and heating substations, water supplies and bridges, resulting in more than 60 casualties thus far along with protracted power outages and exposure to the current winter’s extreme cold. … More From Moldova to Crimea Lies an Uncertain Future for Russia

The Shrinking State of Putin’s World

December 14, 2024

The foregoing sentiment, ostensibly of biblical origin, fits well with recent events in Syria and the toppling of its tyrannical and generational Assad regime. The collapse occurred over what seemed only a matter of days for a regime dating back to 1971 when Hafez al-Assad gained the presidency of Syria in a coup, passing it on to his son Bashar in 2000. The latter continued Syria’s decades-long ties with Iran and its regional militant proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and went on to institute a reign of terror of outright killings and incarcerations, bringing on the condemnation of the West. It would all come to an end in a catastrophic dismantling of the regime and the abandonment of its leader. Thus far, it highlights Vladimir Putin’s questionable place in global opinion. … More The Shrinking State of Putin’s World

Pro-Russian Gaslighting in North America – the “Tankies”

October 2, 2023

“Tankie” definition: an individual on the far left or far right of the political spectrum who aligns with corrupt foreign authoritarian regimes to promote their foreign policy agenda, thinking them to be superior to that of their own nation. (Russian translation: “useful idiot”)

“Thinking of things is difficult; therefore, let the herd pronounce judgment.” – Carl G Jung   
With that sarcasm, so goes the global campaign of Russian disinformation in its various forms spread by well-funded media trolls, ill-informed journalists, political hacks and academics whose bias exceeds the guardrails of scholarship: Enter the tankies. The rhetoric is commonplace and repetitive giving one the feeling that, despite its absurdity, the more often it’s said, the more likely it will be taken as “truth.” To be clear, the United States (U.S.) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) did not instigate the war in Ukraine as some scholars are desperate to claim and others are keen to regurgitate. … More Pro-Russian Gaslighting in North America – the “Tankies”

Moldova and the Putin Playbook

March 11, 2023

Moldova, a nation of 2.62 million people, shares a 759-mile border with Ukraine to the latter’s southwest. It emerged from a troubled history in the 20th century having gained its independence in 1991 from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), only to be threatened again by Russian authoritarianism and imperialist aspirations as it enters the 21st. The country possesses a pro-Russian separatist territory to its east, a situation not unlike its neighbor, Ukraine, that is now in open conflict with Russia and also not unlike that in the Republic of Georgia, invaded by Russia in 2008 for similar reasons. The pattern is quite familiar and it underlines Russia’s intent to retake territory that history has somehow proclaimed belongs to it. … More Moldova and the Putin Playbook