Questions tagged [russian-federation]
For questions about or involving the Russian Federation, successor of the Soviet Union. Located in Eurasia, Russia is the largest country by land mass, and it operates as a semi-presidential republic. For questions about the Soviet Union (USSR), use tag: [soviet-union].
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Would Finland's joining NATO be a violation of the 1947 Treaty of Paris?
Articles like this one by the Atlantic Council suggest that Finland and Sweden are going to join NATO and give up their neutrality. However would Finland's joining NATO not violate the 1947 Treaty of ...
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What is the point of Emmanuel Macron speaking so often with Vladimir Putin?
This article mentions the frequent discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin:
French President Emmanuel Macron continues to keep his hotline open
with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ...
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Can taxes diminish Europe's dependency on Russian oil?
Can (higher) excise taxes, as well as taxes on cars with poor fuel economy, diminish the dependency of Russian oil? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
PS: some believe that natural gas is ...
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What are the risks associated with Russia collapsing? [closed]
European Pravda presents the Russian Federation's collapse as inevitable in the next few years, the invasion of Ukraine acting as a catalyst for it:
In his 2016 essay Will the Russian Federation Make ...
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What are the flags being flown by this column of Russian tanks?
I just saw this video of Russian tanks on a video on Twitter.
I can see four different flags flown by the soldiers but I can't make out what they are apart from the last one which just looks like the ...
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How much natural gas does France import from Russia?
According to the BBC
France, like many other European countries, imports much of its natural gas through pipelines from Russia, using it for residential and commercial energy.
Of course, "much&...
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Why is it considered acceptable to freeze Russia's foreign reserves, but not acceptable for Russia to default on their debts?
Currently the following things are true:
Western countries have frozen most of Russia's foreign currency reserves
Russia is either in default or would be soon
However #1 is seen as fair and ...
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Has Russia actually defaulted on its foreign debt as of April 11, 2022?
An article from CNN starts out by stating that Russia "has defaulted on its foreign debt", but then appears to qualify the statement by observing that "Moscow has a grace period of 30 ...
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What is the reason for blocking Russian duma Youtube channel?
According to BBC News the Russian duma's YouTube channel was blocked. What is the reason for that given that this would potentially mean that YouTube will be banned in Russia and the alternative ...
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Are the EU authorities asking the Ukrainians to sell out the occupied regions?
The EU president has officially started the process to admit Ukraine into the EU. At the same time the NATO membership discussions are going on. Trouble is that to enter such groups Ukraine must solve ...
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What did Zelensky mean when he says Ukraine should have security guarantee?
It can be heard that Zelensky demands a security guarantee from a 3rd country (like Germany, Turkey, France, Poland). So what does it mean. Suppose Poland agrees. Then does it mean that the next time ...
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Was the West supporting certain sides in the two Chechen wars?
There were two wars in Chechnya after the end of the Cold War, in 1994-96 and in 1999-2009. Was there any evidence, or even claims, of Western support to certain Chechen fighters via the provision ...
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Fact-check: Has the US increased imports of Russian oil?
There have been reports that the US has increased imports of Russian oil over the past week:
US ramps up oil imports from Russia, pursues own interests at expense of European allies amid Ukraine ...
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How can the satellite photos of Bucha show dead bodies weeks ago? Wouldn't the bodies decompose? [closed]
(Not sure if this should be on the biology SE; also not sure what to tag this with so feel free to edit)
There are several sources claiming that bodies can be seen in Bucha before the Russian retreat, ...
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Why did the Russian Federation never stress economic growth as China did?
China stressed economic development and GDP growth in the 1970s when Deng Xiao Ping proposed the economic reform in 1978. China never stopped after that.
Regarding the USSR, Gorbachev tried to bring ...
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How does US Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton (ret) get to a "Look, you're attacking NATO... and we're going to consider our options to attack" scenario? [closed]
In CNN's April 5 2022 'The Russians are gone': What this image says about Russia's strategy after about 03;26 US Army Maj. Gen. (ret) Paul Eaton says (my best-effort transcription, there are no closed-...
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What are the legal implications of all vk.com servers being in Russia? [closed]
vk.com is the most used social media site in Russia. According to its Wikipedia page it is majority-owned by Sogaz, a Russian energy company.
When I tried to connect to it from the US, it connected ...
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What mechanisms are available to "bear witness" in an explicitly non-partisan fashion, on the Bucha massacre?
As we are learning about the massacres in Bucha, it is becoming apparent there are two camps in receiving this news on the world stage:
It's real, it happened. This is certainly Ukraine and the West'...
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Are there any strategic reasons that Russian authorities would allow indiscriminate killing of Ukrainian civilians?
First of all, I believe that killing unarmed civilians is evil. But I know that this is not a problem for many leaders, including Putin, so I'm taking morality out of the equation in my question.
I ...
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When was the last time that the Russian Navy was attacked? [closed]
An answer to a different question got me thinking. The answer made an assertion about waters which are "hostile" to Russia. But are there such waters?
Obviously, there could have been some ...
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What's lacking about the Kerch Strait land bridge, between Crimea and Russia?
In this video, retired US Army General and former CIA Director David Petraeus tells CNN's Jake Tapper how the Ukrainian people have aided their army in killing multiple Russian generals. CNN has not ...
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How politically aligned with Moscow has the Russian Orthodox Church's position on the Russo-Ukrainian War been since it started in 2014?
The Hill's Pope blasts Russia’s ‘infantile’ war says:
Francis has to date avoided referring to Russia or Putin by name. But Saturday’s personalization of the powerful figure responsible marked a new ...
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How much "Russian money" have Russian oligarchs injected into the UK's economy and contributed to UK politicians?
The following compares statements by two very disparate British commentators, Christopher Steele and the fictional reporter Johnathan Pie.
Steele
The notes below Sky News' April 1, 2022 Beth Rigby ...
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Why is Ukraine struggling so much to beat Russia?
According to wikipedia, Russians are fighting in Ukraine with roughly 200.000 soldiers, while Ukraine have 209.000 armed forced + 100.000 paramilitary + 900.000 reserves = 1.200.000 soldiers.
On top ...
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Does Putin want to restore the USSR?
Joe Biden's speech in Poland has attracted much attention due to some of his off-cuff remarks (see, e.g., the discussion here). I found another curious passage:
A dictator bent on rebuilding an ...
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How are personal sanctions against Russian officials supposed to work?
I understand that most sanctions against Russia are expected to cripple its economy. The war in Ukraine would then become prohibitively expensive, and Russia would have to withdraw. I also see how ...
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How successful was Russia in fighting off the "private embargo" imposed by Maersk, MSC, and CMA CGM?
A month ago news was that 3 large global [naval] shipping companies were suspending routes to Russia for all but essentials.
While Russia has been fighting back some of the sanctions with fairly ...
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How can Ukraine's invasion end for the Russian media and how do they justify the possible scenarios? [closed]
After writing my first question I realized that I can ask another question so to have a good summary of the Russian positions in the media on the ways the invasion of Ukraine can end.
How does Russian ...
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Where can I find videos of russian tv shows covering the russian invasion of Ukraine?
I was watching a tv show in my country on the matter and they showed some footages of the russian tv shows, if I remember well one of them was called "60 minutes". The focus was on the ...
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Minimizing civilian casualties during the siege of Mariupol?
What are the best practices of minimizing civilian casualties in cities under siege, as applied to the siege of Mariupol?
I am looking for best practices from the perspective of world civilians, ...
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Why is the war in Ukraine considered a Russian fiasco?
The narrative in the western world is that the war in Ukraine has been a fiasco for Russia; that they aren't doing as well as they should be, that their weaknesses have been exposed, that their ...
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Why does the West not run air incursions into/around Russian airspace?
It is frequently reported the Russian planes incur upon western airspace, and this presents challenges and demands on western air forces. Yesterday we had a report of Russian bombers “armed with ...
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Is there any truth to Russia's claim at the United Nations that there have been food embargos against the Donbass by Ukraine?
For eight years, the people of the Donbas region have been subject to economic, transport and food embargos, the elderly and children were forced to hide from shelling and tens of thousands of ...
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What has been stated by Putin justifications for invasion? [duplicate]
What has Putin or his underlings stated as justifications for invasion?
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Is armament considered an aggression in international law? [closed]
I have read many articles claiming the armament of Ukraine or other post-Soviet states to consist an act of aggression vs. Russia.
However the UN charta gives the following definition of aggression:
&...
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How could the past NATO expansions in Eastern Europe be seen as justification of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022?
Rumors are that in Italy parts of the public opinion are accepting the view that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was justified by a previous NATO expansion.
What are the (given) arguments (...
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Could NATO accept a new member who is at war?
Could NATO Accept a new member who is at war?
There are many reasons why NATO would not want to accept Ukraine as a new member state right now. The most prominent reason being the perception that this ...
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Has Ukraine explained how their proposed resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war would work if their referendum fails? [closed]
Ukraine has indicated that any compromise in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, such as declaring neutrality, must be put to a referendum after Russian troops withdraw.
[Ukrainian president] Zelenskyy ...
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Does banning oil import from Russia damage its economy in the short term?
Tucker in this video said that sanctions against Russia aren't hurting Putin and its side-effects are just hurting US people by raising gas price.
Do US sanctions against Russia really not have any ...
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Why were Biden's remarks about Russian economy in his speech in Poland so inaccurate?
In March 26 speech in Warsaw Biden claimed that "it takes about 200 rubles to equal one dollar". In reality, the onshore USD/RUB closed at 96.0, whereas offshore USD/RUB closed at 102.29.
...
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Is there any evidence or report of a genocide in the Donbass region?
In his address before the "special military operation" in Ukraine began, Vladimir Putin stated that
In this context, in accordance with Article 51 (Chapter VII) of the UN Charter, with ...
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When was the first time that high-level Russian officials confirmed their troops had advanced to the outskirts of Kyiv?
Nowadays it's made apparent in official press conferences that Russian troops had advanced on Kyiv, e.g. like in this one from the Russian MoD from March 25:
Putin also explained in his speech on ...
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Sanctions against Russia and Internet subscriptions [closed]
Sanctions against Russia become heavier by the day, and an answer to that question might not fit the situation in a few weeks. Please consider the situation as of today.
Say a website located in the ...
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What exactly are the stated (political AND military) objectives of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Edit:: The answers thus far show the political objectives, which are of course part of what I was asking, but what exactly are the military objectives of the invasion: like bomb certain buildings or ...
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Are there any regions in the Russian Federation with active independence movements?
I'm curious if there are any active separatist movements in the Russian Federation. By "active", I mean politically organized, funded and regionally supported to the extent that they could ...
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Size of Russian forces including the National Guard deployed (and lost) in Ukraine
Journalists and think tanks are tracking the war in Ukraine with varying degrees of expertise. In addition to open-source intelligence (watching the press and social media and trying to validate items)...
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What is the rationale of Russian troops not allowing civilians to evacuate from the encircled cities?
According to Aljazeera, civilians have a hard time evacuating from Mariupol which was surrounded by the Russian troops:
Previous attempts to establish evacuation corridors to allow civilians
to ...
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What does Putin/Russia gain from only accepting payment for gas in Rubles?
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin announced that "unfriendly" countries would need to pay for Russian gas in Rubles in the near future. The news came with speculation that this is a move to prop up ...
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Is there any proof that Ukraine was planning military deployment into the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass prior to 24 February 2022?
In an interview with CNN's Christine Amanpour (transcript), the Russian president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has claimed that there have been "strong indications" that Ukraine had been ...
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Is there any proof of foreign interference in Ukraine's 2004 or 2010 presidential elections?
There has been polarization between moving towards Russia or the West in Ukrainian politics. There have also been allegations of election interference from both sides along these lines.
During the ...
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