Author: Richard Arnold/Eurasia Daily Monitor

On November 25, a “Big Circle” (Bol’shoi Krug) meeting of “over 200 delegates from 83 regions of Russia and 43 countries of the world” took place in Moscow to discuss Cossack issues and confirm the election of Chief Ataman Nikolai Dyakanov as leader of the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad (SKVRiZ). SKVRiZ...

Morale is a critical resource during wartime, and the role of Russia’s state-organized Cossack movement in shoring up the home front has been significant (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, May 10, 2022). In truth, making President Vladimir Putin’s case for his war to the Russian people may ultimately prove more consequential than the combat functions of...

Western analysts have recently devoted much attention to the religious dimension of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the true measure of influence that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church wields over President Vladimir Putin (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 25). Moscow’s proposed unilateral ceasefire on January 6, the traditional date of Christmas in the...

The Russian far right is heavily divided on both the pretext and the present course of the Kremlin’s large-scale war against Ukraine, yet this split is weighted in favor of the pro-imperial position. The systemic “nationalist” opposition – primarily represented by the Rodina (Motherland) Party and the critically misnamed Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)...

As the Kremlin’s unprovoked large-scale war against Ukraine continues, the Russian Armed Forces are reportedly experiencing chronic supply and troop shortages. And now, evidence is growing that the military has been turning to Russia’s registered Cossack movement to provide more men for the fight as a well as a morale boost for the population. Coffins...

Amidst the Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine and speculation about whether the Kremlin will, indeed, again invade (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 18, 20, 27), the analytical discussion has focused less on what pretext(s) for war Moscow might put forward to “legitimate” any such invasion. However, one such candidate has recently come...