Is a second Crimean war possible?
Andreas Umland wouldn’t put it past the Kremlin to stir up more trouble on the Ukrainian peninsula. While the recent renewal of friendly relations between Moscow and Washington, as well as the current rapprochement between President Dmitry Medvedev and the liberal Russian intelligentsia give reason for hope, the major source for instability in northern Eurasia remains in place. A radically anti-Western and decidedly neo-imperialist faction of Moscows elite has gained a foothold in the Russian governmental apparatus, Putins United Russia Party. It is also prevalent in electronic as well as print media, (un)civil society and academia. An array of more or less influential and, often, relatively young ultra-nationalists ranging from presidential administration officer Ivan Demidov to popular political commentator Mikhail Leontyev, as well as Moscow State University professor Alexander Dugin, have become part of everyday discourse in the post-Soviet world. This factor gains relevance agains
