Michael Averko
Michael Averko is a New York based independent foreign policy analyst and media critic.
In addition to the American Chronicle, his commentary has appeared in the Action Ukraine Report, Byzantine Blog, Counterpunch, Eurasian Home, Global Research, Intelligent.ru, Johnson's Russia List, Russia Blog, Serbianna, Siberian Light, The New York Times and The Tiraspol Times.
AltaVista News, Antiwar.com, Brama, EIN News, Google News, InoSMI.Ru, Journal of Turkish Weekly, Kyiv Post, News Now, OpEdNews.com, The Russia Journal and Topix are among several online news/political commentary venues that have carried some of Averko's articles which originally appeared elsewhere.
He has appeared as a panelist on several radio shows, including the BBC World Service's Have Your Say and the The Jay Diamond Show, when the latter aired in New York.
As a panelist at the 2009 World Russia Forum, Averko shared his thoughts and answered questions regarding Russia-West relations, vis-a-vis the disputed former Communist bloc territories.
Averko can be reached at: mikeaverko@msn.com
In addition to the American Chronicle, his commentary has appeared in the Action Ukraine Report, Byzantine Blog, Counterpunch, Eurasian Home, Global Research, Intelligent.ru, Johnson's Russia List, Russia Blog, Serbianna, Siberian Light, The New York Times and The Tiraspol Times.
AltaVista News, Antiwar.com, Brama, EIN News, Google News, InoSMI.Ru, Journal of Turkish Weekly, Kyiv Post, News Now, OpEdNews.com, The Russia Journal and Topix are among several online news/political commentary venues that have carried some of Averko's articles which originally appeared elsewhere.
He has appeared as a panelist on several radio shows, including the BBC World Service's Have Your Say and the The Jay Diamond Show, when the latter aired in New York.
As a panelist at the 2009 World Russia Forum, Averko shared his thoughts and answered questions regarding Russia-West relations, vis-a-vis the disputed former Communist bloc territories.
Averko can be reached at: mikeaverko@msn.com
Contact Information
Articles by Michael Averko
October 29, 2009
Note: with hyperlinks, the below article initially appeared yesterday (October 28) at Russia Blog (http://www.russiablog.org). MMA
Several recent occurrences, in conjunction with each other, have been contributing factors to the increased commentary about the history between Russia and Poland. Th...
July 16, 2009
Note: with hyperlinks, this article first appeared yesterday (July 15) in Russia Blog (http://www.russiablog.org). MMA
Whether rightly or wrongly, some opinions receive more sympathy than others. As is true with other matters, this observation pertains to the English language mass media coverage...
May 19, 2009
Last month's parliamentary election and political demonstration in Moldova led to greater attention focused on that country. A few relatively high placed articles on the subject have been followed up on.
Appearing shortly before the vote and protest, Vlad Spanu's March 20 Radio Free Europe/Radi...
March 31, 2009
Note: This commentary is an updated version of the article that was originally submitted and posted at Global Research (http://www.globalresearch.ca) on March 31 under the title "At the Crossroads of Strategic Pipeline Corridors: Settling the Dispute Over Nagorno Karabakh." Eurasian Home (http://www...
February 15, 2009
My last American Chronicle article ("Update on the Former Moldavian SSR Dispute," Dec. 31) on the meeting between the leaders of Moldova and Pridnestrovie (also referred to as Transnistria, Transdniestria, Transdnestr and Trans-Dniester) relates to the issue of how to successfully resolve the disput...
December 31, 2008
Updated Jan. 4
The on again/off again former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) settlement talks were restarted with last week's (Dec. 24) meeting in Tiraspol between the leaders of Moldova and Pridnestrovie (also referred to as Transnistria, Transdniestria, Transdnestr and Trans-Dniester)...
November 10, 2008
This past Friday's (November 7) MSNBC show Morning Joe and the PBS aired Worldfocus (written in accordance with that show's preference) reminded me of how CSPAN chose to categorize the Russian government funded 24/7 English language television news station Russia Today (RT). Chalk up three more exam...
October 20, 2008
Earlier Today, this commentary was originally posted/published at Eurasian Home (http://www.eurasianhome.org).
The recently scheduled former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) talks broke down because of a lack of diplomatic creativity.
Russia arguably could and should have refrained f...
October 15, 2008
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is not quite the puppet as some suggest. Choosing an across the board principle on disputed former Communist bloc territories (whether one agrees with it or not), he has not joined the American led effort to recognize Kosovo's independence. A move that takes in...
September 03, 2008
The saying of "different strokes for different folks" comes to mind when observing the diplomatic stances taken to the recognition of disputed territories as nations.
On the matter of recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Serbia's non-recognition is in support of its claim ...
August 21, 2008
A series of destabilizing responses were likely if Russia did not counterattack against the August 7 Georgian government strike into South Ossetia. Russia would have probably faced a significantly greater refugee crisis from what occurred. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili might have had greate...
August 17, 2008
The different views concerning the August 7 Georgian government attack on South Ossetia offer a great study of point-counterpoint claims by opposing sides.
The opinion that Russia created the disputes on former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) territory (Georgia proper, South Ossetia and...
August 11, 2008
With the recent flare up over South Ossetia in mind, a few other global conflicts relate and contrast to Russia's stance on disputed territories and its military operation against Georgia.
Turkey is the only country recognizing the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC) as an independent s...
July 21, 2008
Richard Lourie's July 7 Moscow Times article "It'll Take More Than PR to Improve Russia's Image" focuses attention on how Russia at large can better improve upon the coverage of itself. His presentation does not include taking issue with the media coverage of Russia.
Lourie recommends the relea...
June 22, 2008
Yesterday, an example of Russia's global resurgence was exhibited in a thrilling quarter-final match between a young Russian team and a higlhy thought of at the European 2008 men's soccer tournament ("Euro '08").
Playing inspired soccer from the start, Russia had several scoring opportunities. A...
June 20, 2008
Note: This piece originally appeared earlier today at Russia Blog (http://www.russiablog.org). The Russia Blog version includes photos and hyperlinks. MMA
Throughout history, Russia has shown a willingness to utilize non-Russian know-how for greater advancement. As a case in point, Peter the Grea...
June 12, 2008
Joseph Serio's recently released book "Investigating the Russian Mafia" (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2008) is a detailed accounting of his study and personal experience on "Russian Mafia" related issues. He notes that the term "Russian Mafia" comprises elements of several ethnic...
May 05, 2008
The recently announced (at the end of last year) formation of the "Institute of Democracy and Cooperation" (IDC) has been getting feedback from Kremlin critical and less critical advocates. To date, the number of well funded organizations dealing with former Communist bloc matters has a tilt favorin...
April 18, 2008
An armed flare up in Chechnya this week involved two groups described as "rival pro-Russian forces" by Reuters. A characterization stated by some other news services. This latest skirmish is evidence that the stabilized situation in that republic (when compared to the last decade) is not without pro...
April 16, 2008
Sensationalism, realism or both have been used to describe the "new Cold War" term, regarding the current and possible future relationship between Russia and the West. Proponents of its usage acknowledge that the post-Soviet differences are not at the level of the Soviet era East-West rivalry and ha...
April 09, 2008
Since the Soviet breakup, Ukraine has been geo-politically spun in two ways. When Ukraine's less Russia friendly side appears to have enhanced its stature, there is an increased yearning to drive Ukraine away from Russia as much as possible. When Ukraine's more Russia friendly grouping seems strengt...
March 13, 2008
My March 4 and 11 Counterpunch (http://www.counterpunch.org) articles received a considerable amount of global feedback. Much of it was positive. The few nay sayers were unconvincing in their claims. They include the kind of insults that have found their way at a purportedly academic oriented venue(...
February 23, 2008
The not so moderate (on former Yugoslav matters involving Serbs) Daniel Serwer will moderate an upcoming Dmitri Simes-Frank Wisner panel discussion on Kosovo in Washington D.C. (details below) This advertised event comes after the policy of some nations to recognize an independent Kosovo. Since that...
February 13, 2008
Numerous reasons are presented to support Kosovo's independence. Upon presentation, there is often little challenge to those points. Much of the pro-Kosovo independence advocacy involves fuzzy history and double standards. What follows is a compilation of thoughts I have expressed elsewhere and addi...