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OPINION: Russian uprising remains a mystery
Recent events in Russia have been surprising, even shocking. When the private army employed by Russia’s Wagner Group left Ukraine and moved toward Moscow last month, it caught everyone by surprise. We’re used to thinking of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a dictator who has complete control of his country. Maybe he does, but the […]
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Recent events in Russia have been surprising, even shocking. When the private army employed by Russia’s Wagner Group left Ukraine and moved toward Moscow last month, it caught everyone by surprise.
We’re used to thinking of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a dictator who has complete control of his country. Maybe he does, but the Wagner Group mutiny certainly shook that idea. It presented Putin in a very different light than the one most Americans are accustomed to seeing. It suggested he has some real problems, even if it’s hard to know what or how serious they are.
It’s likely to take time for the meaning of the events to shake out. Reports out of Russia have been incomplete and contradictory. Because of Putin’s suppression of free speech and the press, Russia lacks a strong, independent news media that we can rely on for the truth.
The initial reaction in the West was that the uprising weakened Putin. That ought to be good news for the U.S.-backed Ukrainian military, which has begun a counteroffensive in response to Russia’s invasion. But Putin could also use the chaos to further crack down on critics and strengthen his hand.
At the center of the controversy is Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who says he founded the Wagner Group in 2014. A former caterer and restaurant owner, he leveraged a relationship with Putin to build a business network, including a private army with an estimated 25,000 troops.
The use of private forces in warfare isn’t unique to Russia. In 2016, one in four U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan were private contractors, the Navy Times reported. But the Wagner Group has played an unusually prominent role on the battlefield. In Ukraine, it was heavily involved in the capture of the city of Bakhmut. It’s also fought in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali.
Many Wagner fighters are former prisoners who took up arms in exchange for being released. Some have been accused of atrocities, including the killing of civilians, torture, rape and robbery.
Prigozhin clashed publicly with Russian military leaders, accusing them of incompetence. He seemed to hope Putin would remove the top generals, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he lost access to prisons for recruiting and was told to sign a contract with the military.
It’s not clear what became the last straw, but on June 24, Prigozhin’s troops left Ukraine, took over a military headquarters in southern Russia, and started moving toward Moscow. Then, abruptly, they stopped. After a wild weekend of confusing news, Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus, a staunch Russian ally. The Kremlin “went into overdrive” to project stability, the Washington Post reported.
It’s tempting, for us in the West, to see any development that seems to weaken Russian leadership as positive. That’s not necessarily true. From all indications, Prigozhin, if he were to regain influence, is every bit as murderous and unpredictable as Putin.
More seriously, we should be concerned about instability in Russia’s government and military. Russia and the U.S. are the world’s leading nuclear powers by far. Russia possesses 6,000 nuclear warheads, 1,584 of which are deployed, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Some are deployed in Belarus. Anything that makes their control unstable is cause for worry.
Putin has shown himself to be a ruthless leader, devoted to holding onto power at all costs. If he believes his authority is threatened, it’s not clear how he would react.
We Americans rely on our intelligence officials and foreign-policy experts to understand what’s happening in Russia and how it’s likely to play out. But even the best experts cannot predict the future.
Winston Churchill famously described Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” He said those words in 1939. They are every bit as true today.
Lee Hamilton, 92, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.

First Source Federal Credit Union
First Source Federal Credit Union announced four recent staff appointments. TONY FUMAROLA has been promoted to assistant branch manager of the Rome branch. He has been with the credit union a total of 10 years in various roles. Fumarola also spent some time in between these First Source roles, as a commissioner of elections in
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First Source Federal Credit Union announced four recent staff appointments. TONY FUMAROLA has been promoted to assistant branch manager of the Rome branch. He has been with the credit union a total of 10 years in various roles. Fumarola also spent some time in between these First Source roles, as a commissioner of elections in Herkimer County.
JOHN CALABRESE has been promoted to director of lending and technology and has been appointed to the First Source executive management team. Calabrese served on the credit union’s board of directors for eight years while running Express Employment Professionals. That family business transitioned to his son John, Jr., and Calabrese joined the credit-union staff full time at the end of 2022.
CHRISTOPHER DOVI, director of member services, has been appointed to the First Source executive management team. Dovi has been with the credit union for 14 years — starting as a branch manager, moving through various leadership roles in the organization.
EDWARD BARONE has been hired by First Source as a community development manager. He previously worked at Empower Federal Credit Union.

JESSICA DeJOHN BARBUTO was recently promoted to assistant director of inclusive growth at CenterState CEO. She leads the team’s grant management, budget management, and team administration. Barbuto is tasked with the management and refinement of existing systems and processes, and the creation of new ones to maintain oversight and execution of programmatic and administrative tasks.
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JESSICA DeJOHN BARBUTO was recently promoted to assistant director of inclusive growth at CenterState CEO. She leads the team’s grant management, budget management, and team administration. Barbuto is tasked with the management and refinement of existing systems and processes, and the creation of new ones to maintain oversight and execution of programmatic and administrative tasks. Prior to CenterState CEO, she held positions at the Upstate Center For Bioethics and Humanities and in the real estate division at Home Headquarters.
LAUREN CHYLE was elevated to director of inclusive growth at CenterState CEO. She supports the team in planning and developing goals, objectives and metrics, ensuring a culture of collaboration and support, and managing systems and processes that ensure effectiveness and accountability among the team. Chyle has worked in nonprofit administration and development for 15 years. Before coming to CenterState CEO she served as assistant director of the Everson Museum of Art, where she helped manage a $1.2 million auditorium renovation and helped initiate a $17 million comprehensive fundraising campaign.
AIMEE DURFEE was promoted to VP of workforce innovation at CenterState CEO. In this position, she leads the Work Train team, which creates partnerships and workforce strategies designed to attract, train, retain, and advance unemployed and underemployed individuals into careers in high-growth industries. With more than 25 years of experience working on poverty issues, her areas of expertise include workforce development, public benefits, asset building, and community economic development, as well as racial/gender equity and employment discrimination issues. Durfee holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, and a law degree from the UC Berkeley School of Law.
JESSICA UNDERWOOD was elevated by CenterState CEO to director of digital services. She oversees the development and ongoing operations of CenterState CEO’s digital chamber platform Click. Underwood supports internal and external users and works to onboard new groups of members. She previously served as digital platform manager. Underwood has over 15 years of sales and customer service experience from the hospitality and tourism industries. She has a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Jacksonville State University.

Syracuse University Libraries’ Law Library recently hired WILLIAM MATTHEW KRUEGER as a law-reference librarian. Krueger worked as a reference assistant in the Law Library while pursuing his juris doctorate from Syracuse University College of Law. He received his bachelor’s degree from Nazareth College. ANA CALIZ CASANOVA recently joined Syracuse University Libraries as monograph cataloging librarian
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Syracuse University Libraries’ Law Library recently hired WILLIAM MATTHEW KRUEGER as a law-reference librarian. Krueger worked as a reference assistant in the Law Library while pursuing his juris doctorate from Syracuse University College of Law. He received his bachelor’s degree from Nazareth College.
ANA CALIZ CASANOVA recently joined Syracuse University Libraries as monograph cataloging librarian in the Acquisitions and Cataloging Department. In this role, she is responsible for maintaining bibliographic and authority records for single-subject works in the Libraries’ principal (non-special) collections in all formats. Caliz Casanova will work closely with subject librarians to catalog general, as well as unique materials within the Libraries’ collections, including architectural drawings, audios/videos, maps and various gift donations. She will also provide supervision, training, and support library technicians working on monograph cataloging. Prior to joining Syracuse University Libraries, Caliz Casanova was a supervisory cataloger at Cornell University Library and also previously worked at the National Library of Spain in Madrid.

Unity House of Cayuga County, Inc
TAYLOR CASAMASSIMA has joined Unity House of Cayuga County, Inc. — a nonprofit that helps people with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, and substance-use disorders — as director of mental-health rehabilitation services. She first joined the agency in 2014, working her way up from senior residential counselor to quality assurance specialist. Casamassima left in 2019 to
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TAYLOR CASAMASSIMA has joined Unity House of Cayuga County, Inc. — a nonprofit that helps people with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, and substance-use disorders — as director of mental-health rehabilitation services. She first joined the agency in 2014, working her way up from senior residential counselor to quality assurance specialist. Casamassima left in 2019 to gain leadership experience overseeing other residential-program operations. She has now rejoined Unity House as the director of the PROS mental health program. Casamassima holds a master’s degree in business management from Keuka College.
HANNAH YOUNG has joined Unity House as director of clinical services. Dr. Young was promoted to lead the newly created Clinical Department. Young has been with Unity House for almost nine years and is a licensed psychologist. She earned her doctorate in psychology from Alfred University and was previously a professor at the university. Young is also a certified trainer for school-crisis intervention.
AMANDA McMANUS has joined Unity House as director of unity employment services. She joined Unity House in the fall of 2021, as a program manager, and was then promoted to director in the fall of 2022. McManus aims to continue the Unity House legacy of providing person-centered, quality employment services, and looks to create meaningful community connections for its pre-vocational and career-specific vocational training programs. McManus holds a master’s degree in literacy education (grades 5-12) from SUNY Oswego.

Le Moyne men’s basketball to open first season in Division I at Georgetown
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Syracuse University to offer Google’s new cybersecurity certificate
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Tioga County launches online job board
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Kris-Tech Wire breaks ground on expansion project
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Syracuse airport to host Thursday open house on master-plan update
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