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Not USSR collapse but Bolshevik coup ‘20th century’s greatest geopolitical disaster’Vladimir Putin has long insisted that the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, but Russian historian Mark Solonin disputes that...
Photo project spotlights Crimean Tatar kids born after their fathers’ unlawful arrests by Russian occupation authorities191 children of Crimean Tatars, the indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula, are growing up without their fathers. After Russia occupied it in 2014, it has cracked down on...
New Lviv Museum showcases clandestine avant-garde art outlawed during Soviet eraHow are we to understand the term “Ukrainian modernism”? The recently-opened Museum of Modernism in Lviv sheds a new light on the avant-garde underground that shunned the official...""
The wild decade: how the 1990s laid the foundations for Vladimir Putin’s RussiaBy securing victory in a national vote on constitutional changes [in summer 2020], Vladimir Putin could then remain president of Russia until 2036 if he chooses to stand again. After...
Kremlin security boss dates back roots of “West’s Russophobia” to times of czar Ivan the TerribleOne recurrent trope, documented several hundred times in the EUvsDisinfo database on disinformation is “Russophobia”. The word implies that any criticism of actions, performed by Russian state actors essentially is...
Is Ukraine getting closer to NATO membership?It’s been 13 years since NATO declined to grant Ukraine a Membership Action Plan, considered to be the next step on the way to joining the alliance. Since then, much...
Moscow to drill for fresh water under Azov Sea, not to help Crimea but to back its claimsMoscow has announced it will begin drilling for fresh water under the Sea of Azov this summer to address growing water shortages in occupied Crimea, a project President Vladimir Putin...
New reservists law in Ukraine: A forced step forwardOn March 30, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) adopted a new law on reservists, #1357-IX, which modifies existing legislation (Rada.gov.ua, March 30). The bill was initiated by Ukraine’s President...
Blinken’s debut in Ukraine: A case for managing expectations (Part 2)To read Part 1, please click herePresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his closest entourage sometimes raise public expectations of what the United States can deliver to Ukraine to unrealistically high...
The thorny road to the Kremlin’s desired Yalta-2021Russian top officials—in particular, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (RIA Novosti, April 27) and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (Kommersant, April 8)—have for weeks been talking about the deepening crisis in...
WWII “victory” was Soviet occupation of western Ukraine and half of EuropeIf, for Western Europe, the end of the war meant the victory of democracy, for Ukraine, it meant the enforcement of Stalinism. In the words of Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, Ukraine was “in the heart of darkness” during the Second World War, with Ukrainians mostly fighting for the interests of other states and, along with Poland, suffering the heaviest human losses of the war. Unpunished communist crimes grow, making it appropriate for Russia to start new war in 2014.
Blinken’s debut in Ukraine: A case for managing expectations (Part 1)Antony Blinken is visiting Kyiv today (May 6) on his first bilateral visit as US Secretary of State to a European country (Ukraiynska Pravda, May 6). This choice should have...
“A blatant North Korea in the center of Europe.” Belarusian refugees explain why it’s so difficult to beat the dictatorshipLukashenka’s crackdown on the protests that erupted after he stole the election in August 2020 was relentless: now, they are all but extinguished. Activists, journalists, and ordinary protesters are being...
How an American expat pulled the Ukrainian art of Kobzaring back from the brink of extinctionBury me, bury me Where I can see the wide steppe And hear the roar of the Dnieper Meandering through Ukraine To the blue sea... “Will and Testament”...
Amazing living skyscraper designed by Ukrainian architects wins international competitionGuess Line Architects, an innovative architectural...Growing & cultivating your own home: a revolutionary idea for the future designed by a young Ukrainian company - Guess Line Architects!"" -
Forgotten political prisoners of the Kremlin have hopes for Blinken’s visit to UkraineThe Kremlin’s Ukrainian political prisoners in Crimea are left to the mercy of fate. The issues of the occupied peninsula appear to have fallen by the wayside both in Ukraine... -
10 things the KGB didn’t want you to know about ChernobylUkrainian historian Eduard Andryushchenko can't get his hands off the declassified KGB archives that Ukraine opened up as part of its decommunization initiatives. In his show KGB files, he describes... -
Moscow speaking: the endless list of the Kremlin’s enemiesEvery day, the Russian state-controlled TV channels along with a plethora of online sources paint a picture of the world outside Russia: a world filled with Russophobic ideas, tainted with... -
Why post-Soviet cities look so terrible, and how this can be fixedSoviet central planning was meant to create a "worker's paradise," yet today post-Soviet cities have turned into a gloomy urban desert. Why do they look so terrible -- and what... -
Six amazing projects bringing life to Soviet ruins in Ukrainian citiesPoor Soviet city planning made Ukrainian cities of the 1990s look gloomy and ruined. Large belts of factories around city centers became abandoned while huge modernist housing on the outskirts...
