Anton Shekhovtsov tells about Russian imperialist mythology and how the insane propaganda of Ukraine’s denazification came about; the new status of Belarus as a mere vassal state; desertion as a political option; and how western elites have abandoned their alliances with Vladimir Putin – with a few notable exceptions.
Clinging to his nukes, Putin will only lose power if his own turn on him. It’s hard to predict when, if ever, the leaders he has humiliated and threatened into submission will do the basic calculus and find that obeying the tyrant will inevitably cost way more than defiance.
A diary from the front, a Syrian scenario for Putin, and opportunities to help: here’s a review of what editors and authors of the Eurozine network have to say about Ukraine.
Putin’s war is being fought in the interests of a political elite, not the Russian nation. But the information bubble is preventing the Russian public from speaking out. That is where those outside Russia come in. An appeal from Russian civil society.
A large part of the western Left, focused on NATO and the USA, failed to see Russian aggression. Of course, the war on terror needs to be brought into the discussion – but critique of liberal internationalism cannot add up to support for the ‘spheres of interest’ doctrine.
When war becomes a reality, time is of the essence. Slow political responses raise questions about underlying reasons for reluctance. And as Russia wages war on Ukraine, how the situation is described at distance also matters. How can Putin’s position be pulled back from the black hole of media and political acquiescence?
Putin’s autocracy has a reason to be afraid of its smaller neighbour: a working democracy always threatens a tyrant. Supporting Ukrainians’ fight for self-determination is not only a moral obligation, but an existential question for the democratic world.
Driven by imperial fantasies, historical nostalgia and resentment towards the West, Putin has plunged both Ukraine and his own country into the nightmare of fratricidal war.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows just how misguided German Ostpolitik has been over the last two decades. Even after 2014, when it was clear that economic rapprochement had brought no normative changes to Russian policy, Germany went ahead with Nord Stream 2.
It was only after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 that NATO broke off cooperation with Russia. Until then, Ukrainians themselves were largely against NATO membership. To frame NATO as a security threat to Russia caters to Kremlin propaganda.
The Czech Republic’s Roma community continues to face inequality, racism and ostracization. Memorializing World War II concentration camps is essential recognition of genocide. But what of those murdered in a series of 1990s racist attacks?
A century after Sweden introduced suffrage for women, the country that invented ‘feminist foreign policy’ finally got its first female prime minister. Why the delay? Despite equality in parliament, old power structures still prevent women’s political ascent.
Amidst the geopolitics, Ukraine lacks a sense of agency, observe two leading journalists of the Euromaidan generation. But cultivating confidence is difficult when journalism itself seems to have lost its bearings.
Jürgen Habermas recently argued that the pandemic measures of the German government hadn’t gone far enough. To weigh the state’s duty to protect life against other rights and freedoms was unconstitutional, he warned. In the ensuing controversy, critics accused him of authoritarianism. Were they right?
Distrust in authority is the fundamental reason for low vaccination rates across eastern Europe. But we shouldn’t think of anti-science as the expression of mere ignorance, nor primarily as a grass-roots movement.
Ukrainians struggle to make their own voices heard over the geopolitical brinkmanship. Blitzkrieg tropes abound in international media coverage, but the people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake want to decide for themselves.