Thousands of Ukrainians tired of corruption, insecurity and lack of opportunities took to the streets during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. That same year, Putin invaded the east and annexed the Crimean peninsula. Activists and reformists today try to keep the spirit of the Maidan, but face an ultraconservative political class and the threat of open warfare with Russia.
In the latest of his Battle Dispatches from the electoral front, George Blecher visits the heartlands of the Trump vote in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in an at times oddly moving piece, begins to get to the heart of The Donald’s appeal.
A ‘pragmatic’ tendency towards human rights among intergovernmental organisations leads to new and harsher repressions by dictatorial regimes, writes Belarusian activist and former political prisoner Andrei Sannikov. The fate of political prisoners depends directly on international attention, solidarity and action.
A supposed dichotomy between Islam and Europe means that, despite the historical presence of Muslims in Europe, representations of European cultural heritage largely exclude Islam. Multiculturalist avowals notwithstanding, European museums reproduce the orientalist premises of the nineteenth century, argues curator Klas Grinell.
Environmental protests in Russia combine rule of law arguments with cultural and moral dimensions. Jane Costlow traces the hidden history of environmentalism in Russia and looks at one contemporary example: the Dubki park protests in Moscow.
Ten years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, investigative journalism in Russia continues to be made impossible by the state. Having taken control of traditional media, the authorities are targeting the enclaves of free speech that have developed online, writes Andrey Arkhangelsky.
Deprived of its normative core and disappointed in its hopes for universal justice, contemporary liberalism is mute in the face of current conflicts and crises. Regina Kreide seeks reasons for liberal theory’s loss of relevance in today’s violent, chaotic and radically unequal world.
The success of Germany’s anti-immigrant party signals a mood-swing in public debate on the refugee crisis. The solidarity expressed by Angela Merkel’s ‘We can manage’ has given way to something much less generous, writes Daniel Leisegang.
In his latest dispatch from the frontline of the US election campaign, George Blecher watches as the candidates unearth the dirt in each other’s pasts. Policy he asks, what’s that? Forget it.
This is an attempt to give a portrait of Ukrainian youth, with all the limitations implied when one sets out to analyse something that is living, heterogeneous and in a state of continuous transformation. More than two years after the revolution of the Euromaidan, what are the main goals of the new generations? And what are their aspirations?
Fidesz’s constitutional counter-revolution has reversed the process of democratization begun in Hungary in 1989. Seeking reasons for Hungary’s ‘backsliding’, Gábor Halmai argues that democratic culture is more crucial than formal legality to guaranteeing rule of law. Hungary challenges the EU’s ability to prevent illiberal democracies emerging in its midst.
From a distance it isn’t visible, but talking with local residents, you can feel it: something is changing. Ukrainian novelist and poet Serhii Zhadan reports from Starobelsk, a town in the Luhansk region near the ceasefire line, held by the Ukrainian government.
Duck and dodge, wheel and deal, lies, lies and precious few facts or statistics. In the second of his Battle Dispatches covering the US elections, George Blecher explains how lying – or what he calls ‘evasive rhetoric’ – has become the campaign’s central issue on both sides.