In Ukraine’s Resistance, Echoes of Past Struggles

The Defiance to Putin’s Invasion Highlights the Nation’s Long, Multigenerational Drive for National Self-Determination

Ukrainians refer to Russian TV and its viewers as “Zombieland,” having long ago developed an immunity to the main talking points of Vladimir Putin’s mindless propaganda war. They know the absurdity of his claims that Kyiv is run by Nazis and drug addicts, that NATO is threatening to destroy Russia, and that Ukraine’s Russian speakers are victims of a genocide.

Putin has supported these talking points by laying out his own version of Ukrainian history. In his telling, Ukraine has only been independent since 1991 and over the last 30 years …

by Myroslav Shkandrij | March 14, 2022

Can Ukraine’s Experiments in Local Democracy Survive the Invasion?

From Balta to Vinnytsia, Communities Have Been Growing in Power—and Democratic Innovation

by Joe Mathews | March 2, 2022

As I write this, Russian troops reportedly are moving north through the Odesa oblast, or region, toward the river Kodyma, along which sits a town called Balta.

This is not new …

When Kazakhstan Turned Off the Internet

Did a Five-Day Crackdown and Flood of Misinformation Send a Message to Activists or Ignite a Movement for Political Reform?

by Colleen Wood and Sher Khashimov | January 20, 2022

This was no ordinary internet blackout. For five days, the ninth largest country in the world was a black box.

On the evening of January 5, 2022, we set our respective …

What’s New About Neo-Nationalism, Anyway?

Autocrats Are Ancient. But Globalization, Migration, and Technology Are Giving Them Fresh Power

by JOHN AUBREY DOUGLASS | December 13, 2021

Led by a new breed of demagogues and autocrats, neo-nationalism describes the emergence, and in some cases revival, of extreme right-wing nationalist movements and governments. And throughout the world, the …

A Letter From Kyiv, Where Reality Is Being Papered Over

In Ukraine’s Capital, the COVID-Era Accentuates, and Hides, Big Divides

by M. Dane Waters | May 17, 2021

Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and the seventh-most populous city in all of Europe, is governed by a strange combination of a Soviet and a post-Soviet mentality. Many have no trust in …

It’s 2020. Do You Know Who Your Government Is Serving?

America Has Been Conflating Politics and Business for Years—And if We’re Not Careful, We Could Go the Way of Post-Soviet Eastern Europe

by Janine R. Wedel | December 10, 2020

In broad daylight, dozens of masked police and plain-clothed strongmen burst into the foyer of the swanky Sofiyskiy Fitness Club. It was May 25, 2017, and the posh gym—located in …

How Literature Became a Weapon in Russia’s Culture Wars

It’s a Battle of Tolstoys as Protestors Face off Against Putin’s Propaganda Machine

Why Obama Shouldn’t Fall for Putin’s Ukrainian Folly

Russia and the West Have Conspired to Tear the Country Apart. Both Sides Must Stand Down Now or Face the Consequences.

The Russian Empire, My Soviet Loyalist Grandfather, and Me

From Catherine the Great to Stalin, My Family Played a Part in Imperial Rule Over Ukraine—Until They Didn’t

A Letter From Kyiv, Where Reality Is Being Papered Over

In Ukraine’s Capital, the COVID-Era Accentuates, and Hides, Big Divides

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