David Marples provides an astute critique of the new parliamentary law “Concerning the legal status and commemorating the memory of the fighters for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century,” here.
Marples: On the “Fighters for Ukrainian Independence” Law
10 04 2015Comments : 11 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized
Kroker & Weinstein: Maidan as third force
9 03 2015With their talk of supernovas, black holes, and event-horizons, Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein’s “Maidan, Caliphate, and Code: Theorizing Power and Resistance in the 21st Century” is not exactly social science in any recognizable form. Read as poetry, however, its rendition of the state of affairs in and between Ukraine and Russia is provocative and worth reading.
Comments : 13 Comments »
Categories : Maidan
“We do not need your support”
15 02 2015This statement from December, a response by Ukrainian independent left groups to some western leftists’ (perceived) support for Russian aggression against Ukraine, deserves to be reprinted, as the attitudes it targets continue in some places.
Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized
Kowalewski: On the Donbas rebellion
15 02 2015In “The Oligarchic Rebellion in the Donbas,” Polish socialist Zbigniew Kowalewski provides an astute analysis of the Donbas separatist movement as an oligarchic project of the regional capitalist elite.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Donbas
A history of the crisis in maps
12 02 2015The New York Times offers a history in maps of the Ukraine crisis, here.
Comments : 13 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized
McFinn on navigating the “arm Ukraine” debate
12 02 2015Rory McFinn offers a handy set of guidelines for distinguishing Ukraine crisis commentators who don’t know much about Ukraine from those who do, here.
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized
Motyl on fascism in Ukraine vs. Russia
6 02 2015In “Is Ukraine fascist?” Rutgers University political scientist Alexander Motyl examines the case for finding fascism in Ukraine as opposed to Russia.
He’s pretty fair, despite his overstated conclusion. (I don’t think Russia has conclusively become fascist, even if many of the elements of that process are well in play.)
Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: Fascism
Categories : Uncategorized
DNR & LNR play anti-Semitic card
5 02 2015Following the collapse of the Minsk ceasefire talks, the leaders of the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” held a joint press conference which ended in a bizarre anti-Semitic jibe against current Ukrainian leaders.
The entire press conference is worth watching, but the part in question begins at around 13’20”. It’s clear to me that they are aiming it at President Poroshenko, Prime Minister Yatseniuk, Speaker of Parliament Volodymyr Groysman (those are the three most powerful politicians in Ukraine today), and probably Dnipropetrovsk governor (and pro-Kyiv oligarch) Ihor Kolomoisky, all of whom are known or thought to have Jewish roots and who, collectively, show how irrelevant ethnicity has become in Ukraine.
That these two guys see themselves as fighting for their “cossack” fiefdom (supported by a resurgent Great Russia) does not bode well for the future of the region.
http://youtu.be/knMWlB4c_cY
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: anti-Semitism, DNR, Fascism, LNR
Categories : Donbas
Putin addresses Crimea
9 12 2014Rutgers political scientist Alexander Motyl has a perceptive decoding of Vladimir Putin’s “state of the union” address to Russia’s Federal Assembly from a few days ago. You can read it here.
Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Putin
Protestors & university call for help in Donbass
13 10 2014The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, which organizes solidarity in support of Ukrainian socialists and trade unionists, has issued an alert about the repression of social protests by paramilitaries in separatist-controlled areas of the Donbass region. The alert can be read here.
Also, a few weeks ago, the Donetsk National University issued an appeal to the international academic community to help protect them against the illegal seizure of the university by separatists.
Comments : 11 Comments »
Categories : Donbas