Writing in Foreign Policy, Alexander Motyl presents a most reasonable idea: an internationally monitored referendum on secession in all the southeastern provinces of Ukraine.
If Russia is wrong about how “threatening” the central Ukrainian government is, this would call Russia’s bluff. And if they are right, well, then many of us will be surprised.
In “Ukraine is Stuck in a Post-Soviet Condition,” Yakov Feygin provides a very perceptive and interesting analysis of the country’s situation based on the relationship between economic realities and political affiliations.
Some excerpts:
Timothy Snyder continues his series on Russia and Ukraine for the New York Review of Books.
A few excerpts:
While this interview is two weeks old, it adds depth and content to some of the claims made in Volodymyr Ishchenko’s analysis. Both come from a radical left perspective.
Some interesting quotes:
Of all the political analysts I trust in Ukraine, Volodymyr Ishchenko has been the most critical of the Maidan and the new government. While his views should be contextualized among others (some of which I have shared on this blog), he expresses concerns that should be taken seriously. The following is his summary of the “new order.”
Ukraine has not experienced a genuine revolution, merely a change of elites
I’ve been engaging in some vigorous e-mail conversation about Ukraine with a group of local left-wing political thinkers. The following are a few pieces of that conversation that seem worth sharing. These comments are in the nature of a quick exchange, so I am not providing sources here (except for a few), but previous posts on this blog provide further background, and I’d be happy to provide more upon request.
Ukrainian Jewish leaders have penned a strongly worded Open Letter to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Signatories include leaders of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine (VAAD) Ukraine, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, the Zionist Federation of Ukraine, the Jewish Council of Ukraine, the European Jewish Congress, head rabbis of the progressive and traditional Judaism communities in Ukraine, directors of centers for Jewish and Holocaust studies, and experts in monitoring and analysing xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
A few excerpts:
We are Jewish citizens of Ukraine: businessmen, managers, public figures, scientists and scholars, artists and musicians. We are addressing you on behalf of the multi-national people of Ukraine, Ukraine’s national minorities, and on behalf of the Jewish community. [. . .]
In his article “Is Putin a new Hitler (in the making)?“, political scientist and far right watcher Anton Shekhovtsov outlines the many connections between Vladimir Putin’s Eurasianist ideologues and the European far right.
Here is the case for considering Putinism a new form of fascism.
It may be one-sided, but it should be read alongside the defenses of Putin promoted by Stephen Cohen and others in the western left. It also demonstrates how the uses of the term “fascism” in this Ukraine debate need more analysis.
This blog makes no claims toward featuring a representative sample of views on the continuing crisis in Ukraine. Such a sample would be impossible to achieve, as there are few reliable standards for determining objectivity in such an open situation.
It has recently featured voices from Ukraine’s Left, in part to make up for an absence of those voices in international coverage. That said, “Right” and “Left” are difficult to parse in today’s Ukraine. I’ve made some attempt to do that previously (e.g., here and here), but semi-authoritarian “oligarchic democracies” like that of post-Soviet Ukraine rarely allow for political positions to render themselves very transparent. Perhaps that will occur in the aftermath of the Maidan; perhaps not.
From Volodymyr Ishchenko, sociologist at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Deputy Director of the Center for Society Research (Kyiv), editor of Spil’ne: Zhurnal Sotsia’noyi Krytyky (Commons: A Journal of Social Critique), and prominent activist in Ukraine’s anti-capitalist left:
“Writing from a critical position is not something to be widely appreciated in turmoil times. For some hysterical idiots I’ve succumbed to the fascists, for others–betrayed the Fatherland. Time is now precious and to be used efficiently. This is why I respond to all in a single post.