Mitrokhin: Who are the separatists?

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

In a piece written for the anti-racist/anti-fascist Searchlight magazine, Bremen University researcher Nikolay Mitrokhin provides at least a partial answer to the question: who are the leaders of the pro-Russian […]

Language and ethnicity in Ukraine

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

Claims about language and ethnicity in Ukraine, including confusions between the two — for instance, that parts or all of eastern Ukraine are “majority Russian” — still appear in western media reports. Now that <a […]

Snyder: Europe and Ukraine

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

It’s difficult to provide a well-rounded history of Ukraine, from Kievan Rus onward, in a few dozen paragraphs. Historian Timothy Snyder does this in his newly published piece, “Europe and Ukraine: Past and […]

Ishchenko: For nuance

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

In “Maidan or anti-Maidan? The Ukraine situation requires more nuance,” sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko attempts to carve out a progressive socialist position on the Ukraine conflict, one that would “support […]

Making the news

Adrian J Ivakhiv on immanence

Since I’ve begun paying attention to web sites about the ongoing events in Ukraine, I’ve noticed how similar Russian web trolls are to climate denialist trolls. Both seem to operate on an industrial […]

Russian media bloopers

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

Economist Paul Gregory has been keeping track of some very funny Russian media bloopers — funny except for the fact that they are intended to be true and serious. Here he recounts three stories told by three […]

Wynnyckyj: Russia's threat to Ukraine

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

In “The Permanent Threat to Ukraine’s Existence,” political sociologist Mykhailo Wynnyckyj provides a provocative analysis of the current situation in Ukraine vis-a-vis its Russian neighbor. (Since the Kyiv […]

Quaking the subject

Adrian J Ivakhiv on immanence

This post continues my thinking on the topic of a process-relational “bodymind practice” – an existential art or “technique of the self” building on Buddhist meditation practice reinterpreted and augmented […]

Barnes on Russia's plans

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

The London Review of Books’ Hugh Barnes is posting some interesting observations from Donetsk. Among other things, Barnes writes: “Most informed sources in Ukraine and Russia believe that the annexation of […]

Anthropocene aesthetics

Adrian J Ivakhiv on immanence

Cross-posting this piece by Emil from A(s)cene. Taylor’s coral reef art is beautiful. See also the discussion of Donna Haraway’s “String Figures” lecture and Bruno Latour’s 11 theses on capitalism.    <a […]

Phillips: "Things are just beginning for us..."

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

In “‘Things are just beginning for us’: Ukrainian perspectives,” anthropologist Sarah Phillips, author of Women’s Social Activism in the New Ukraine and Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist […]

Russian media

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

While the source of this analysis, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, could be expected to be somewhat critical of Russia, the critique offered in “The World Through the Eyes of Russian State Television” is […]

Neef: Akhmetov, Firtash, & the revolution

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

While Christian Neef’s article “Yanukovych’s Fall: The Power of Ukraine’s Billionaires” was published over a month ago, I had neglected to mention it at the time. The article provides useful context for […]

Foreign Affairs on Dugin & Putin

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

Articles posted on this blog have refererred repeatedly to Eurasianist ideologue and “conservative revolutionary” Aleksandr Dugin and his connection to Vladimir Putin’s expansionist strategy in Crimea. This […]

Haraway's string figures, Latour's theses

Adrian J Ivakhiv on A(s)cene

The video is here. The introduction is here. First, a suggestion for listening to Haraway (for those who haven’t done that before): If you can’t follow her, that’s okay. She isn’t taking you from point A to […]

Žižek: What Europe should learn from Ukraine

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

In “What Europe Should Learn from Ukraine,” leftist cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek argues that the “Europe” Ukraine’s Euromaidan activists were aiming for was not an illusion, so much as it was a Europe that (EU […]

PolitiFact: Did U.S. spent $5 billion on Ukraine?

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

One of the memes circulating in the information war over Ukraine and Crimea is the claim that the U.S. has spent $5 billion on regime change in Ukraine. In a report published today, the nonprofit-owned Tampa […]

Anthropoliteia: What's going on in Ukraine?

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

The political anthropology blog Anthropoliteia, subtitled “Critical perspectives on police, security, crime, law and punishment around the world,” has been running an ongoing forum called “What’s Going On in […]

Yurchak: "Little green men"

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

Russian-born UC Berkeley anthropologist Alexei Yurchak, author of the celebrated study Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, has written a fascinating account of the unnamed […]

Bezruk on Right Sector

Adrian J Ivakhiv on UKR-TAZ

Tetiana Bezruk, a researcher of far right movements at the University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, offers a brief analysis of the Right Sector movement here (in Russian and in English). In her view the movement grew […]