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Review: Zakhar Prilepin’s 'Sankya'
A cult novel by one of Russia’s most provocative and original writers has just come out in English translation. ‘If we ask the elderly to draw’ asks Sankya, ‘will their drawings be as bright as those...
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Natural gas diplomacy and the Ukraine crisis
Natural gas diplomacy is rather like gunboat diplomacy – only effective if the other side has no gunboats. The current crisis in Ukraine has again foisted natural gas diplomacy to the fore of great...
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Azerbaijan and the Ukraine crisis
The crisis in Ukraine put the Azerbaijani government in an uncomfortable position. The crisis in Ukraine that began with the Euromaidan movement, and the flight of President Viktor Yanukovych, put...
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EU accession and the Ukraine crisis
EU accession might be said to have ignited the Ukraine crisis. But it's still a long way off. When Ukraine’s newly elected president Petro Poroshenko was inaugurated on 7 June, he announced his...
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Georgia and the Ukraine crisis
Georgians see the struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty as an analogue of their own fate. Russia’s annexation of Crimea is reshaping the geopolitical map of Europe and sending ripples of apprehension...
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Security options and the Ukraine crisis
The events of the last several months have proven that all existing mechanisms and arrangements to provide for Ukraine’s security have been ineffective.The events of the last several months have proven...
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We have made today's Frankenstein with our own hands
When communism ended, Russia’s people wanted democracy. Instead, they got the market and neoliberalism. Now, it appears, some of them want revenge.East v WestRussia regards the West as the enemy and is...
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Human capital and the Ukraine crisis
Human capital – demography, health, and migration – will be significantly influencing and determining the future of Ukraine for decades to come. Looking at human capital in today’s Ukraine –...
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Putin’s International Brigades
The Donbas separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army with the help of volunteers from all over the world – like the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9. In the Spanish...
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Whatever happened to (Euro) Maidan
For almost a year, Ukraine has refused to leave the international headlines. But little attention has been paid to what has been happening in Kyiv.For almost a year, Ukraine has refused to leave the...
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Nagorno-Karabakh: the not-so-frozen conflict
In recent months, the ‘frozen’ Karabakh conflict has been more fire than ice. With outside powers stoking the flames, what are the chances of finally securing peace?During the summer months, as...
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Nagorno-Karabakh: a gender inclusive approach to peace
Research suggests that engaging local women in conflict resolution efforts increases the likelihood of violence ending within a year – a theory worth testing in Nagorno-Karabakh.A sharp spike in the...
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Down with Lenin!
As they are toppled one after another in cities across the country, statues of Lenin are becoming an endangered species in Ukraine. But Lenin the political symbol is still alive and kicking.Inside a...
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For the Russian elite, loyalty is all
Life has changed for Russia’s elite – and not just their holiday destinations…via kremlin.ruIn the last six months, Russian officials, oligarchs, CEOs of state-owned businesses, parliamentary deputies,...
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Yevtushenkov is no Khodorkovsky
One of Russia’s richest men, the owner of an oil company, has been arrested. There have been inevitable comparisons to Mikhail Khodorkovsky.One of Russia’s richest men, the owner of an oil company, has...
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Summer and politics in Crimea
How could this place where I grew up, which I knew so well as a part of Ukraine, suddenly change country! I have come to Crimea every summer of my life, without exception. That might sound somewhat...
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The sex change commission in Ukraine
Transgender citizens in Ukraine have good reason to think that they are all but invisible. Even the EU is not pushing for inclusiveness; and then there is the sex change commission…It is a time of...
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For Generation P, Putin is Russia
Putin has successfully managed to persuade his fellow citizens that he and Russia are one and the same. 7 October, Vladimir Putin's birthday, is not yet a national holiday, although the media goes into...
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Moscow’s young Muslims might be tomorrow’s militants
A recent clash with the police is a sign of the alienation felt by some young men from Moscow’s Muslim community. The incident at Moscow’s Historical Mosque on 26 September, when angry parishioners...
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Russians are not bothered by Western sanctions
Sanctions have had a limited effect on the Russian population whose support towards the government’s Ukrainian policy does not seem to be eroding. Russia’s economy is not in meltdown, but it has been...
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