Foreign analysis of contemporary Ukrainian politics has alleged a black-white conversion from freedom to autocracy. The reality is much more nuanced than that, says Ukrainian MP Alexander Feldman
A chilling account of brave journalists in Lukashenka’s Belarus, so many of whom die in unexplained circumstances. Olga Birukova hopes that Western PR gurus and journalists will not be taken in by official statements or the KGB-controlled picture of society in Belarus.
In Stalin’s time there were nearly a hundred GULag camps in Ivdel. Today, the maximum security penal colony FBU-IK 56 survives in their place. Ekaterina Lushnikova travelled there to speak to the inmates — some of Russia’s most hardened criminals.
A vital national debate about constitutional reform is under way in Ukraine. But the debate often takes no account of international political discussions or recent scholarly research. Can the new regime embrace this opportunity to lay down the foundations of a democratic future for Ukraine? Andrea
The Belarusian opposition seeks to map a path beyond the authoritarian rule of Alexander Lukashenko by establishing a claim to represent the true or real nation. But it needs to work on different ground - for this is a contest it can’t win, says Nelly Bekus.
Membership of EU and NATO continues to be a thorny question for the countries of Eastern Europe and for Turkey. Arrangements short of full membership offer economic and security benefits and should be the way forward, contend Denis Corboy, William Courtney and Kenneth Yalowitz
Armed conflict has been raging for almost a month in the mountains of the Kamarob gorge between the forces of the Government of Tajikistan and local ‘mujohids’. This is the most serious political violence in Tajikistan for ten years. Here, in the second of a two-part article, Sophie Roche and John
Kyrgyzstan could be the first Central Asian parliamentary democracy. But the southern region has first to be reconciled and stabilized. The way forward is to use the well established Kyrgyz traditions of education to teach acceptance of ethnic diversity in schools and universities, explain Scott H
Government attempts to modernise Russia are doomed because the Russian mindset remains stuck in an unchanging peasant mentality, laments film-director Andrei Konchalovsky. No change will be possible without reloading our spiritual software, but do we want to change?
Yesterday we published one of Robert & Elizabeth Chandler’s new translations of Grossman’s stories, The Road. Today, Robert Chandler writes about these stories and about Grossman’s friendship with Andrey Platonov
Robert Chandler, distinguished translator of Vasily Grossman’s novels Life and Fate and Everything Flows, has now tackled Grossman’s last stories. We bring you his and his wife’s translation of The Road, the tale of a mule wrestling with Hamlet’s dilemma on the long road to Stalingrad
Recent parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan were declared free and fair, but Russia and its Central Asian neighbours feel threatened by Kyrgyz democracy. Will the country be able to juggle its relations with them and with China and USA? Baktybek Abdrisaev wonders if President Bakiyev’s dark legac
