Why The Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine. But this account is wrong: the United States and its European...

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Topless Femen Activist Fined for Attacking Vladimir Putin Statue

  A member of topless feminist group Femen was convicted of exhibitionism Wednesday after attacking a statue of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a wax museum. With "Kill Putin" written on her nude breasts, Iana Zhdanova target the likeness of Putin at the Musee Grevin with a wooden stake in June. The Ukrainian activist, who has lived in France for two years as a political refugee, laughed in court after the judge ordered her to pay fine of 1,500 euros ($1,897) for vandalism and a crime called "sexual exhibition" in French, as well as other damages payable to Musee Grevin. "I'm laughing...

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Flaws Found In Ukraine's Probe Of Maidan Massacre

  For millions of Ukrainians, it was a crime against humanity. In February, more than 100 protesters were gunned down in the Maidan uprising that toppled the president, Viktor Yanukovich. The victims are now known as “the Heavenly Hundred.” In April, prosecutors arrested three suspects, members of an elite unit within the “Berkut” riot police. Senior among them was Dmytro Sadovnyk, 38, a decorated commander, who was accused of ordering his men to fire on the crowds on the morning of Feb. 20. The three stand accused of massacring 39 unarmed protesters. On Sept. 19, the case...

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Five Reasons Why Putin’s Objectives In Ukraine Have Backfired And Failed

   Vladimir Putin’s strategy of creating a “New Russia” from eight Russian-speaking regions in Urkaine has failed. Russia’s president has covertly and overtly supported violent separatism in Donetsk and Luhansk (known collectively as the Donbas), where over 10,000 combatants and civilians have died, with the aim of controlling eight Ukrainian regions. Yet Putin currently controls only a third of the Donbas that was never part of historic, Tsarist “New Russia”. Putin faced – and continues to face – five obstacles to his initial goals. The first was, to his surprise, a determined...

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World War One: First war was impossible, then inevitable I

It may seem almost impossible that Washington would go to war against Beijing to defend some uninhabited Japanese islands. Or against Moscow over some decrepit mining towns in Donbas, if Ukraine ever joined NATO. In early 1914, though, it seemed almost impossible that Britain and France would go to war with Germany to defend Russia against Austria-Hungary over a dispute with Serbia. Yet by June 28, war moved straight from impossible to inevitable —without ever passing through improbable. Four years later, 10 million people had die...

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