Maidan

So does Yanukovych's resurrection in the February 7 runoff signal the end, not just of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, but of the pro-democratic wave that swept through Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova, as well? Not so fast, say politicians, observers, and analysts across the region. What matters much more than the result is the fact that Ukraine has pulled off what is widely seen as the cleanest election the post-Soviet space has ever seen

In criticising the activities of the National Expert Commission on the Protection of Public Morality, we pay too little heed to the fact that in many democratic countries the media and public play an active role in imposing necessary limits, with no interference from State bodies at all

The recent “initiative” from Ukrainian communists to collect money for a monument to Stalin in Zaporizhya aroused outrage and discussion with calls to “do something”. The following will endeavour to determine what in today’s world can and should be done, and by whom, as well as what, on the contrary, demonstrates only reluctance to part with lies and a fundamentally Soviet attitude to the individual.

The surge of international interest in the Crimea from summer 2008 had little to do with the peninsula’s undoubted natural attractions. From the first day of the war between Georgia and Russia, the analogy with the Crimea seemed all too clear.... Unfortunately the shivers down many a Ukrainian official’s spine may have elicited anxiety, but little will to learn lessons and take urgently needed action, or any understanding of what this action should be.

On the controversial Commission to Protect Public Morality, an unforeseeable law and on who the State is failing to protect while meddling in what is really not its business

New information shows that the attack on School No. 1 was not the forced response of a government desperate to save lives but, on the contrary, was the act of a regime ready to destroy them for political gain. It makes clear that the siege was the result of a failed Russian provocation, that the Putin regime refused negotiations capable of ending the crisis and, in the absence of hostile action, ordered Russian Special Forces to open fire with heavy weapons on a gymnasium packed with hostages, guaranteeing a catastrophic death toll

The very idea that the authorities could build a hotel at Babi Yar, a place where tens of thousands of people were murdered can arouse only sick outrage – and the urgent demand that the information be checked. There were few such public demands and the media worked in cut & paste mode

Instead of the culmination of the Nuremberg process and the triumphant renewal of justice, we again have a show trial which elicits a worried feeling that the organizers want an easy symbol and myth, while both they and the public as a whole show a stubborn reluctance to learn any real lessons.

On the seventieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, interpretation of this and other facts by Russia’s “History Commission” and how Russian history textbooks are to ensure “correct thinking”

There is a basic Kremlin decision: Russia has embarked on an information war. From now on, lies on television are no longer lies, but a weapon against the enemy.