Putin often uses words to mean exactly the opposite of what they normally do – a practice diagnosed by political author George Orwell as ‘doublespeak,’ or the language of totalitarians.
V is for victory? Or vanquished?
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
A military historian and U.S. Army veteran explains how wars are not easy to win – something political leaders often forget when looking at the calculus of conflict.
Demonstration for the rights of the Uyghurs in Berlin, 2020.
Leonhard Lenz, Wikimedia Commons
Ukraine’s history with the former Soviet Union and its current relationship with the European Union inform how refugees move across borders. While race plays a role, citizenship is also an important factor.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country is committed to achieving world peace through negotiation, and not force.
GCIS/Flickr
The relationship between South Africa and the West, especially the US, has a complex history. Not least because the US designated those fighting the apartheid regime, as terrorists.
Ukrainian passports say “Ukraine” with no “the.” On the Polish border, March 5, 2022.
Enrico Mattia Del Punta/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Who are the Ukrainians and when were they part of the same empire as Russia? A scholar answers basic questions on war in Ukraine.
The Volodymyr the Great monument, erected in 1853, in Kyiv. Volodymyr was a warlord who became the first Russian ruler to convert to Christianity in the late 900s. A similar statue was erected in Moscow in 2016 as a counter to Ukraine’s.
(Shutterstock)
As an independent country, Ukraine has suffered from corruption, poverty and violent periods, but Vladimir Putin’s view of Ukrainian history in Ukraine is deeply, perhaps deliberately flawed.
Since 2020, Belarus and Russia have accelerated moves towards integration.
Pictorial Press Ltd | Alamy Stock Photo
By allowing Russian military presence in Belarus, president Aliaksandr Lukashenka has forfeited his country’s sovereignty.
In this 1919 caricature, Ukrainians are surrounded by a Bolshevik (to the north, man with hat and red star), a Russian White Army soldier (to the east, with Russian eagle flag and a short whip), and to the west a Polish soldier, a Hungarian (in pink uniform) and two Romanian soldiers.
Wikimedia Commons
Borderlands are all about diversity and competing understandings of community and nation.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, left, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 18, 2022.
Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Belarus’ alliance with Russia is a strategic factor in the Ukraine war. The country’s long-term dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has indicated he will do as Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Russia specialist Matthew Sussex on Putin’s potential to start wider war
Michelle Grattan speaks with Matthew Sussex, associate professor at the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University and an expert on Russia
A pro-Russia demonstrator wears a vest bearing a depiction of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the words “Motherland! Freedom!” during a rally in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2014.
AP Photo/Andrey Basevich
The reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are complicated and based on centuries of history between the two countries. A Ukrainian scholar provides some background.
Soldiers with the 92nd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces conduct drills in northeastern Ukraine on Jan. 31, 2022.
Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The days of Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe disappeared at the end of the Cold War nearly 30 years ago. It appears Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to start a new Cold War..
Donetsk residents celebrate recognition of independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics by Russia on Feb. 21, 2022.
Alexander RyuAlexander Ryumin\TASS via Getty Images
History has many uses, and not all of them are noble. That’s very much the case as the public gets a crash course from politicians about Ukrainian history.
Smoke and flame rise near a military building after an apparent Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Many Ukrainian Americans feel connected to Ukraine’s history and independence, including scholar Katja Kolcio. She writes about her family’s work preserving Ukrainian culture as immigrants in the US.
What he wants. What he really, really wants?
Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Associate Professor of Instruction in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies, University of South Florida