Section: Global Voices (The Netherlands)
First Reactions to the Downed Plane in Eastern Ukraine
The skyline over eastern Ukraine, where a plane carrying 395 people was shot down. Image distributed anonymously online. An airplane carrying 295 civilians has crashed in Eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian government is blaming separatists armed with Russian surface-to-air missiles. Ukraine’s rebels have denied responsibility. With nothing but...
Ex-Pussy Riot Lawyer to Defend Ukrainian Pilot in Russian Court
Pussy Riot’s former lawyer will defend the captured Ukrainian pilot who now sits in a Russian jail. Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock. Mark Feygin, the lawyer who came to prominence defending members of the Russian opposition, seems to have picked a new cause—and it may have political consequences that eclipse even the effects of the...
Kiev Kowtows to Washington … on Twitter
Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, is in hot water on the Russian Internet today, where bloggers are drawing attention to his first subscriptions on Twitter. RuNet users have noticed that some of the first accounts Klimkin chose to follow are US politicians John McCain and Mitt Romney, the neoconservative American think tanks...
Russia’s Armchair Warrior Turns on Ukraine’s Rebel Leader
Russia’s armchair warrior? Sergei Kurginyan earns himself a meme on the Russian Internet. Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock. Russian supporters of the insurgency in eastern Ukraine are panicking after rebels fled from their stronghold in Slovyansk last week. Igor Strelkov, the retired Russian military intelligence colonel who commands the...
Western Ukraine Police Using Facebook to Increase Police Accountability
According to a report [uk] by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe), heads of district police departments in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv have been ordered to set up Facebook profiles. As of June 25, 2014, all of them can be found and contacted through the social network, which the Head of the Lviv Regional Department of the Ministry of Interior...
Ukrainian Rebels Worry that Putin Will Repeat Milošević’s Mistakes
Images remixed by Kevin Rothrock. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, several Western news outlets have highlighted comparisons between Putin and former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. Both Putin and Milošević, the story goes, manufactured tensions in a neighboring country by accusing their enemies of fascism....
The Perils of the Lunar Putin
The Lunar Putin, a literal interpretation. Images mixed by author. Years ago, when I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, I attended a roundtable discussion held on campus about the legacy of Stalinism. Like most things at Berkeley, the event was open to the public. After introductions and some brief remarks, audience members were invited to...
