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MOSCOW -- Alexievich, who writes primarily in Russian, is very much a part of this "Russian world" -- that is, in the cultural and civilizational sense, and not in the political or military sense that gained currency during events in Ukraine. This "Russian world," this "Russian civilization" now stands at possibly the most critical juncture of its existence. And it is very timely that a Russian-language Slavic author who writes that this "Russian world" is standing at the threshold of the deepest crisis of its long history has received this award now.
One would be hard pressed to find a single humanitarian organization with the ability do everything it could dream of all by itself. Understandably, much of Heifer International's work to end poverty would not be possible without some form of outside assistance.
Western diplomats are fond of legally and neatly putting things in boxes. Kremlin tactics are quite the opposite. Russian military thinking doesn't see a clean breakdown between what are weapons of war and what are civilian tools, or what are propaganda forums and what are channels for frank talks. The diplomats and talks are part of the offensive.
Putin is pivoting and wants to withdraw from the Donbas but keep Crimea, according to Iegor Soboliev, the head of the Ukrainian parliament's anti-corruption committee.
The challenge of Putin as well as ISIS requires an answer beyond avoidance and containment. The threat is immediate but also the challenge to the rule of law and the ideology upon which free and democratic states have prospered as societies and economies over the last few decades.
United States policy in Syria insists that President Bashar al-Assad must go. But if the U.S. succeeds and the Assad government is scattered to the wind it raises the question: Who will defend the ethnic and religious minorities in Syria from the Islamic State, the al-Nusra Front, and all the other heavily armed homicidal maniacs that already control nearly half the country?
This week the Atlantic Magazine published "The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?" by Graham Allison. I have a great deal of respect for Graham Allison and he lays out a series of compelling arguments. But I believe he will be proven wrong in this case.
Without relief, Europe may end up with another deluge of asylum seekers, this time from Ukraine. Already, Russia's occupation of nine percent of Ukraine has displaced 1.4 million internally and continuing military incursions will result in the dislocation of millions more.
Caught in a "no war, no peace" situation, Eastern Ukraine is slowly but relentlessly diving into a low-intensity conflict. From the onset of the crisis, barely two years ago, Ukraine has been at war with Russia over the territorial integrity of Crimea and separatist Donbas.
While the American media was enamored by the charismatic pope's "historic" visit to the United States (I seem to remember popes have visited before), more important earthly developments occurred.
English journalist Graham Phillips has been loading up his YouTube channel with scenes from the War in Donbass -- a.k.a. the War in Ukraine or War in Eastern Ukraine -- since it began in the spring of 2014, and his latest, uploaded today, is a chilling picture of a city emptied.
This interview is part of a series on Trailblazing Women role models (Entrepreneurs and Leaders) from around the world and first appeared on Global In...
Another meeting with Petro Poroshenko at the presidential palace in Kiev -- in the same office with the slightly kitschy decor in which he has received me on previous occasions. He is under strain but unperturbed.
Since December 2014 Azov members have worked to transform the abandoned factory into a base where they could live, train and help the Ukrainian military.
The U.S. government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has operated a foreign policy that is akin to the stereotype of a musclebound bodybuilder with very little upstairs.
On September 8, 2015, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma arrived in Minsk. He travelled to the Belarusian capital, as Ukraine's representative to the Trilateral Contact Group that seeks to end the conflict in Donbas.
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