Tag Archives: Ukraine

February 17, 2018

Polish Law on Historical Memory Widens Divisions at Home and Abroad

by Gavin Rae  

Note by the LeftEast editors: this article has been reprinted from the blog of Gavin Rae, Beyond the Transition, with the author’s permission. The Amended Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, passed by the Polish parliament on 26 January, has caused a huge political domestic and international storm (the full English language text of the Act can be found here). As well as widening historical and political divisions in Poland it has opened up a conflict not only with Israel and Ukraine, but also with the country’s major ally the USA. The Act has now been signed by the President, although he ha ..

May 15, 2017

Ukraine’s Civil War Crimes: Facebook Post As Bad As Kidnapping, Torture, and Murder

by Mikhail Khokhlovych  

On May 12th, the Artemovsk court in the Donetsk oblast (province), sentenced a soldier to five years of prison with a three year probation period for the kidnapping of a local civilian that resulted in his death. The ruling cited the soldier’s ‘sincere confession and military engagement in the Anti-Terrorist Operations in the East of Ukraine’ as the mitigating circumstances and let him go. Numerous eyewitness accounts by army colleagues of the convict describe what had happened: The soldier suspected that a local man had ties with the separatists. He proceeded with kidnapping him, putting a bag ove ..

April 21, 2017

Ukraine: Statement on the Armed Attack on the Left-wing Activist Stanislav Sergienko

by Ukrainian organization Social Movement  

A group of people armed with knives has attacked Stanislav Sergienko, activist of “Social Movement” and student of Kyiv-Mohyla academy on the 20th of April in Kyiv. Stanislav has been stabbed multiple times and is currently being treated in the hospital. There are strong reasons to conclude that ultra-rightists committed this crime. On the April 20, 2017 at about 4 pm Stanislav Sergienko, activist of the platform “Start” and the civil organization “Social Movement”, was attacked and stabbed by two unknown people near the entrance to his home. Now Stas is in the hospital, where he has had urgent surger ..

August 17, 2016

Science, Crimea and prison bars: persecution of teachers and researchers

by lefteast  

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article first appeared on Commons Journal. It has been reprinted on LeftEast with the permission of the authors. by Viktoriia Muliavka and Alona Liasheva Translated from the Ukrainian by Valentyna Kolesnik. The use of science and education for political purposes in Ukraine has become the norm. How has it happened and why is it a terrifying trend? The conference in Yalta For Ukrainian teachers, participation in a scientific event in Crimea resulted in dismissals and monitoring by The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). The annual international applied science conference on Russi ..

April 13, 2016

On Marxism, barbarism, Russia, Greece and more: Interview with Kees van der Pijl

by admin  

Kees van der Pijl is a Dutch political scientist who is emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Sussex. He is known for his critical approach to global political economy and has published, amongst others, a trilogy on Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy (2007, 2010, 2014); Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq (2006); Transnational Classes and International Relations (1998); and The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class. Kees van der Pijl was interviewed by George Souvlis and Yulia Yurchenko. Q1: Would you like to present yourself by focusing on the formative experience ..

September 4, 2015

Ukraine’s government bears more responsibility for ongoing conflict than the far-right

by admin  

The question of autonomy in the Donbass has fractured the fragile coalition, but the government must start thinking of solutions – not point fingers at paramilitaries anti-autonomy protests in Ukraine (in pictures) by Volodymyr Ishchenko The Guardian, 05.09.2015 Violence erupted outside the parliament building in Kiev this week during protests against constitutional changes which could grant more autonomy to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Proposed by president Petro Poroshenko, these changes would decentralise power in Ukraine, allowing local self-government in “certain districts of Donetsk and ..

August 21, 2015

Against systemic violations of citizens’ rights and assault on political freedom in Ukraine

by admin  

A statement of the emerging left-wing Social Movement party in Ukraine. (source: Social Movement Party website) Throughout 2014-5 the conduct and decisions of various bodies of Ukraine’s executive and legislative branches of power have grossly violated Ukrainians’ citizens’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the ECHR, and fundamental rights 1. Free speech and freedom of expression are guaranteed by Article 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine (CoU) and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); censorship is prohibited under Article 15 of the CoU. Recently the Ministry for Justice has ca ..

April 27, 2015

“Ukraine’s European discourse does not correspond to reality”. An interview with Volodymyr Ishchenko

by admin  

Volodymyr Ishchenko is a sociologist studying social protests in Ukraine. He is the deputy director of the Center for Social and Labor Research, a member of the editorial board of Commons: Journal for Social Criticism and LeftEast web-magazine, and a lecturer at the Department of Sociology in the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Interview by Javier Morales.  Javier Morales (JM): How do you think that the Ukrainian society is assessing the consequences of the Euromaidan revolution? Has there been any change in their attitudes in the past year? Volodymyr Ishchenko (VI): Before the Maidan, pol ..

April 7, 2015

“We should recognize that there are other imperialisms”: A Marxist dissident explains what the left gets wrong about Russia. An interview with Ilya Budraitskis.

by admin  

Charles Davis talks to Ilya Budraitkis on Salon.Com . Here we present the interview. The whole lengthy material can be accessed on the Salon website. Obviously the biggest story in Russia and here in the United State is the recent assassination of Boris Nemstov. Here in the West, Russia right now is portrayed as sort of a police state – people are afraid to express dissent. Is there any truth to that? Can you describe what the climate is like in the wake of this assassination? Is there fear among the opposition or is that overstated in the corporate media? I will say that the fear in the opposition came much ..

March 6, 2015

Putin’s enemies within

by admin  

This piece, by Ben Neal, was originally published on the British socialist website, Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century. At least 50,000 people marched in Moscow last Sunday in memory of the slain liberal opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead two days previously on a bridge just steps away from the Kremlin. The assassin is currently unknown. The march replaced the planned “anti-crisis” opposition march, which was due to take place on the same day but in an out of the way suburb of Moscow.  That demonstration was to have been overtly political, even raising social demands which had pr ..