Monthly Archives: March 2022

Theyve reminded us that you can believe things with greater and lesser intensity, faintly, with words, or deeply and fervently, with a conviction in your bones. Theyve reminded us how much the events of the past few years have conspired to weaken our faith in ourselves. Theyve reminded us how the setbacks and humiliations (Donald Trump, Afghanistan, racial injustice, political dysfunction) have caused us to doubt and be passive about the gospel of democracy. But despite all our failings the gospel is still glowingly true.

This has been a week of restored faith. In what exactly? Well, in the first place, in leadership. Weve seen so many leadership failures of late, but over the past week Volodymyr Zelensky emerged as the everyman leader the guy in the T-shirt, the Jewish comedian, the guy who didnt flee but knew what to say: I need ammunition, not a ride.

It wasnt only Zelensky. Joe Biden masterly and humbly helped organize a global coalition. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany understood the moment. So did Emmanuel Macron of France and Fumio Kishida of Japan. Across governments, businesses and the arts, we were well led this week.

Theres been restored faith in true patriotism. Over the past few years, weve seen so much sour ethnonationalism from the right, an angry and xenophobic form of patriotism. From the left weve seen a disdain of patriotism, from people who vaguely support abstract national ideals while showing limited gratitude toward ones own inheritance; people who rightly focus on national crimes but while slighting national achievements. Some elites, meanwhile, have drifted into a soulless globalism, an effort to rise above nations into an ethereal multilateral stratosphere.

But the Ukrainians have shown us how the right kind of patriotism is ennobling, a source of meaning and a reason to risk life. Theyve shown us that the love of a particular place, their own land and people, warts and all, can be part and parcel of a love for universal ideals, like democracy, liberalism and freedom.

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Opinion | The Week That Awoke the World - The New York Times

Russias war in Ukraine is not only reshaping the strategic and political order in Europe, it is also upending long-held assumptions about the intricate connections that are a signature of the global economy.

Millions of times a day, far-flung exchanges of money and goods crisscross land borders and oceans, creating enormous wealth, however unequally distributed. But those connections have also exposed economies to financial upheaval and crippling shortages when the flows are interrupted.

The snarled supply lines and shortfalls caused by the pandemic created a wide awareness of these vulnerabilities. Now, the invasion has delivered a bracing new spur to governments in Europe and elsewhere to reassess how to balance the desire for efficiency and growth with the need for self-sufficiency and national security.

And it is calling into question a tenet of liberal capitalism that shared economic interests help prevent military conflicts.

It is an idea that stretches back over the centuries and has been endorsed by romantic idealists and steely realists. The philosophers John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant wrote about it in treatises. The British politicians Richard Cobden and John Bright invoked it in the 19th century to repeal the protectionist Corn Laws, the tariffs and restrictions imposed on imported grains that shielded landowners from competition and stifled free trade.

Later, Norman Angell was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for writing that world leaders were under A Great Illusion that armed conflict and conquest would bring greater wealth. During the Cold War, it was an element of the rationale for dtente with the Soviet Union to, as Henry Kissinger said, create links that will provide incentive for moderation.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union three decades ago, the idea that economic ties can help prevent conflict has partly guided the policies toward Russia by Germany, Italy and several other European nations.

Today, Russia is the worlds largest exporter of oil and wheat. The European Union was its biggest trading partner, receiving 40 percent of its natural gas, 25 percent of its oil and a hefty portion of its coal from Russia. Russia also supplies other countries with raw materials like palladium, titanium, neon and aluminum that are used in everything from semiconductors to car manufacturing.

Just last summer, Russian, British, French and German gas companies completed a decade-long, $11 billion project to build a direct pipeline, Nord Stream 2, that was awaiting approval from a German regulator. But Germany halted certification of the pipeline after Russia recognized two separatist regions in Ukraine.

From the start, part of Germanys argument for the pipeline the second to connect Russia and Germany was that it would more closely align Russias interests with Europes. Germany also built its climate policy around Russian oil and gas, assuming it would provide energy as Germany developed more renewable sources and closed its nuclear power plants.

Benefits ran both ways. Globalization rescued Russia from a financial meltdown and staggering inflation in 1998 and ultimately smoothed the way for the rise to power of Vladimir V. Putin, Russias president. Money earned from energy exports accounted for a quarter of Russias gross domestic product last year.

Critics of Nord Stream 2, particularly in the United States and Eastern Europe, warned that increasing reliance on Russian energy would give it too much leverage, a point that President Ronald Reagan made 40 years earlier to block a previous pipeline. Europeans were still under an illusion, the argument went, only this time it was that economic ties would prevent baldfaced aggression.

Still, more recently, those economic ties contributed to skepticism that Russia would launch an all-out attack on Ukraine in defiance of its major trading partners.

In the weeks leading up to the invasion, many European leaders demurred from joining what they viewed as the United States overhyped warnings. One by one, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi talked or met with Mr. Putin, hopeful that a diplomatic settlement would prevail.

There are good reasons for the European Union to believe that economic ties would bind potential combatants more closely together, said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The proof was the European Union itself. The organizations roots go back to the creation after World War II of the European Coal and Steel Community, a pact among six nations meant to avert conflict by pooling control of these two essential commodities.

The idea was that if you knit together the French and German economies, they wouldnt be able to go to war, Mr. Haass said. The aim was to prevent World War III.

Scholars have attempted to prove that the theory worked in the real world studying tens of thousands of trade relations and military conflicts over several decades and have come to different conclusions.

Gas supplies. Europe gets nearly 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and it is likely to be walloped with higher heating bills. Natural gas reserves are running low, and European leaders have accused Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, of reducing supplies to gain a political edge.

Shortages of essential metals. The price of palladium, used in automotive exhaust systems and mobile phones, has been soaring amid fears that Russia, the worlds largest exporter of the metal, could be cut off from global markets. The price of nickel, another key Russian export, has also been rising.

Financial turmoil. Global banks are bracing for the effects of sanctionsintended to restrict Russias access to foreign capital and limit its ability to process payments in dollars, euros and other currencies crucial for trade. Banks are also on alert for retaliatory cyberattacks by Russia.

In terms of the current crisis, Mr. Haass argued, in some ways the economic benefits were not mutual enough. The Germans needed Russian gas much more than Russia needs exports, because they can make up for lost revenue with higher prices, he said.

Thats where Europe handled the relationship all wrong, Mr. Haass added. The leverage wasnt reciprocal.

Despite its huge land mass, nuclear arsenal and energy exports, Russia is otherwise relatively insulated from the global economy, accounting for 1.7 percent of global output. And since Russias invasion of Crimea in 2014, Mr. Putin has moved to isolate the economy even more to protect against retaliation.

Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that the willingness to impose such devastating sanctions against Russia may point to the flaw in that strategy. If Russias financial system was more integrated with those of the allies, they might have been more hesitant to take measures that could provoke a financial crisis.

At the moment, economic relations with Russia are running on parallel tracks. Countries opposed to Russias invasion of Ukraine have imposed a series of damaging financial and trade sanctions, yet Russian oil and gas exempted from the bans are still flowing.

The reality is economic interdependence can breed insecurity as well as mutual benefits, particularly when the relationship is lopsided.

Philippe Martin, the dean of the School of Public Affairs at SciencesPo in Paris, said that the 2014 agreement between Ukraine and the European Union may have marked a turning point for Russia. That translated into more trade with the E.U. and less with Russa, he said.

Mr. Martin has written skeptically that economic ties promote peace, arguing that countries open to global trade can be less worried about picking a fight with a single nation because they have diverse trading partners.

In the case of Russias march toward Kyiv, though, he offered two possible explanations. One is that no one including the European leaders who imposed them expected such crippling sanctions.

I think that Putin miscalculated and was surprised by the harshness of the sanctions, Mr. Martin said. The second interpretation is that Putin does not care about the impact that sanctions are having on the welfare of most Russians.

Which does he think is correct? I think both interpretations are valid, he said.

Read more here:

Economic Ties Among Nations Spur Peace. Or Do They? - The New York Times

March 3, 2022

March 3, 2022

One of the many things that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not expect when he launched his gratuitously stupid invasion of Ukraine was international resolve. After all, from the genocide against Uyghurs in China to the devastating civil wars in Syria and Yemen, the international community has proven unwilling or unable to consistently come to the aid of innocent civilians facing violence and displacement.

But in having his forces beeline for the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv last week, Putin stumbled headlong into one principle that global leaders appear willing to fight for: state sovereignty.

The reaction to Russia's aggression has been swift and overwhelming. The U.S. and its allies moved to cut Russia out of the international banking system and freeze critical assets overseas. European countries closed their airspace to Russian traffic and fell over one another in the rush to provide both lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine including Finland, which had maintained its alliance neutrality for decades. Germany announced a major increase in defense spending, and NATO moved to reposition forces in Eastern Europe, both as a show of solidarity with Ukraine and as a warning in the highly unlikely event that Putin is tempted to continue West.

Despite the creeping authoritarianism on the American right, supermajorities of the American people expressed disapproval of Russia's actions, proving that not every issue can be immediately polarized along partisan lines by the Fox News propaganda machine. The gallantry of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was offered evacuation by the United States but decided to stay with his people in Kyiv, has surely played a role in galvanizing Ukrainian resistance as well as international support. At this point, there is no way that Putin will not end up paying far more than he will gain with this ill-advised provocation, including possibly his hold on power in Russia.

But it is clear what principle is driving this across-the-board pushback, and that is the right of states to be secure within their own borders. What is happening to the Ukrainian people today, while tragic and harrowing, is not experientially different than what Syrians and Yemenis have endured in recent years, or what is transpiring in Ethiopia today. While outside actors may be involved in these conflicts, they are civil wars, and the external patrons of various factions do not have designs on permanent occupation or annexation of territory.

My colleague Samuel Goldman wrote that the Russian invasion of Ukraine heralds "a decisive end to the era" of rules-based internationalism. If it leads to a period of widespread and successful territorial land-grabs and interstate wars launched by revisionist powers, he might be right. But there's another way of looking at it. The liberal international order, after all, was never capable of preventing territorial aggression altogether. But since the Second World War, there has been a consensus that this aggression is wrong. Whether force or even economic statecraft was used to roll back territorial gains always depended on the relative balance of power between norm-enforcers and aggressors.

What hasn't really changed is the normative principle that interstate war should not happen. The U.S. felt the wrath of global condemnation with its outrageous and self-defeating invasion of Iraq in 2003 just as the Soviet Union did in 1968 when Leonid Brezhnev ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring reform movement. That neither was meaningfully punished for their actions says less about the global acceptance of the principle of state sovereignty and more about the overwhelming power asymmetries that allow the strongest states to violate international law.

What would herald the true end of the liberal international order would be global indifference to interstate aggression. And that's not what we see here. On the contrary, Putin's reckless invasion andbarbaric siege of major Ukrainian cities have created a global sense of indignity, forcing even governments that are very reluctant to tussle with Moscow to get off the fence. Only the cold reality of Russia's nuclear arsenal is preventing NATO from intervening to rescue Ukrainian democracy, but other punitive measures are being thrown against the wall to make the costs to Russia as steep as possible.

Ironically, the sanctity of sovereignty has long been a cherished principle for Russia. After all, it was Putin himself who declared in 2008 that the NATO-led creation of an independent Kosovo carved out of Serbia "will de facto blow apart the whole system of international relations, developed not over decades, but over centuries." He then added ominously, "At the end of the day it is a two-ended stick and the second end will come back and hit them in the face." Later that year, Russia went to war with Georgia, a development that would mark the beginning of a new phase of Russian expansionism.

Putin calculated that because he paid no major price for annexing Crimea in 2014, the global community neither cared much about Ukraine nor would do much of anything to oppose Russian efforts to claw back territory from non-NATO states on Moscow's periphery. But it seems more likely that world leaders mistakenly believed he would stop there. The move from piecemeal dismemberment of Ukraine to total obliteration triggered a normative tripwire that finally alerted the democratic world to the gathering menace of Russian revanchism and the broader phenomenon of authoritarianism on the march.

But Putin clearly misjudged the international community's commitment to sovereignty as a going concern. It is one thing to implicitly accept that there is insufficient resolve to intervene in every civil conflict that erupts around the world; it is quite another to stand aside and watch one U.N. member state get gobbled up by another without even the flimsiest pretext.

Giving real teeth to the principle of sovereignty was perhaps the most important piece of the effort to prevent another calamitous world war driven by the imperial ambitions of expansionist countries. And while effectively freezing borders has led to a great deal of subnational conflict, it has largely succeeded in making it more or less unthinkable for a state to embark on a campaign of subjugating neighbors by force as part of a project of regional or continental domination.

Whether the punitive measures that have been put into place will succeed in restoring Ukraine's democracy and frontiers is an open question. But the imposition of harsh sanctions and other restrictions on a country as powerful as Russia, even with the potential for significant economic blowback, is actually a sign that liberal internationalism is far from dead. In fact, this might be a wake-up call for prosperous democracies: If the long post-war peace is not to be seen as a historical aberration, it must be fought for rather than taken for granted.

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Liberal internationalism gets its wake-up call - The Week

March 3, 2022

Sometimes fiction can illuminate a real-life topic better than nonfiction.

That's the reason Book Riot gave for including anArizona State University alumna's novel about Ukraine as part of its list posted earlier this week of "Books for understanding Russia's invasion of Ukraine."Kalani Pickhart's lyrical "I Will Die in a Foreign Land," published this past October, was the only fiction entry on the list.

The novel takes place during the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv, which began in late 2013 and stretched into 2014, when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested against then-President Viktor Yanukovych's decision not to sign a referendum with the European Union, choosing instead to build closer ties with Russia. The demonstrations and civil unrest would widen to encompass more rights and corruption issues. By the end of summer 2014, hundreds of civilians and dozens of police officers had been killed,Yanukovych fled the country, a new president was elected, Russia seized the parliament of Crimea, and Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot downIn September 2016, an international team of criminal investigators said evidence showed the Buk missile had been brought in from Russian territory and was fired from a field controlled by Russian-backed separatists. Russia has denied any role. while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard.

All of that is covered in a three-page timeline at the start of the book.

The rest of the novel follows more slowly and more personally the lives of four people whose paths intersect over the course of those protests and the months that followed a Ukrainian-born doctor adopted by U.S. parents who returns to help at a makeshift medical clinic; a former KGB agent; a mining engineer whose life was forever altered by the Chernobyl meltdown; and a young activist who finds both love and grief.

The story dips in and out of their individual stories, interspering those chapters with lists of the dead, folk-song lamentations based on the traditional kobzari, wandering Ukrainian bards news reports and transcripts of cassette recordings. All the pieces add up to a novel that has garnered praise from a range of sources, from a starred review in Kirkus to a recommendation by a Washingon Post critic.

Pickhart has a number of ties to ASU: She finished her Master of Fine Arts with the Department of English in 2019. Afirst-generation college student, she also earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from ASU in 2009 and was a Barrett, The Honors College student. Now she works as a coordinator at the Design School, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

She spoke with ASU News about the inspiration behind her novel and how it came about.

Question: What first drew you to this nation and its history? What was your aha moment when you knew this was the story you wanted to tell?

Kalani Pickhart

Answer: As many people around the world are now witnessing, Ukrainians are tough people. They arent mincing words or actions with the Russian president and invaders.I watched a documentary about the 2014 protests in Kyiv called "Winter on Fire: Ukraines Fight for Democracy," and I was simultaneously in my first semester in grad school, in a novel-writing course taught by Matt Bell. I was really moved by the story, and the sheer grit and fighting spirit Ukrainians have as a nation.

The moment I knew I wanted to write the book was the ringing of the bells at St. Michaels Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv: The last time all the bells had been rung, it was during the invasion of Kyiv from the Mongols in AD 1240 in order to warn the people of the attack. I found it especially heavy that they were being rung in 2013 against their own police force. There was something there I couldnt shake.

Q: What kind of research and travel went into writing this book?

A: A lot! Because Im not Ukrainian, I felt an immense responsibility to tell the story compassionately and accurately it also became clear very quickly that even though I was writing a story that took place in 20132014, there was a ton of history that led to that particular protest, so I was doing a lot of reading to try to understand the context of the moment. Meanwhile, we were reading about two novels a week at the time, so a lot of ideas on how to write the book came from a few choice authors, with the most obvious being Milan Kunderas "Unbearable Lightness of Being." I was fortunate to have this confluence of both logistical research and artistic influence it helped me get a quick, bare-bones draft at the end of my first semester of graduate school.

I went to Kyiv and Prague on research and language fellowships the summer of 2018: one from the Melikian Centers Critical Languages Institute through the U.S. Department of State, and the other from the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. I took eight intense weeks of Ukrainian easily the most difficult courses Ive ever taken and immediately left for Europe afterward. At one time, my Ukrainian wasnt too bad! But I have certainly, regrettably, lost a lot of it now.

Q: Your book begins with a timeline of the events that were part of the Euromaidan demonstrations and unrest in late 2013 and into 2014. Why did you decide to start a historical fiction book this way?

A: This was a conversation I had with my publisher, Two Dollar Radio. I had originally made a timeline when drafting the book but removed it when I was sending it out to publishers and agents. I owe a lot of credit to Eric and Eliza (Obenauf, the husband-and-wife team that runs Two Dollar Radio) for thinking critically about this book we decided a general timeline and a map would be helpful for American readers, especially since theres a lot of movement. The timeline helps provide some more straightforward context that the kobzari and journalists touch on here and there.

The map was something my dad wanted, actually. He told me after reading it that it could use one because he wanted to be able to have a simple frame of reference since he didnt know anything about it. Im glad we included it he was right. Its strange right now seeing maps of Ukraine every day, everywhere. I check one every day on the movement of Russian troops. Its surreal and incredibly sad.

Q: The structure of the book not strictly chronological, with chapters of the four main characters action interspersed with news reports, lists of the dead and the lamentations of the kobzari is unusual, and quite lyrical. It forms a tapestry of the story, rather than a strict timeline such as you put at the start of the book. What were your goals/thoughts in structuring it this way?

A: So, I mentioned that as I was doing research on this particular protest, I quickly realized that I was uncovering a long, intense historical context. I felt that in order for a reader to understand why these protests were so important, it was critical to provide that context so they realized what was at stake. Practically speaking, I didnt want to have the people in the book Katya, Misha and Slava bogged down with that responsibility. There was no way to do it without it feeling heavy-handed or awkward. The kobzari sections and articles help fill in that context in a way that felt more natural this omniscient and third-person perspective that knows more than the perspective characters do.

Q: You weave the history and effects of Chernobyl into some of the characters stories. How important is it to include Chernobyl in any story of Ukraine?

A: Chernobyl is a word that I think most people recognize, so I wanted to be careful with it. I didnt initially seek to include Chernobyl in the book because I was afraid it would be too much of a kitchen sink book with everything significant in Ukrainian history. Everything needed to be intentional.

When I was learned about the old generation of survivors who did not leave their homes despite the radiation, the samoselyResidents of the roughly 20-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone surrounding the most heavily contaminated areas near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant., things changed. The research for this book was really geared toward understanding the Ukrainian psyche as much as I could, and the particular fact about Pripyats samosley population organically reflected this protectiveness over home and the land of Ukraine that I was seeing pop up again and again through my studies. Ukrainians had been murdered by the millions because Stalin wanted their land, for example. There are a number of Ukrainian poems and laments from soldiers missing their villages while fighting for the Russian Empire the significance of home and identifying as Ukrainian is profound.

The other reason I included Chernobyl was the fact of the negative influence of the USSR and the lasting effects of one of the largest environmental disasters in human history under ineffective and corrupt leadership. In 201314, Ukrainians were still trying to shake that Soviet influence and had been both literally and figuratively cleaning up for decades. You feel that significance in the novel even though its not blatantly stated.

There are many ways people can donate to help Ukrainians displaced and in need during the current conflict. Pickhart highlighted these groups:

Top photo: Protests in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 18, 2014, when Ukrainian police used tear gas, grenades and live and rubber ammunition on Euromaidan protesters in Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti. More than 100 civilians and a dozen police officers were killed over the course of several days. Photo byVadven/iStock

News director , Media Relations and Strategic Communications

480-965-9689 penny.walker@asu.edu

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ASU alum's lyrical novel explores a time of revolution in Ukraine - ASU News Now

Responsibility for Tasmanias housing crisis sits with the Liberals, yet they refuse to act. Instead, today Peter Gutwein has announced a trickle down style land tax cut forthose Tasmanians who are lucky enough to have a second, third or fourth property.

All the whilerentscontinue to soar and Tasmanians are forced to move interstate, just to keep a roof over their heads.

In a monumental,but wholly transparent "look over there", Premier Gutwein has handed alandtax cut towell off property investors.Yet another stuntfroma Liberal Government devoid of any meaningfulplanto curbthecost of living, or address the housing crisis in Tasmania.

Todays land tax announcement wonthelp to lower rents, as the government falsely claims.It will simply widen theclass dividebetween thehaves and have-nots thosewhoown their home, along with an investment portfolio,and thosewhospend half their weeklyincomeor moreon shelter.

Handing out a Land Tax cutwont decrease rents. Itwill only encourage investors toincreasetheir portfolio.

This will be the second round of land tax cuts implemented by the Liberals in the short time since the 2021 election. Peter Gutwein claims this will further decrease rents, what world is he living in? Rents have not gone down, they have gone up, since the Liberals last round of land tax cuts. This is a fact.

What is needed isregulation of short stay accommodation and rent controls - both moved by the Greens and blocked by the old parties in Parliament - along withbuilding more social and affordable housing.

On the eve of Parliaments resuming and with Covid rampant in our schools,the GutweinGovernment is in disarray. Itslosttwo Ministers in just two weeks.Peter Gutwein is clearly making policy on the run to distract from his internal chaos.

This kind of policy making wont house the homeless, and it wont even distract from wheels falling off Peter Gutweins Cabinet. In the midst of a housing crisis,Tasmania deserves better.

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Gutwein's Land Tax Cut for Propertied Class Leaves Battlers in the Cold - Tasmanian Greens MPs

It is Wednesday morning. 48 hours earlier I was evacuated from the Russian Federation on order of the American embassy. As I sat reading and re-reading their email, I was receiving messages from American friends scared for me, and Russian friends scared for themselves and embarrassed by their government. Everybody, especially those working-class victims in Ukraine, are helpless about what is going on, but I felt only a fraction of that helplessness. The order to evacuate, for me, felt like I was being forced to abandon my Russian comrades I had a way out, and most of them do not.

Yet, even as they asked me to leave, western governments canceled all flights over Russian airspace. So how was I to return? Luckily, I was in St. Petersburg, which is close to the border of Finland, so I had the option of taking a bus over the border and catching a flight out of Helsinki. (I heard through colleagues that alternate buses to Estonia were canceled). For a trip that usually cost around 12 Euros, I bought a ticket for 48. The same thing happened for the flight from Helsinki: 200,000 rubles ($2,000 USD) for a ticket that is normally around $600. Price gouging in a time of crisis isnt anything new its a reflection of the much deeper contradictions in neo-liberal capitalism. Requesting nationals to leave while private companies hike prices evinces a fundamental flaw in liberalism between the interests of capital and the best interest of its people.

To be honest, at first I thought the supposed threat to my life was overblown. The night before I left, a few friends and I went to a local pub to collect our thoughts and talk, possibly for the last time in person. We were speaking in English, and at some point, a man behind us yelled What the fuck you speaking a foreign language for? He then pulled out a knife and began playing with it at his table, as if threatening. The bartenders called the Russian police, and when they arrived, they asked him to see the knife, which in fact was a knife pen. He showed them the pen side, and they didnt pursue the issue anymore and left. Not about to be stabbed, I turned to him, extended my hand, and said in Russian Im sorry about that. I hope we are all ok. He said we were fine, that it was just a new knife, and he shook my hand with a smile. There is a lot of paranoia and fear going on in Russia, as well as in Ukraine, but I understood that I was lucky his intentions could have been bad.

Lets be real here: the contradictions surrounding this crisis are not only felt on a personal level. Russias invasion and NATOs blunder are direct consequences of Post-Cold War politics, where the United States and NATO, gleeful from its self-proclaimed victory over Communism, initiated a process of plundering Soviet state enterprises, resources, and the livelihood of its working class people. As the United States and friends helped privatize Russia in the 1990s, they sat idly by while powerful oligarchs seized control of the ex-Soviet Unions vast technical, financial, and resource infrastructure. Just so we are clear, when I say the Soviet Union I dont mean just Russia Im referring to all 15 republics of the USSR. These oligarchs own mansions and apartment complexes in the West (including in American cities like New York!), yachts and multiple private western bank accounts. They are heavily invested in Western oil and natural gas companies. As the neo-liberal world order was formed in the 1990s, Germany, France, and the USA believed such economic ties would ensure peace in the continent. When Putin became president in 2000, he expressed a willingness to improve relations with the West, and there were relatively few confrontations with NATO or the EU until 2008. In 2008 Putin managed to reign in the oligarchs, so much so that by 2014, after the supposed Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, many of them got rid of their foreign assets to demonstrate their loyalty to Putin. Putin had the chessboard in his overwhelming favor: political loyalty of Russias wealthy, a growing faith in Russia autarky, and NATOs willingness to let the Minsk protocol collect dust.

Meanwhile the working class of Russia grew increasingly powerless throughout the process. Since 2011 there have been several anti-corruption and anti-war protests in the country, but Putins OMON forces have tightened the noose around civil society, to such an level that these people are met today with the fullest extent of Russias punitive military industrial complex: mass arrests, fake trials, executions, and familial harassment.

The argument that Russia has not done enough to prevent something like this from happening is completely flawed, promoted by half-baked neo-liberal warmongers who want to legitimate punishing average Russians for their own inability to resist for the last 20 years and the power of one man that they have no control over, no political means of impeachment. As I write this, more than 6,800 protesters have been detained, and 53 out of 57 Russian Communist Party members have openly opposed the war.

Yet we still hear from people like President Obamas ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul:

This kind of war mongering ignores the fact that much of the development of Putinism was enabled by Western inaction and the United States continued unwillingness to employ real experts as political consultants. Another contradiction.

Indeed, as leftists we must understand that Putin is the Wests own creation. We played Dr. Frankenstein in the 1990s and got ourselves a full-blown monster that is now completely unbound by the global economic order that Europe expected to keep peace. Indeed, even Germanys chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is so awestruck that all he can really do is insure that economic stability is still possible. No matter how it is sugarcoated, there were indeed promises made to Russia after 1991 that NATO would not expand, and many Russians, particularly after the events in Yugoslavia, agreed that NATO was no longer justified, that America was the real aggressor and danger. If you asked anyone in Moscow whether Ukraine would become a member of NATO in 1994, they would have laughed at you. By Clintons presidency, the promises to put a lid over NATO evaporated. Russians of all classes looked on as NATO bombed Kosovo to smitheries, wondering in awe why such a peace keeping organization still needed to exist if not simply to enforce Western financial and geo-political hegemony.

Things increasingly got worse as the United States and its allies failed to pursue lasting agreements after Minsk in 2014. The United States and its NATO allies could have brokered a lasting peace agreement, but instead they were willing to allow a temporary ceasefire to grow increasingly stale. Russians in power began to understand the redundancy of NATO, and promote it as a form of continued Western provocation, while Western governments have continued to legitimate it as a defense from their very own creation (Putin). It is a cyclical pattern, where one is begetting the other and now justifications on both sides are hardening. Russians now see the need for NATO to protect against the autocratic decision making of Putin, and Putin can now demonstrate the danger of NATO. Another contradiction.

The bus ride from St. Petersburg to Finland was the scariest part of my personal exodus. I woke up at 5am with two of my best friends (McFauls supposed enemies) and hopped on a bus with other Russians and EU members. I had no time to drink water or eat anything, and the bus offered nothing. Many families were leaving each other in tears and visible anxiety. Along the route, the bus was stopped three times by passport control officers in Russia who checked everyones documents. Luckily two out of three times the guard passed my row (I dont think he cared as much as he was supposed to, which is quite normal in Russias smaller bureaucracies) and eventually I made it through. At Russian customs, I asked an officer if I could buy water somewhere, and his response was to drink from the bathroom sink, which, considering the ancient plumbing technology, I was unwilling to risk.

After I passed Russian customs, we rode for another hour to the Finnish border. At one point the bus driver turned the bus off, and we sat sweltering for about an hour and a half, hungry and thirsty. I understood that my exodus was far less harsh than some fleeing Kyiv and Kharkov, so I tried to rest my eyes and meditate out of it.

After passing Finnish passport control, I went into the bathroom and gulped sink water for about 5 solid minutes from the palms of my hands. It felt degrading and lonely, but at the same time I knew that I had crossed the threshold, and that I was safe.

Originally Putins propaganda machine advertised this war as an anti-NATO effort meant to restrict Ukrainian membership. Yet, over time it has developed into a raw nationalist crusade, and the lexicon of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War (WW2) is elicited to cultivate national support. A friend of mine with a 13-year-old daughter told me that students across Russia were to be exposed to a state-mandated (and state written) lesson propagandizing the reasons for war. That is, the state narrative is to be taught to children whether the parents want it or not.

In this propaganda, Ukrainians have been branded as Nazis, and Putin has even denied the validity of Ukrainian nationhood. To be clear, there are neo-nazi fighters and groups in Ukraine. Weve all seen their videos and imagery heavily laden with Wehrmacht obsessionism. But neo-nazis are everywhere (again another creation of neo-liberalism), and by no means defines the vast majority of Ukraines working class. Yet Putins bombing of Kyiv and Kharkov, and his soldiers callous engagements with regular people on the streets, has strengthened the flame of Ukrainian nationalism, again emboldening Putins argument. Another cyclical pattern, another contradiction.

The truth is that Ukraine and Russia share a common history, and I do think it is important to explicate that history briefly here. In the ninth century, the ancient chronicle of Kyivan Rus wrote that princes incapable of ruling the land of present day Russia and Ukraine invited a foreign king Rurik to rule over the people of Rus. Ruriks dynasty established itself in what is now Velikii Novgorod, south of present day St. Petersburg, and extended its rule down to what is now Kyiv incorporating a number of diverse ethnic peoples, including Permeans, Mari, Mordvinians, and more. In the 1200s, the Mongol Horde from the far east swept through Kyivin Rus destroying the state almost completely (Velikii Novgorod remained somewhat independent but still paid dues to the Mongol Khans). Independence from Mongol suzerainty did not come until the late 1400s, when the powerful city-state of Moscow was able to repel the Horde for the first time, but as youd imagine, many ethnic Mongolians and their culture remained in what is now western Russia and parts of Ukraine.

By the 1500s, Ukraine was almost completely absorbed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, again sprinkling non-Russian characteristics throughout the region, changing the language, strengthening the Catholic, Ruthenian, and Lutheran Churches at the expense of Orthodoxy and, through resistance to Poles, giving Ukraine some of its earliest national myths. At this time, the Kingdom of Muscovy was fighting its own Boyars (old aristocrats) and expanding south and eastward to areas still held by the Khans. The history demonstrates that the region is so ethnically, confessionally, and linguistically mixed that its difficult to even see what is Russian about places like Tatarstan and Udmurtia, let alone Crimea or the Donbas.

That was a very simplified version of Ukrainian and Russian history, understanding that most people reading this may not care about the details. It goes to show that while an argument can be made that Russians and Ukrainians share a similar history and culture, their paths parted ways well before World War One, World War Two, and 1991. Thus, Putins argument that Lenin created Ukraine is not only historically inaccurate, but its simply an attack on the Russian Communist Party, a competitor to his own power, that ignores centuries of independent Ukrainian cultural development. Actually, Im sure Mr. Putin is aware that one of the biggest anti-Bolshevik resistance movements was the Ukrainian peasantry. History shows that Ukraine is and has always been a blood land where European powers have battled for land, wealth, and power. Ukrainian culture is different from Russian precisely because it has been punctuated for hundreds of years by aggression on both sides of Europe.

This position in between also played itself out in the USSR and continues to impact the region today. Russia is the main exporter of natural gas to Europe, and much of that gas infrastructure (built in the Soviet period) moves directly through Ukraine. With the expansion of oil and natural gas initiatives, in partnership with China, it is in Russias best interest to have firm control over the route of travel, lest 2014 repeat itself. One can see why it may not be in Europes best financial interest to really reprimand Russian capital. Another contradiction.

The bus ride was so late that I arrived at Helsinki airport with less than 20 minutes to board my flight. After explaining why I was so late, a representative from Finnair called her colleagues and told me to run, except I couldnt run because I had to clear baggage check. No time to get a drink or food, I cleared the process and then began to literally run from one end of the airport to the other. Luckily I was greeted on the plane by flight attendants with a water bottle.

In the air for 9 hours, still without food or water, I explained to a Finnish attendant the situation, and he brought me a cornucopia of snacks and salads pulled from various meals, including their own personal lunches.

What is happening is a dynamic and complicated situation that is eliciting confusion and in-fighting amongst leftists everywhere. So where should we stand as socialists / communists / anarchists / progressives? There is a real fear and anxiety of nuclear escalation, but we cannot allow that fear to pull us down to the level of Russophobia or blind NATO support. We also cannot denigrate the severity of this conflict by comparing it to American war crimes. America has and continues to perpetrate war crimes around the world, but What Aboutism is the exact same tactic that Putin has used his entire career, and in this case, it diminishes the potential severity of what is unfolding.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the geopolitical order has been dislodged, for better or for worse, but it is going to come at the expense of the worlds biggest refugee crisis, and thousands of civilian and soldier deaths. Putin has demonstrated to the world that NATO support, which has been given to Ukraine more than most countries in the world in terms of billions in armaments and training, amounts to absolutely nothing when the situation escalates. Nobody wants a full-blown war with the West, but if were witnessing the ineffectiveness of NATO, and the redundancy of Western sanctions, why does it need to exist? It appears that Western leaders have sewn the economic ties of the neo-liberal world order so tight that theyve exposed themselves as interested in nothing but the security of global capital, i.e. their assets. What is more, Bidens State of the Union address clearly demonstrated that suffering Ukranians have become cannon fodder for partisan politics within the American political establishment.

Thus, we need to make clear that we are resoundingly against NATO and stand united with the working class people of Russia who oppose their governments attack. We stand most resolutely with the working-class people of Ukraine the people in the so-called blood lands who are currently victims of a feud that geography alone has enveloped them in. We oppose American involvement, warmongering, and politicization for the purpose of domestic partisan politics. We oppose fascism on both sides of this conflict but recognize that the strongest response the West could have, its most humanely logical reaction, is to seize the foreign assets and property of Russias oligarchs who are powerful investors in Western capitalist institutions, use their mansions and yachts for refugees, invest that money and property in green energy that will once and for all eliminate Europes dependence on Russian oil and natural gas, and stop the expansion of NATO.

I have doubts that Bidens new task force to hunt oligarchs will take any decisive action because punishing the oligarchs would hurt western capital, including American capitalists who have their hands in the same pot. Instead, new sanctions will hurt working class Russians disproportionately while leaving the true enablers of this conflict relatively unscathed. Another contradiction.

Ill leave you with two illustrative experiences from my journey. As I boarded the bus in St. Petersburg, an older gay woman sat next to me. We were directly parallel to the side door, and as she got on, her girlfriend was crying and explaining to her partner that they have a toilet on this bus! A coffee station, free movies. You will be good, I promise as a way of comforting her. They may never see each other again if another iron curtain descends, which is a high possibility.

When I arrived in Chicago, famous for Ukrainian Village, I exited US customs to a sea of children meeting their grandmothers and parents who had no-doubt escaped Ukraine. Nobody should have to experience that kind of fear just because two old men must appear strong to their people and are committed to maintaining their wealth. This war is pointless on both sides, and the United States and NATO are not guilt free.

Originally posted here:

Confronting experience and contradictions in the Russia-Ukraine Crisis - Uprise RI

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Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war are set to begin arriving in Australia as soon as this weekend. More than 1,000 people have been issued Australian visas since the war began, according to the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, and many have fled to Poland and Romania. Federation co-chair Stefan Romaniw said he expects women and children to begin arriving within days. "Australia is 20,000 km away, they've come from a war zone... those children obviously have seen things. We have to deal with trauma, with families being disconnected," he told AAP. The federation has been preparing support for people when they arrive, including medical checks and accommodation, and links to welfare organisations. "We've got our finger on the pulse, we're co-ordinated and we know what we're doing... As soon as they land, we will meet them at the airport and work out what are the next steps," he said. It's expected most people will land in Sydney and Melbourne, along with Adelaide and Brisbane. He praised the efforts of the Ukrainian community in Australia so far. "It has been exceptional - Putin is a tyrant and he needs to be stopped." While the Australian government has been "very efficient" at issuing visas, the vast majority issued so far are tourist class, so people will not be able to access support such as medicare, according to Mr Romaniw. But he said he had spoken to Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Friday and asked him to look at reclassifying some visas when people arrive. The department of home affairs has been contacted for comment. Australian Associated Press

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Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war are set to begin arriving in Australia as soon as this weekend.

More than 1,000 people have been issued Australian visas since the war began, according to the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, and many have fled to Poland and Romania.

Federation co-chair Stefan Romaniw said he expects women and children to begin arriving within days.

"Australia is 20,000 km away, they've come from a war zone... those children obviously have seen things. We have to deal with trauma, with families being disconnected," he told AAP.

The federation has been preparing support for people when they arrive, including medical checks and accommodation, and links to welfare organisations.

"We've got our finger on the pulse, we're co-ordinated and we know what we're doing... As soon as they land, we will meet them at the airport and work out what are the next steps," he said.

It's expected most people will land in Sydney and Melbourne, along with Adelaide and Brisbane.

He praised the efforts of the Ukrainian community in Australia so far.

"It has been exceptional - Putin is a tyrant and he needs to be stopped."

While the Australian government has been "very efficient" at issuing visas, the vast majority issued so far are tourist class, so people will not be able to access support such as medicare, according to Mr Romaniw.

But he said he had spoken to Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Friday and asked him to look at reclassifying some visas when people arrive.

The department of home affairs has been contacted for comment.

Australian Associated Press

Read the original:

Ukrainians to arrive in Aust within days - Daily Liberal

NEW FERRY ROUTE

The Wakehurst Parkway was built as a temporary road within a parcel of land bought by the then NSW Government to create a major highway, connecting the northern beaches with the city of Sydney. No state government ever since has even managed to floodproof it, though. So would our current government now please increase this flooding to a depth which will allow them to introduce an electric ferry service to prevent the possible drowning of those wishing to access the city and/or our one and only hospital?

Marianne van de Voorde, North Narrabeen

AD CHARGES

There's a new electric car charging station installed at the corner of Lawrence and Dowling Street, Freshwater. Don't bother that it's also a 2m x 1m 24/7 illuminated advertising sign but it's constantly pumping out Liberal Party advertising like their commitment to a very slow program towards a net carbon zero by 2050. And this glowing advertising monolith isn't facing the shopping area but towards the residential zone. Should we be expecting this sign to start pumping out Labor slogans and advertising after the next federal election?

Brett Curtis, Queenscliff

WAGGING THE DOG

The crusade by Cr Rory Amon and Pittwater Unleashed to force the the people in Pittwater to put up with dogs on two of the area's beaches has Cr Amon describing the times proposed for the trials as "popular for exercising dogs". Well - newsflash - they are also popular times for the rest of us humans too, especially in summer! The prospect of avoiding excited dogs charging about and ducking flying objects propelled by some of the owners will put a lot of regulars users off, including me and my partner. We already avoid the various other unleashed areas for the same reasons. Although I believe the proposal should be defeated on environmental grounds alone, especially now that for the first time we have strong Greens representation on the council, there are other factors that don't appear to have been given due consideration by those who just want dogs on the beaches, no matter what!

LITTLE BIKE LOST

An almost new child's bike - it is pink and violet - has been left outside Eurobodalla Homes in Newport but now I have brought it in due to the weather. Is it possible to find the owner through the Review? Somewhere there is a little girl feeling sad.

HAVE YOUR SAY

The extensive Northern Beaches Council property portfolio comprises 542 buildings and 2900 land parcels, including parks, public reserves, car parks, vacant land, buildings on Council land, and Crown land under Council management. Council is seeking community feedback on the Draft Property Management Framework to guide decisions on the use of this property, acquisition needs, redevelopment or properties no longer required. The 18 action items include a review of existing properties, work to determine future property needs of the community, an evaluation of our leases and licences, and the preparation of a Property Action Plan. Submissions close on March 30, 2022. See yoursay.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au

Have something to say? Send a letter to the editor at: editor@northernbeachesreview.com.au

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Your say: letters to the editor - Northern Beaches Review

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Three more people have died with COVID-19 in the Northern Territory. SecureNT says two women aged in their 60s and 70s have died with the virus along with a man in his 60s. There have now been 26 virus-related deaths in the region since the start of the pandemic. The Territory also reported another 559 infections on Thursday. There are 48 people in hospital with the virus including two in intensive care. The number of active cases stands at 3833. The figures came as the Northern Land Council said biosecurity zones imposed by the federal government, which restricted the movement of people between communities, had worked. The restrictions will not be enforced from Friday. Council chair Samuel Bush-Blanasi said traditional owners and community members had wanted to slow down the spread of the virus to give more people a chance to get their second and third vaccine doses. "The biosecurity zones helped slow things down. They've done their job," he said. But Mr Bush-Blanasi cautioned against complacency with COVID-19 "still out there". "We need to prepare for the next wave because COVID is not going away," he said. "That means everyone getting all their jabs and making sure our kids from five years old and up also get fully vaccinated." Australian Associated Press

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Three more people have died with COVID-19 in the Northern Territory.

SecureNT says two women aged in their 60s and 70s have died with the virus along with a man in his 60s.

There have now been 26 virus-related deaths in the region since the start of the pandemic.

The Territory also reported another 559 infections on Thursday.

There are 48 people in hospital with the virus including two in intensive care.

The number of active cases stands at 3833.

The figures came as the Northern Land Council said biosecurity zones imposed by the federal government, which restricted the movement of people between communities, had worked.

The restrictions will not be enforced from Friday.

Council chair Samuel Bush-Blanasi said traditional owners and community members had wanted to slow down the spread of the virus to give more people a chance to get their second and third vaccine doses.

"The biosecurity zones helped slow things down. They've done their job," he said.

But Mr Bush-Blanasi cautioned against complacency with COVID-19 "still out there".

"We need to prepare for the next wave because COVID is not going away," he said.

"That means everyone getting all their jabs and making sure our kids from five years old and up also get fully vaccinated."

Australian Associated Press

See the article here:

Three more virus-related deaths in the NT - Daily Liberal

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance and work of writer and journalist Josip Juri. He opened by congratulating everyone who organised various events to contribute to the Year of Josip Juri.

He continued that there were many big names among Slovenians in the course of the nations development that left an important mark in the times in which they lived. "Many of these names were well-known, whereas others were a little more on the fringes." He added that Juri was renowned in the area around his birthplace, but he was not the household name he deserved to be elsewhere in Slovenia. "Josip Juri was an exceptional individual. He was also a promoter of national awakening, a newspaperman, an editor, a cosmopolitan, someone who gathered experience from Muljava to Vienna and poured it into practice. The time in which he lived and worked was a special time, a time of national awakening. Juri understood that a cultural revival was necessary for a national awakening, and this sentiment is present in all his works. He and his followers made an important contribution to increasing the oeuvre of the printed word in the Slovenian language." On this occasion, the Prime Minister quoted Juri by saying: "Where people read and know what it is all about, there they are unwavering. Where there is a lack of awareness, there is no certainty and there is a safe haven for impostors and strangers." Prime Minister Jana said that Juri was well aware that to raise the nation's consciousness it was necessary to have a media outlet, that it was necessary to publish a newspaper. "There were a few newspapers being published, but they did not fully satisfy the needs of the younger generations, i.e. the Young Slovenians." He also presented the life of Josip Juri. "He became assistant editor of the Slovenian Nation newspaper, which began to be published in 1868 in Maribor three times a week, which meant a lot of effort and work for an editor. This newspaper emphasised the desire that all Slovenians should be united in one administrative unit, that the Slovenian language should have equal status in public, including in schools and offices. After four years, the newspaper's offices were relocated to Ljubljana. From 1873, it was published as a daily newspaper, which was hard work in those times. Juri edited the newspaper under difficult conditions until his premature death. At that time, Slovenians were at least to some extent competing with the Germans, who back then had a much more developed media network in our region and also dominated cultural and economic life."

In his speech, the Prime Minister said that, at that time, Juri understood that the modernisation of political life was at our doors. It was a time when political movements were evolving into parties in the modern sense of the word, with democracy developing and elections taking place. "He knew that the political doctrine he was advocating, which was based on the freedom of the individual and of the nation, also required strong media support. The Slovenian Nation was the media outlet that, right up to the Second World War, when the newspaper went out of business, provided this media support, which put individual and national freedom at the forefront." In this context, he also recalled Levstik. "Juri, together with Levstik and other associates, is the original founder of the traditional early Slovenian liberalism. At the end of the 19th century, three typical political blocs were thus formed: liberal, Catholic, and social democratic. All of them played an important role in the development of Slovenians as a nation and of traditional Slovenian democracy. If this flow had not been interrupted during the Second World War and later in the party system, Slovenia would today be a much more flourishing democracy, similar to democracies in some parts of Western Europe. Juri was not just a writer and he was not someone who believed that merely writing something was enough to have done ones part." Prime Minister Jana also quoted one of Juris thoughts, which, according to him, is still applicable today: "Ideas alone ... will not save us, only work can save us ..."

In his speech, the Prime Minister also said that Juri's repertoire was very broad and that his political profile was adorned with the principles of freedom and prosperity, something that should be at the centre of the political and national spheres if we want to achieve a normal life and development, as well as ensure fundamental rights and freedoms. He also recalled the brutal war in Ukraine, the escalation of violence against an independent state, and the unbridled trampling upon freedom and peace. "In this context, it is important to recall once again certain words, including those of Josip Juri: "... only a nation that is master of its own land can achieve prosperity." "The Prime Minister concluded his speech by saying that this is a sentence that carries added weight in these times, and that 2021 has seen Juri take his rightful place. "He was a pioneer in many fields; he was a promoter of national awakening a role that was a secret for many years but has now come to light and it is only right that we be aware of it and further underline it in the Slovenian literature and politics."

At the end of his speech, Prime Minister Janez Jana thanked the Municipality of Ivanna Gorica and the Ministry of Culture.

Read more:

Prime Minister Janez Jana as keynote speaker at the literary evening concluding the Year of Josip Juri in Muljava | GOV.SI - Gov.si