Walking along Kreutziger Straße in the Berlin neighborhood of Friedrichshain, I was struck by an unusual building adorned with murals and political banners. The facade displays many motifs, for example a skull which looks like it belongs in the Mexican Day of the Dead. Another section of wall looks like […]
As if the 2016 U.S. presidential election wasn’t contentious enough, Mexico stands to be no less divisive and ridden by controversy. Current front runner for the July 1st presidential contest, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (often simply known by the acronym AMLO), is a longtime fixture of the outsider political left, […]
To what extent will the festering matter of Crimea inflame east-west tensions and further contribute to a “new Cold War”? Late last year, I was invited to the Yalta European Strategy meeting (or YES), an annual Kyiv gathering of policymakers, experts and others. Ever since Russia militarily occupied Crimea in […]
Recently, in the process of reading about the Trump-Russia affair, the U.S. public also learned a bit about the inner politics of Ukraine’s power elite. As part of the larger investigation into foreign money streaming to Trump and his associates in advance of the 2016 election, special counsel Robert Mueller […]
One can scarcely read the news these days without coming across references to the threat of an imminent “new Cold War.” Gravely, experts warn of escalating tensions being ratcheted up as a result of western sanctions against the Kremlin, ongoing friction in Ukraine in addition to any number of other […]
Nearly five years after the EuroMaidan revolution convulsed Ukraine, Kyiv’s youthful cultural scene is flourishing. Even in the midst of war and economic turmoil, the city’s creative milieu is booming from fashion to raving to partying to film to theater to outdoor concerts to food events to chic, hipster-like bars […]
Rallying on Maidan square during protests against the Viktor Yanukovych government, Ukraine’s LGBT community hoped that western integration might eventually help promote social equality and tolerance. But now, five years later, some wonder whether the West offers such a hopeful and optimistic model for the future. Take, for example, post-Brexit […]
What is it like to hobnob with the some of the most powerful figures among the world’s political and financial elite? Recently, I had an opportunity as a member of the media to attend the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference in Kyiv, a kind of “Davos of the East” gathering […]
In the post-Maidan era, Kyiv has witnessed the proliferation of murals which dot the sides of buildings throughout the capital. Many murals underscore Ukraine’s search for historical and political meaning. Take, for example, Mata Ruda’s “Protectress,” located just a block away from Maidan square. The mural depicts Berehynia, a Slavic […]
In the wake of the Maidan revolution, Ukraine is in the midst of historic and nationalist soul searching. Below in the Zoloti Vorota metro stop, visitors may find medieval motifs of some interest. On a 2018 trip, I came upon more mosaics adorning a theater.
