It turns out that talking about Russia's corrosive influence on the West and talking about Epstein isn't either or.

In Kyjiw ist nun eine Holocaustüberlebende erfroren, wie die @novayagazeta.bsky.social berichtet. Sie lebte zurückgezogen in Podil. Ihren Namen hatte sie im Waisenhaus erhalten, wo man sie abgegeben hatte, als ihre Eltern in Babyn Jar erschossen worden waren: Bezfamilnaja („Ohne Nachnamen“). Sie 1/2

In der morgigen @diezeit.bsky.social findet sich auf der Seite 1 ein Leitartikel meiner Kollegin @oliviakortas.bsky.social , die in Kyjiw lebt, der so wahr ist und beklemmend und bestürzend, dass ich ihn jeder und jedem ans Herz legen möchte. Hier der erste Absatz:

The problem is who truly believes that a Trumpian USA will honour any security guarantees? And who thinks that Russia will be an honest deal maker?

The massacre of Iranian protesters reminds of Tiananmen Square - an event that is still shrouded in the darkness of deadly secrecy. The Chinese regime bought itself out of the memory of mass murder by making China rich and imposing silence. Hard to see what Khameini can offer in order to forget.

As Kyiv residents face brutal winter blackouts and heating disruptions caused by Russian strikes, World Central Kitchen is delivering thousands of hot meals.

Who would have thought that the news from Iran would be the most hopeful reading experience of the day. Indeed, the whole year so far.

I know there is a lot going on but it has largely fallen from the headlines that Russia is using the current freezing weather in Ukraine and attacks on power and heat infrastructure to try to freeze millions of civilians, a clear crime against humanity www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

By the numbers: Mentions of 'peace' in Christmas and New Year's addresses, combined: Zelenskyy: 32 Putin: 0

Zusammen mit der @bravery-ev.bsky.social startet heute ein wichtiger Fundraiser und ein neuer Meilenstein in der Ukraine Unterstützung. Zwei weitere gepanzerte Fahrzeuge müssen her: Einmal für die Medics in Pokrovsk und nochmals für Kherson. bravery.berlin/waswirtun/ev...

Wohltätigkeit ist das Gegenmodell zum Sozialstaat.

Frohe Weihnachten. Merry Christmas. May true peace come.

Poignantly this song by Mykola Leontovych was used in 1919 in a cultural diplomacy campaign to get international recognition and guarantees for the new independent Ukrainian Republic. The attempt failed but the song went on to become world famous. Hopefully, we can do better.

Sometimes I marvel at the amount of work political scientists put into trying to scientifically study what wedge issues would divide the far right and then some chaos goblin of fate throws out into the world the wildcard of: "being mean to the violently murdered director of the Princess Bride."

When small nations forget that they need the upkeep of the international order more than anyone else: Belgium’s refusal to release funds for Ukraine is short-sighted and forgetful of history.

Belgium seems to have forgotten that the drive to establish an international order after WW I was not least based on the empathy attributed to a neutral Belgium that had been invaded by Germany simply because it was the shortcut around the French defence lines.

‪According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, Witkoff gladly payed 550 rubles (6 euros) for a cheburek while visiting Moscow in August and that is all you really need to know about his aptitude for making deals in Russia

And the forum has been cancelled on orders from the Kyrgyz security services. Discussing the legacy of Russian colonialism is off limits in Kyrgyzstan

What is astonishing is not that Trump wants business with Russia (he has done that for decades), but that he thinks that these deals will be honoured. Maybe he should ask Shell about Sakhalin. Or Ukraine about the Budapest memorandum.

Die Opfer des russischen Genozids kommen nicht vor @efdavies.bsky.social erklärt warum der Vorstoß der #US-Regierung im Kontext des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine faktisch eine russische Wunschliste ist, die die Souveränität der #Ukraine, der #NATO und EU-Staaten aufheben will

Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.

The EU finds itself on the sidelines as Ukraine tries to salvage something from a messy peace plan. It will fall on Kyiv and Brussels to ensure that no negotiated ceasefire leaves the door open to renewed Russian attack, argues @gwendolynsasse.bsky.social. carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...

Was seit Trumps Amtsantritt international rund um den Überlebenskampf der Ukraine passierte, ist aus ukrainischer Sicht ein einziges Trauerspiel. Mein Kommentar für @ntvde.bsky.social zum erneuten Versuch Washingtons, Kyjiw unter Druck zu setzen. www.n-tv.de/politik/poli...

In Myrnohrad, which literally means “peace city,” “some residents returned to retrieve a few belongings from their ravaged apartments, despite the drones hunting them in the streets.” Year, after year, Russia gets to destroy and terrorize with impunity www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/w...

come and meet Azazello.

It seems that Banksy has just appeared in Lviv We already know that in these difficult times, the world's most famous street artist has chosen Ukraine. Art as resistance. Art as solidarity. Art as voice. When the world watches, artists speak. What's your message? 🇺🇦

Please meet Azazello, hippie, poet, artist and narkoman, who is sadly no longer with us but whose papers found their way to The Wende Museum in LA and have been digitalised and contextualised by a team of scholars. It is an unusual ride into an exotic and marginalised world: azazello-archive.com/en/

Angelinos, please come to our launch of the digital Azazello archive at the Wende Museum on November 19. Azazello was a hippie, poet, drug addict, artist and contrarian, whose archive miraculously survived him, providing a rare glimpse into the Soviet underground. wendemuseum.org/event/azazel...

RIP Igor Palmin, photographer of Soviet life both over- and underground and chronicler of late socialism in a quiet yet piercing manner. I did a podcast for the Barbican in 2018, where his work was part of the Another Kind of Life exhibition. www.barbican.org.uk/s/anotherkin.... Picture from 1991.

RIP Igor Palmin, photographer of Soviet life both over- and underground and chronicler of late socialism in a quiet yet piercing manner. I did a podcast for the Barbican in 2018, where his work was part of the Another Kind of Life exhibition. www.barbican.org.uk/s/anotherkin.... Picture from 1991.

Vielen Dank an die Dame mit moralischem Kompass und Zivilcourage.

Die andere Seite der Medaille. zweiteroktober90.de

Mass shootings in the US, per Gun Violence Archive: 2015: 332 2016: 383 2017: 347 2018: 335 2019: 414 2020: 611 2021: 689 2022: 644 2023: 659 2024: 503 So far in 2025...324 mass shootings in just 272 days. We do not have to keep living like this.

RIP Al Rieber, professor and teacher extraordinaire at many places but latest at CEU. His biography is worthy of a book. His reputation as an Mensch is legendary among students and colleagues. He will be missed, not least because he represented a time when Russian history was a happier place.

RIP Al Rieber, professor and teacher extraordinaire at many places but latest at CEU. His biography is worthy of a book. His reputation as an Mensch is legendary among students and colleagues. He will be missed, not least because he represented a time when Russian history was a happier place.

Solidarity for my colleague F. Davies, whose nuanced discussion about oversights in imperial Russian history was compared by the editors of Ab Imperio as akin to Putin’s historical frame. No critique can be as damming as what the editors did to themselves by twisting words and turning personal.

There is something particularly brutal about killing the very young and/ or the very old. Russia has just broken through another shameful barrier. In full daylight and with no shame. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/w...

Yesterday’s lunar eclipse over Kyiv 💙💛 If you value our work, enjoy what we create, and want to help us reach new heights, we invite you to become a sponsor by clicking on the link vist.ly/463b3

Every authoritarian regime that embraced this aesthetic inflicted violence and chaos on its society

OTD in 1989 around 2 million people formed a human chain through Estonia, Lithuania & Latvia to beg mother Moscow not to remove its troops which were genuinely invited in as a result of nothing to do with Molotov Ribbentrop pact OTD 50 years prior...

,..wenn wir irgendetwas beim Nationalsozialismus anerkennen, dann ist es die Anerkennung, dass ihm zum ersten Mal in der deutschen Politik die restlose Mobilisierung der menschlichen Dummheit gelungen ist." Kurt Schumacher 13. Oktober 1895- 20. August 1952 

What is so annoying from a historian’s point of view about current Russia coverage is how journalism declares the Cold War as won or lost. The Cold War East did not only consist of Russia. Many former Soviet bloc countries consider themselves to have been winners in 1989/1991.

Most comments on the Alaska summit have concentrated on Trump gobbling up Putin’s manipulative flattery. But there was also something odd about Putin. His domestic audiences know him as a poker face. In Alaska he gestured and grimaced a lot. Almost like he had been coached to act more ‘American’.

There was a time when Lavrov was considered a serious diplomat. … Is he consciously aping Melania Trump in sending his true thoughts via an item of clothing. Or is he referencing Vance’s attack on Zelensky’s lack of office wear? Is this the Russian war attire? The mind boggles. Not in a good way.

Lawrow kommt im CCCP-UdSSR-TShirt. Russland will eine neue Weltordnung, bekämpft den Rechtsstaat + Freiheit und verstößt jeden Tag gegen das Völkerrecht. Und AfD/Rechtsextreme + rechte Blogger schweigen 🤐 , weil sie Putin lieben und Diktaturen eigentlich ganz geil finden.

Fascinating interpretation by Dugin of Perestroika as a headless chicken (his post is shown as a screenshot) running but not functioning. Fascinating parallels also made with 1917 and today. All is not well in the land of the Russian nationalists.

Maurene Comey's goodbye note to SDNY colleagues:

Catch the recording of our recent discussion on how propaganda fuels Russia’s war against Ukraine—shaping narratives, justifying aggression, and undermining democracy. Featuring @teresafm.bsky.social @jcaf.bsky.social and Volodymyr Yermolenko, moderated by @flampert.bsky.social

Wir freuen uns auch. Auf eine erkenntnisreiche und produktive Zeit, in der wir uns der Perebudova widmen - altbekannt als ukrainische Perestroika und doch ganz neu gesehen. Und mit Franziska wird es garantiert nie langweilig werden! Willkommen.

My heart breaks for Kyiv … I spent many happy summers in Kyiv, walking its shady streets, listening to its buskers and sitting on benches looking over the river. Kyiv has always been funnier, prettier and more relaxed than Moscow. No surprise Putin hates it so much.