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Tag Archives: Russia

Tusk, Kaczyński, and Putin: A View From Moscow

18 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Christian Davies in Foreign Affairs

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Poland, Russia

So the biggest problem Kaczynski was for Russia was that they were worried he was going to go and get himself killed?  For sure it was that, yes.  And it was not just a problem for Russia, it was also a problem for NATO.

Last month, I interviewed Maxim Samorukov, Deputy Editor of Carnegie.ru and an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Moscow Centre.

We discussed relations between Poland and Russia between 2007 and 2010, when Poland’s executive branch was divided between Law and Justice President Lech Kaczynski and Civic Platform Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the domestic and foreign policy context of the Smolensk catastrophe, and the Kremlin’s view of Poland’s present Law and Justice government, including the possibility of future co-operation.

‘The Ghosts of Smolensk’, an article I wrote for Foreign Policy’s Democracy Lab about President Kaczynski’s contested legacy , can be found here.

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Reporting on ‘Hybrid War’ in Ukraine

08 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Christian Davies in Foreign Affairs

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Russia, Ukraine

The purpose of Russian propaganda is not to convince reporters on the ground who can see the truth for themselves, but to sow doubts in the minds of those who struggle to identify lies from afar.

Kiev – In August 2014, six months after the departure of former President Viktor Yanukovych and the initiation of Russian military operations in Crimea, shrines to the fallen and barricades that had long taken on a commemorative quality vied for space on Kiev’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti with encampments inhabited by protestor-fighters who either refused to abandon a revolution they regarded as incomplete, or had nowhere else to go.

Slightly less shabby – in most cases – were the foreign correspondents frequenting the bars and cafes around the Maidan’s periphery and its surrounding streets. They gather to socialise, compare notes and conduct interviews, moving back and forth between their temporary bases in the capital and the numerous fronts in the east of Ukraine. Their experiences, and those of many of their colleagues, help us to understand not only the challenges of reporting on the Ukraine crisis, but also how both warfare and journalism have undergone similar processes of fragmentation and change.

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Kenton on The Ghosts of Smolensk

Recent Posts

  • Polish PM Angers Human Rights Campaigners with Plans to Shake Up NGOs
  • New Polish Military Force Worries Political Opposition
  • Poland Exhumes President Lech Kaczyński’s Remains
  • Polish Women Vow to Step Up Pressure Over Abortion Restrictions
  • Poland’s Abortion Ban Proposal Near Collapse After Mass Protests

Recent Comments

Kenton on The Ghosts of Smolensk

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