Lucian Kim
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Opinion

Germany: Reunited for 25 Years and It Doesn’t Always Feel So Good

Published October 2, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

Today’s dividing lines are between Germans who have accepted the reality of globalization and those who deny it by shrouding themselves in nationalism.

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Syria Is the Next Arena on Vladimir Putin’s Comeback Tour

Published September 18, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

The Russian president has stepped back on center stage by appointing himself the indispensable arbiter in Syria’s civil war.

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Why It’s So Hard for Germany to Lead on the Migrant Crisis – or Anything Else

Published September 7, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

In Germany, even the semantics of the word “to lead” — fuehren — are loaded because of associations with Adolf Hitler.

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A European Disaster

Published September 4, 2015 in Slate Leave a comment

A refugee crisis is exposing the cracks in a continent that was supposedly whole and free.

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Why Estonia’s Not Worried, Despite Its Neighbor to the East

Published July 22, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

Estonian President Ilves doesn’t like to dwell on the supposed Russian threat to his country after Putin’s annexation of Crimea. His thing is technology.

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Germany’s Assumptions About Peace and Power Are Out of Sync With Reality

Published June 14, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

Before the fighting broke out in Ukraine, Germany behaved like a big Switzerland, with no obvious interests abroad apart from developing new markets for its exports.

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Vladimir Putin Is Not Planning Annexation of Ukraine Enclaves, But Diplomacy Is Flailing

Published May 29, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

The problem with the Minsk agreement is that Russia plays a double role — as a disinterested observer on paper and an active party to the conflict in the field.

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Why This Ukrainian ‘Revolution’ May Be Doomed, Too

Published May 17, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

Most Ukrainians wanted their country to be different by now. Even those who didn’t support the Maidan were fed up with living in Europe’s most corrupt country.

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Moscow Uses Tanks, Berlin Words in World War II Commemorations

Published May 8, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

In an irony of history, Germany is now the one country that has the moral authority to bridge the contradictions in remembering World War II.

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How Vladimir Putin’s Skewed View of World War II Threatens his Neighbors and the West

Published April 13, 2015 in Reuters Leave a comment

Remembering the Great Victory is more than an instrument to consolidate Russians. It has also become a way to prepare people for war.

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Putin’s War on Young People

If Russia is ever to become a country that seeks peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of its own citizens, then such a future depends on Russia’s young people.

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About Lucian

Based in Berlin and Moscow, I reported from the former Soviet empire for 25 years for NPR, Reuters, Slate, Bloomberg, and others. My first book, Putin’s Revenge: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine, is now available from Columbia University Press.

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