“I thought I was working for freedom and human rights,” said Serhiy Kovalsky. “But now I have the feeling that in reality I was working for Putin.”
World War II
Resurrection Day in a Graveyard
Few Russians remain in Grozny. On Easter Sunday they drive down from neighboring Stavropol region to lay some flowers on their relatives’ graves – and then quickly leave again.
Chechnya or Bust
We arrive in Argun, on the outskirts of Grozny. Days after the Russian assault, Tagir Gadzhiyev escorted English and American journalists along the same highway. They had to turn around here because of an air raid.
Age of Empires
Even though both his grandfathers died in Bolshevik captivity, Ilyas Kayayev can’t say Russian rule has been bad for Dagestan on the whole: “What’s the point of being independent and sitting in a cave?”
Germany and Drones
Military experience gained in the Balkans, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan has made Germany more, not less, assertive. One of the clearest signs is Angela Merkel’s pursuit of weaponized drones.
At Peace With the Past
Seventy years ago, Soviet forces surrounded and crushed Hitler’s Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Now an exhibition in Dresden returns to that wintry hell on the Volga.
Noble Europe
It takes a curmudgeon to deride the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU.
European history is a chronicle of wars motivated by territorial conquest, religious fanaticism and ethnic hatred.
Europe’s peace should be honored, cherished, emulated.
Hands Off Germany’s Neo-Nazi Party
Far-right parties are a scourge of many European democracies. But trying to prohibit them does nothing to uproot chauvinism or stop racist violence. It only creates the illusion that politicians are taking action.
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down
Russian nationalists’ embrace of Nazi ideology might seem especially masochistic given Hitler’s plans to enslave and butcher his eastern neighbors. But on the whole, Russians and Germans have gotten along just fine over the past 1,000 years.
