Mariia Shynkarenko, Author at Public Seminar

Crimean Tatars Are Still Waiting for Justice

80 years of displacement and suppression

May 18, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

This year, May 18 commemorates 78 years since almost 200,000 Crimean Tatars were torn from their beds in the middle of the night and forced into cattle wagons. The Crimean Tartars, a Sunni Muslim Turkic ethnic group, have lived in Crimea since the Middle Ages. In 1944, accused by Joseph ...

Crimean Tatars Are Still Waiting for Justice

Europe & Central Asia

On Collective Responsibility and “Good” Russians

Preaching to Ukrainians that there are “good Russians out there who are also victims of Putin” is the same as saying “all lives matter”

April 11, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

Despite what I regard as obvious parallels with Nazi Germany, I still find it very hard to break the wall with my international colleagues who urge us Ukrainians to remain open to dialogue and even sympathy with ordinary Russians—the good Russians—who they say are “also victims of Putin’s regime.” ...

On Collective Responsibility and “Good” Russians

Europe & Central Asia

Against All Hope, I Hope

Notes from a young Ukrainian abroad

March 8, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

Our military’s acts of bravery are already a legend. When a Russian warship approached the tiny island Zmiinyi on the Black Sea and ordered the soldiers there to surrender or perish, they responded: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!”...

Europe & Central Asia

Not about NATO

To frame NATO as a security threat to Russia caters to Kremlin propaganda

February 23, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

On Monday 21 Feb, on the eighth anniversary of the victory of the Euromaidan, Russian president Vladimir Putin effectively declared war on Ukraine. To justify this recklessness, he gave an hour-long pseudo-historical rant that portrayed Ukraine as an artificial state that owes its existence to Russia. He also accused the ...

Europe & Central Asia

What’s at Stake in Ukraine

“If you want peace, prepare for war”

February 2, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

Thus, the potential occupation of Ukraine should not be seen as a local affair, nor should the country be viewed as a strategic sacrifice to appease Putin’s fears about NATO. Instead, it should be seen as a warning of how far he can push his might, if not properly restrained. ...

Democracy

Who Wants to Live in a Comedy State?

A tough choice to make in the Ukrainian elections

April 19, 2019 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

It would be fair to say that notwithstanding the protracted war in Donbass and endemic corruption, Ukraine has managed to prove itself a prudent player in the region. Over the course of five years, Ukraine weaned itself off Russian gas, strengthened its army, signed an association agreement with the European ...

Feature

Burning Man’s Experimental Dreampolitics

Does the iconic festival suggest a new way forward?

February 6, 2018 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

When the era of master narratives recedes and well-trodden Enlightenment principles cease to be relevant, progressives should issue the challenge to come up with an alternative thinking. It is quite a challenge today to bring about new reasoning when the distinguishing feature of our current condition is distrust and skepticism ...