Gun ownership is a civil right; a woman’s bodily autonomy is not — Hello again, America. We’ve talked before about how life over there is getting increasingly crazy. You should know that we’re not trying to shame you. It’s not us Europeans getting all colonially condescending on you. The U.S., …

Guns, guns everywhere — I have often commented under many pieces here on Medium on the fact that Europeans are watching the U.S. with ever-increasing bewilderment and alarm, as it seems to us that politics and life, in general across the pond, is becoming more unhinged by the day. Few things are as characteristically…

Before it becomes just background noise — You might have noticed that the Ukraine war coverage has been steadily slipping into the background lately. The war seems to be turning into a slow march of Russia to take Donetsk and Luhansk, and that doesn’t make for compelling news. Is Putin going to declare his “victory” if that…

It’s madness — Meet Mr. Oleksiy Arestovych. He’s currently, among other things, a military advisor for President Zelenskyy. Oleksiy Arestovych gave an eerily prophetic interview back in February 2019, exactly two years before Russia invaded Ukraine. Please watch it carefully. Most people won’t. They will marvel at the fact that he so accurately…

The Rubinstein Trap — In chess, Polish player Akiba Rubinstein had the dubious honor to fall twice into a “trap” that eventually was named after him. Likely, it’s what stopped him from ever becoming a World Champion. How is that relevant to the war in Ukraine, you might ask. Let me elaborate. I mentioned…

In which we address our own propaganda machine — In Part One I attempted to establish that despite the fact that Putin is a dictator, the West (Europe especially) was happy to rely on Russia for its energy needs, while keeping him at arm’s length, thus funding his regime and ambitions. We turned him into an enemy while paying…

Political realism and John Mearsheimer explained — I was just reading a very interesting piece about how Latin American countries are treating the Russian invasion in Ukraine and I found that I was mostly nodding my head in agreement until I came to a screeching halt when a Mearsheimerian argument was mentioned. Professor John Mearsheimer doesn’t need…

In which we discuss how the West is full of it — In Part One I attempted to establish that despite the fact that Putin is a dictator, the West (Europe especially) was happy to rely on Russia for its energy needs, while keeping its leader at arm’s length, thus funding his regime and ambitions. …

In which we address that we’re doing business with the “enemy” — Putin is a dictator. There’s no doubt about it. The world knows that there is no chance in a functioning democracy for any politician to be in a position of power for the amount of time that Putin has been in Russia. In some countries, it’s actually illegal. There are…