Author Meets Critics: "Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories Diverging States"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

In Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States, Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel explain how since 1991 Russia and Ukraine diverged politically, ending up on a collision course. Russia slid back into authoritarianism and imperialism, while Ukraine consolidated a competitive political system and pro-European identity. As Ukraine built a democratic nation-state, Russia refused to accept it and came to see it as an “anti-Russia” project. After political and economic pressure proved ineffective, and even counterproductive, Putin went to war to force Ukraine back into the fold of the “Russian world.” Ukraine resisted, determined to pursue European integration as a sovereign state. These irreconcilable goals, rather than geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West over NATO expansion, are essential to understanding Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Sub Unit

• Division 13: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries

Chair

• Catherine Lu McGill University

Presenters

• Maria Popova McGill University

• Oxana Shevel Tufts University

• Yoshiko M. Herrera University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Elise Giuliano Columbia University

• Lucan A. Way University of Toronto