John Kettler Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 Found this while looking at a new to me Russian defense blog. This well-researched and well-reviewed book was released March 31, 2017. Its author, Taras Kuzlo, has written several other books on Ukraine issues. Putin's War Against Ukraine: Revolution, Nationalism, and Crime Paperback – March 11, 2017 by Taras Kuzio ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/1543285864/ref=rdr_ext_tmb Thought this would be of real interest here. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 2 minutes ago, John Kettler said: Thought this would be of real interest here. Really? Why? I thought most of the members here preferred factual information, this is IMHO, propaganda of the lowest order, falsehood piled upon falsehood. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 3, 2017 Author Share Posted October 3, 2017 Andy, What basis do you have for characterizing it as you have? The book reviews show no such response. The Jackman Humanities Institute of the University of Toronto, in announcing he would be speaking there about his book said this of him. This is only partial! (Fair Use) Taras Kuzio has analysed crime, corruption, politics, and nationalism in the USSR, Ukraine, Russia and Eurasia for over three decades as a journalist, consultant and academic. Educated in the UK, he received a BA in Economics from the University of Sussex, MA in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from the University of London, and Phd in political science from University of Birmingham, UK. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. Currently a Senior Research Associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Previously he has held positions as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Senior Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, Visiting Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. Taras Kuzio has been a consultant to different branches of the US government, including team leader on a USAID spring 2015 assessment of democracy, governance and human rights in Ukraine. He has prepared expert testimony in political asylum cases and consultancy on oligarchs, corporate raiding and due diligence for legal and business clients. As a public intellectual he has been a frequent guest on television, radio and print media, including during the Euromaidan, Russian invasion of the Crimea and the Donbas conflict. Over a 3-decade journalistic career he has authored 1, 400 articles on post-communist, Ukrainian and Russian politics and international affairs for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, UPI (United Press International), New Eastern Europe, and specialist publications by Jane’s Information Group and Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty...." Doesn't smack of anything remotely akin to what you've just said. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, John Kettler said: What basis do you have for characterizing it as you have? The description in the advertisement you linked to. Also.....How is your post different to one advertising Super Male Vitality? Are you trying to sell me on the political theories expressed in the book? If so why? Edited October 4, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AttorneyAtWar Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: The description in the advertisement you linked to. Also.....How is your post different to one advertising Super Male Vitality? Are you trying to sell me on the political theories expressed in the book? If so why? So...because you don't agree with it its propaganda? Got it! Glad we're all interested in facts around here. Edited October 4, 2017 by Raptorx7 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 (edited) In my opinion yes.....But I'm not the one that brought it to our attention. There are plenty of contrary positions out there but I (and many others here) don't feel the need to ram them down other peoples' throats. Edited October 4, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Nothing rammed down, over here. He posted a link, with a short description. Not exactly placing a megaphone in your face and screaming official party dogma. Re the blurb, every single product, of any kind, from any country and from any part of the political/academic spectrum will have an overdone marketing pitch, designed towards a specific audience. It's not necessarily propaganda, just boring, high-school level copy, inane marketing vomit. I shoot the visual version of that crap every damn week. I'm on lunch right now from yet another mindless Bell Media nonsense. It's just forgettable b*llsh*t. (The blurb. Not the book. Which I have yet to read. So no opinion on it, yet). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraze Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 (edited) Curious as to where exactly is propaganda in that description? Russia invaded Ukraine? Yes. Russia occupied Crimea and Donbas? Yes. West didn't / refused to see that coming (especially after Georgia 2008)? Yes. Russia meddles with elections in western countries? Yes. If anything that description just recounts facts that we all know anyway. Edited October 4, 2017 by kraze 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 http://bunews.com.ua/society/item/taras-kuzio-telling-the-untold-story-of-ukraines-independence-war Interview with Taras. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 So, not an entirely unbiased view of facts then! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rinaldi Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 This just in: People pushing a thesis have a bias and interest. News at 11. Seems like a persuasive book, and far from propaganda. I'll see if I can grab a copy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AttorneyAtWar Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 (edited) We'll need a south pacific islander whose just made contact with the modern world to write about the war in Ukraine, its only way to be fair and unbiased. Edited October 4, 2017 by Raptorx7 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 You guys might enjoy this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231155.Blacklisted_by_History 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 My interest is the person-on-the-ground angle. Re "unbiased view of facts" , well... Duh?Every author who's ever written something on political/military events had an inherent bias; sometimes self-acknowladged, sometimes not. Sometimes it's irrelevant, the story themselves are so powerful. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Fair comment.....But this whole 'Russia did all of it!' thing has got beyond ridiculous, remember NATO marched pretty much to their border, member nations then interfered massively (both covertly and overtly) in the elections of a country very close to the Russian heartland, so Russia reacted and it all went tits up! It's pretty difficult to honestly frame those events as a Russian war on the Ukraine, much more like a western war on Russian interests that exploded in our face.....IMHO. Wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last (unless we learn to practice what we preach and stop meddling). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 1 minute ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Fair comment.....But this whole 'Russia did all of it!' thing has got beyond ridiculous, remember NATO marched pretty much to their border, member nations then interfered massively (both covertly and overtly) in the elections of a country very close to the Russian heartland, so Russia reacted and it all went tits up! It's pretty difficult to honestly frame those events as a Russian war on the Ukraine, much more like a western war on Russian interests that exploded in our face.....IMHO. Wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last (unless we learn to practice what we preach and stop meddling). now you are just showing your own bias, better to let this conversation fade to crickets. It invariably ends up being locked anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 I'm expressing my opinion there yes, but the facts are what they are.....Anyhow I'm done with this, I won't be buying the book, but I don't think that will be a surprise to anyone. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) Personally, I'm Always most interested in the man-on-the-street experience. Im curious how much of his book has the viewpoint from inside the Donbass republics; there's some mention of interviews, but it can't have been very extensive? Even an interview by a biased interviewer can be unintentionally very revealing. Edited October 5, 2017 by kinophile 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 How about one written by an American general, indeed the first American officer to win the Medal of Honour and the only one (AFAIK) to win it twice.....You can even read it for free, here: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 3 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: ...remember NATO marched pretty much to their border... That's sort of true if a trifle slanted, and I can see how it could cause the Russian leadership some anxiety, especially given the level of paranoia that seems to be a permanent fixture of their world view. But try to keep in mind that Poland and the small republics requested NATO membership out of their own well-founded anxieties regarding their large and acquisitive neighbor. Both sides need to calm down and start figuring out how to live in peace with each other. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 That sounds like a bloody marvellous idea to me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AttorneyAtWar Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) Ah, something we can all agree on! Edited October 5, 2017 by Raptorx7 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Quote The West has woken up to the uncomfortable fact that Russia has long believed it is at war with them, Same with North Korea. Funny, that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) 19 hours ago, kinophile said: Re "unbiased view of facts" , well... Duh?Every author who's ever written something on political/military events had an inherent bias... Haven't read the book but read the interview. The problem is not the bias the problem is he's skewing the facts that's happens so ofter with "experts" who peddle bla-bla-bla personal views rather than provable facts. Taras Kuzio This is why Russia consistently attempts to portray all opposition in Ukraine as coming exclusively from the more predominantly Ukrainian-speaking west of the country. In reality - 2012 election results. 2012 was the last time when both Westernish and Easternish were allowed to participate (I mean Ukrainian East and West). The elections were certified acceptable by all international bodies. Easternish Yanukovich Party results Ultra-Westernish nationalist Svoboda Results of 2001 census: what language people consider their native I believe it's fair to say the breakdown of society between East and West is quite clear and is not the product of someone's imagination. Edited October 5, 2017 by IMHO 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machor Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 @IMHO [No flaming intended.] I'm not out to defend Kuzio, have not read anything by him other than the interview that Kino linked to, and am not knowledgeable enough to fact-check that interview. But the evidence you've presented does not refute his claims: "This is why Russia consistently attempts to portray all opposition in Ukraine as coming exclusively [my italics] from the more predominantly Ukrainian-speaking west of the country." According to your figures, 62% of voters in Lvov province did NOT vote for Svoboda in 2012, and 35% of voters in Donetsk, 48% of voters in Crimea, and 53% of voters in Sevastopol did NOT vote for Yanukovich. "even now, they still cannot understand the concept of a Russian-speaking Ukrainian patriot" The native language divide obviously doesn't refute this. And frankly, as someone whose knowledge of Ukraine was mainly from Russian sources, I too was surprised to see all those Russian-speaking Ukrainian volunteers in front of cameras at the beginning of the conflict. I think your previous posts on the competing economic interests of the east and the west of Ukraine provided a more solid counter-argument. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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