Stories from and

Should Africa Learn From the Crimea Referendum?

  28 March 2014

“Is Crimea referendum a good model for Africa?” asks Richard Dowden: Africa’s arbitrary borders, mostly drawn by people who had never set foot in the continent, have always been an obvious target for renegotiation. But Africa’s first rulers, who foresaw chaos and disintegration if the nation states were reconfigured, ruled...

A warning message sent to Taiwan from Ukraine

  8 March 2014

The decision Russia made to send military force to Crimea worries many Taiwanese. Taiwan Explore, a blogger who devoted to introducing Taiwan, explained the parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine and why many Taiwanese feel worried about themselves when they watch the news about Ukraine these days.

A Chronology of International Violations by Russian Troops in Ukraine

  4 March 2014

The popular Maidan Translations blog republished a Facebook post by Dmitry Tymchuk, Head of the Ukrainian Center for Military-Political Studies, that describes several alleged international violations and “irregular actions” since late February 2014. Tymchuk begin this run-down by saying: For instance, on February 28, at 8.45 a.m. the flight of...

Everyday Ukrainian Life in 1942 Depicted Through Fifty Color Photos

  31 January 2014

As anti-government protests that started on November 21, 2013, burden Ukrainian life today, a vintage photo blog takes a look back on another harsh period of the country's history – through 52 amazing color photographs [photo] of everyday life in Ukraine in 1942. In 1942, like many other European countries,...

Four Biggest Misconceptions About #Euromaidan Protests in Ukraine

  26 January 2014

Ucrainica Marginalis published an overview of the four largest misconceptions about #Euromaidan, written by scholars Sofiya Grachova & Stephen A. Walsh. What this overview points out is the vast gap between how international media and outside spectators view what is happening and the message that Ukrainians involved in Euromaidan protests...

Independent Ukrainian Filmmakers Create #Euromaidan Documentaries

  26 January 2014

In Ukraine, several filmmakers united to produce a video chronology of the events that came to be known as the Euromaidan protests. “BABYLON'13”, named after a bar in which the filmmakers came up with the idea for the project, is a collection of short documentaries reflecting the development of the...

INFOGRAPHIC: The New Anti-Democratic Laws of Ukraine

  18 January 2014

On January 16, 2014, Ukrainian Parliament adopted a series of bills with a severe violation of the voting procedure. Nevertheless, on the eve of the same day the bills were signed into law by President Yanukovych. Below is an infographic by civic movement CHESNO [uk, en] outlining the major legislative...

Facebook Teams Up with Russia's Top Search Engine

RuNet Echo  16 January 2014

Scholars and researchers of the Russian Internet can rejoice this week, for Russia's leading search engine, Yandex.ru, is now the second website in the world, after Bing in the United States, to gain access to Facebook firehose data [ru]. This means that Yandex can now search Facebook's streaming API and provide live...

New DDoS Attacks on Websites Monitoring Ukrainian #Euromaidan Protests

  12 January 2014

Vasyl Pawlowsky, an independent consultant and English-language curator of Maidan Monitoring, a website set up and maintained specifically for following events and news from Euromaidan protests in several cities throughout Ukraine, reports in a blog post that the crowdsourced site is not available due to a DDoS attack, allegedly organized...

Human Rights Violations During Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests

  12 January 2014

One of many newly set up blogs following Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, which have entered their second month, has collected several graphic images of injured, bleeding protesters from the past several weeks of protests and speaks of the disturbing violations of basic human rights, such as beatings of citizens and...

Former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko Officially Supports #Euromaidan Movement

  23 December 2013

According to her official website, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has officially joined the Maidan Civil Movement, a newly formed civilian organization stemming from the Euromaidan movement, just as the protest that began in Ukraine in November 2013 enters its second month. Tymoshenko, jailed in 2011 for allegedly “exceeding...

Ukrainian Netizens Draft A Digital #Euromaidan Manifesto

  19 December 2013

As Euromaidan protests in Ukraine enter their second month, Ukrainian social media users have started circulating a Digital Euromaidan Manifesto [uk] drafted by their fellow netizens. Below is the English translation of the full original statement: Digital Euromaidan Manifesto We, the Ukrainian Internet users united by Euromaidan principles of non-violent...

Ukraine: Live Streamed Monitoring of District Election Commissions

  15 December 2013

Amidst ongoing Euromaidan rallies throughout Ukraine, repeat elections have been held in five troubled single-mandate constituencies in the country, where results could not be confirmed during the 2012 Parliamentary election. In order to increase the transaprency of the electoral process, a non-government organization, Civil Network OPORA [uk, en] is preparing...

Ukraine: Translators Organize on Facebook to Provide Live #Euromaidan Updates

  9 December 2013

Volunteer translators following the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine have organized on Facebook, setting up pages like Maidan Needs Translators and Euromaidan Translators where urgent news from the protests that require translation to reach a wider international audience are shared and Euro-Maidan As It Is, where translated content is published. The...