Zelensky

POLITICAL ANALYSIS: Most have assumed that it was Russians who had shot the civilians found in the street in Butsja. But here in MODERN TIMES, peace researcher Ola Tunander criticizes this perception by documenting several facts that point in a different direction. For example: If Russian forces were responsible for the killings in Butsha, why didn't they try to cover them up? They have buried others.

UKRAINE: The country has always been more complex than these stirring Manichean explanations of a battle between the forces of good and absolute evil suggest. Diana Panchenko tells the story of a Ukraine that was seduced into becoming a kind of Anti-Russia. The Western narrative is simple and seductive: Putin is a bloodthirsty madman, Stalin's real heir, never satisfied with new conquests, and he attacked Ukraine only because the country wanted to be free and democratic.

ESSAY: What values ​​are the West actually supporting in Ukraine? In order to help Ukraine with national self-government, Norwegian funds were already channeled through the EBRD from 2011, despite knowledge of extensive corruption. The Western contribution in Ukraine is probably so much about a struggle for control over enormous natural resources. Norwegian politics thus supports international big capital – oligarchs and large agro-groups already control 28 percent of Ukraine's arable land.

ŽIŽEK: Mad World is basically 'Pandemic-3: The Aftermath'. Slavoj Žižek wrote many chronicles, commentaries and film reviews during the covid-19 pandemic. This is his third collection of texts.

RUSSOPHOBIA: The background for ORIENTATION this time is propaganda and Russophobia

UNITED NATIONS: MODERN TIMES prints here Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's speech to the UN Security Council in New York on 20 September 2023. He emphasizes that the UN Charter is the cornerstone of today's international legislation – which has not been followed in terms of peace and security in Ukraine. Lavrov also points out that the Ukrainian constitution states that the state is obliged to respect the Russians and other ethnic minorities. In Lavrov's view, it is the Western countries that do not want to overcome the deep crisis that has arisen in international relations. Here you have the opportunity (and with ORIENTERING's several articles) to read and evaluate yourself.

RECONSTRUCTION: During the first year of the war, the damage to Ukrainian homes is estimated at 50 billion dollars, and another 36 billion is damage to other physical infrastructure. How can one kick-start a war-ravaged industry and economy? So far it seems that the EU, the World Bank and the UN are coordinating their own donor systems independently of each other and Ukraine. But what does Norway do?

ADVERTISING: Leaked classified intelligence documents from the White House revealed in April that Ukraine was soon facing a dramatic defeat – quite different from the propaganda we had all long heard. In this essay, our regular writer, John Y. Jones, looks at the many sides of propaganda – as we are today increasingly surrounded by fake news, unsubstantiated claims and politically biased information.

ADVERTISING:Learning the art of "lying masterfully" is important for all propagandists

iDEOLOGY: By agreeing on a suitable 'enemy', a disintegrated society finds coherence, energy and meaning. A totalitarian propaganda has led to the conclusion that Ukraine will now be allowed to use F-16 jets against the nuclear power Russia – with the major consequences this may entail.

War: What will I do on the day the war is over and Russia is forced back behind the borders that applied before Putin in 2014 first went wild on Ukraine?

UKRAINE: Everyone is affected by the war in Ukraine: both family finances and official budgets, aid cuts, military rearmament, global energy policy, nuclear policy and, not least, bloc politics, and it also creates increased tension around the globe. So where is the overview, or a deeper understanding? Researcher Cecilie Hellestveit has her new book Bad news from the Eastern Front unfortunately carried out a serious 'cherry-picking' of sources and arguments where she conveniently develops backwards what confirms the generally acceptable.

In this summer issue, as MODERN TIMES's editor, I publish a selection of articles that probably reflect different opinions than most people have about the war in Ukraine.

UKRAINE: In this romantic fairy tale with a pure Hollywood dream of a man stands Volodymyr Zelenskyj. But we know that this could develop into a new world war.

RUSSIA / UKRAINE: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya warned us against playing with fire. Now we can ask ourselves the question: Are we in the Third World War – or in the Second Cold War? In his study of "not an inch to the east" statements after the fall of the wall, history professor Mary E. Sarotte shows how Ukraine and Europe ended up in war again.

UKRAINE: It seems that the United States deliberately did everything to trigger a Russian invasion. Ukraine is a victim of this brutal game. For Russia, there are five very limited requirements.