Russia's War Against Ukraine
Alexander J. Motyl: Morality, pragmatism and Orwell in rhetoric and policy
Ukrainian military vehicles carry 85 mm \"Vasilyok\" automatic mortars in Peski willage, in the Donetsk region, on November 7, 2015 before a weapons withdrawal. Ukraine's pro-Russian insurgents said on November 5, 2015 they had withdrawn all of their smaller weapons from a deadly buffer zone in the ex-Soviet state's separatist east. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) say they have been barred by rebels from accessing the area and have seen arms that had moved away from the front later return to their original posts. AFP PHOTO/ ALEKSEY FILIPPOV
We’ve all gotten very familiar with Vladimir Putin’s Orwellian logic, according to which peace is war, intervention is non-intervention, democracy is fascism, and fascism is democracy. His latest comments at the Valdai discussion club just reinforced, if any reinforcing were still necessary, the point that the man is a master of mendacity.
