The real work of “denazification” lies ahead

The world’s largest country is in the grip of a cult.

A detained demonstrator shows a sign 'No War!' from a police bus in St. Petersburg on February 24, 2022. A detained demonstrator shows a sign 'No War!' from a police bus in St. Petersburg on February 24, 2022. (Source: AP/TASR)

It is ironic that Russia launched its war against Ukraine on the premise of “denazification”.

Before the invasion, comparing Putin to Hitler could be dismissed as hysteria. Now it seems barely sufficient. In the Financial Times he is described, without a hint of hyperbole, as “maybe the most dangerous man who has ever lived.”

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It is not just the war crimes that we have already seen perpetrated by Russian forces in their indiscriminate attacks on residential districts of Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv, Mariupol and Irpin.

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It is the deliberate stoking of hatred towards outsiders – whether in Putin’s own dismissal of Ukraine’s (and, by extension, Ukrainians’) very right to exist, or in his supporters’ wilful evocation of fascist iconography.

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Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


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