Our tenth episode of Talk Eastern Europe is dedicated to the results of the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine which took place on March 31st 2019 and saw comedian and showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy come in first place with over 30% of the vote; incumbent president Petro Poroshenko in second place with 15.95%; and Yulia Tymoshenko in third place with 13.4%.

This episode takes a closer look at the current developments in the Western Balkans, including the North Macedonian name agreement, the Kosovo-Serbia border swap negotiations and recent protests in Serbia and Montenegro.

This episode of Talk Eastern Europe features a conversation on fighting disinformation with Jakub Kalenský, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Kalenský worked for the European Union’s East StratCom Task Force as the team lead for countering disinformation.

In this episode, Maciek Makulski sits down with Oktawian Milewski – a Moldovan political analyst based in Warsaw.

A conversation with Andrew Wilson, professor of Ukrainian Studies at University College London and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt

ADAM REICHARDT: On many occasions you have brought attention to the “multi-unipolar world” doctrine formulated by the late Russian thinker, Vadim Tsymbursky, which – as you argue – is a key to Russian geopolitics and which stands in opposition to the more classic US-led unipolar world that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Tsymbursky’s view, the multi-unipolarity assumes the existence of regional hegemons who control their neighbourhoods. Tsymbursky died precisely a decade ago and much has happened since. Many events may even indicate that, from the Russian perspective, this doctrine or ideal-type geopolitical system is still alive and well. Do you agree with this statement?

ANDREW WILSON: It is always interesting to talk about Tsymbursky. In his time he was a more fashionable Russian intellectual than Aleksandr Dugin (though we often hear more about Dugin). Using the framework of a geopolitical system implies that the active agent here is geopolitics. Certainly Russia thinks in that way. Russia loves the word geopolitics. The European Union, on the other hand, does not think in a geopolitical way. Nor have we jumped from a unipolar order to a new world order – over whatever chasm lies in between.

A conversation with Dominic Lieven, professor of history at Cambridge University. Interviewers: Adam Reichardt, Andrzej Zaręba and Edmund Young (New Eastern Europe).

NEW EASTERN EUROPE: Could you tell us a little about you relatives from the old Russian aristocracy?

DOMINIC LIEVEN: Well, they were Russian in the broadest sense of the term. They would often be described as Baltic German. Ultimately, they were Livonian. They were there when the German knights arrived. And of course in terms of identities and mixtures, they were everything you could imagine – but Russian can be a good shorthand here.

Religion and politics: Ukraine edition

Ukraine elections, murder of Gdańsk mayor and public intellectuals

This episode takes a look at Estonian politics, a new political party called Eesti 200, and the Russian minority ahead of the March 2019 parliamentary elections.

Interview with Adam Koniuszewski, co-founder of the Bridge Foundation. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt

ADAM REICHARDT: The organisation which you co-founded with your wife Margo Koniuszewski, the Bridge Foundation, advocates for a greater awareness and implementation of a circular economy. How would you envision this in the future? And what steps can and should be taken to move in this direction?

ADAM KONIUSZEWSKI: As revolutionary and innovative as the circular economy may appear, the concept is as old as the world. In a figurative and literal sense. Nature has always worked in cycles where nothing is lost or wasted. This is very different from how our linear take-make-waste economy works with programmed obsolescence at its core.

A review of Orbán. Europe’s New Strongman. By: Paul Lendvai. Publisher: Hurst & Company. London, United Kingdom, 2018.

At the end of November last year, a video of a meeting between Chuck Norris, the legendary Hollywood action film star, and Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, went viral. The video depicts the meeting of the two figures and includes a scene where Orbán is driving Norris (and his wife Gena O'Kelley) to visit a counter-terrorism training centre. During the drive, Orbán admits to Norris, "I am a street fighter, basically. I’m not coming from the elite. I’m coming from a small village 40 kilometres from here."

Ukraine on the defence, Moldova on the cusp & Transnistrian identity