Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Credit... Sergiy Maidukov May 20, 2026 An illustration shows a person walking in front of a colorful false front of the skyline. In the background, the skyline is grey. Credit...Sergiy Maidukov By Maria Malmer Stenergard Ministry for Foreign Affairs Ms. Stenergard is Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs. She wrote from Stockholm.   Original article contains links . *** The war in the Middle East may be consuming much of the world’s attention, but Russia’s war against Ukraine has not abated. It will not end until we make it cost President Vladimir Putin more than he believes it is worth.   Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has tried to make the world believe that the Russian economy is strong and that sanctions don’t work. The Swedish government disagrees, and has commissioned several studies by leading economists and intelligence services to uncover the truth behind Russia’s official statistics: The economy is more fragile t...

B Y: Elena  Gold  USSR was a state made of 15 so called “Republics” with the capital in Moscow—when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was Russia that announced herself “the legal successor” of the USSR, keeping the privileged Soviet Union’s seat on the United Nations Security Council . Moscow was the capital of both the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic and the USSR (Union of the Soviet Socialistic Republics). RSFSR was also the largest republic of the USSR. Kazakstan was the 2nd largest republic, with a total area of 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,000 square miles). After the USSR was voluntarily dissolved by presidents of the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic, Ukrainian and Belarus SSR (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) in December 1991, the president of the USSR Gorbachev found himself a chief of state without a state. The Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic became “the Russian Federation,” in the same borders, with the same capital...

Jim Grupé  ·  Follow Former Technical Consultant and Strategic Planner at various US government departments and some global companies (1990–2015) 11h Is Ukraine able militarily to retake Crimea? Is Ukraine able militarily to retake Crimea? I recently saw an interesting analysis of this, and it mentioned a couple things that I was unaware of which make a military assault highly inadvisable. For a start, get out your Google and look a the satellite view in maps. See that wide connection of Crimea to the mainland?  It’s mostly swamp . The only reasonable path for an armed force is a narrow strip on the West side. ….DUH…. I think we all know what happens to a narrow column of soldiers heading into enemy territory. (Everyone except Putin in 2022.) To the East, the whole coast is swamp, and the only dry route is over the Kerch bridge. That means that any assault force would have to come by air and sea. That is NOT very practical for a country with very limit...

A country that used to plead for aid is now one of the West’s most valuable security assets.  Today at 7:30 a.m. EDT Original article contains numerous link s An FP-5 "Flamingo" cruise missile at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Nov. 16, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) By Oleksii Reznikov [ see also] and Dalibor Rohac [ see also ]; see also Oleksii Reznikov, who served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister from 2020-21 and minister of defense from 2021-23, is a distinguished fellow at GLOBSEC. Dalibor Rohac is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Four years into the full-scale war, the world’s most capable militaries are coming to Ukraine to buy weapons. Ukraine and the Pentagon are moving to finalize a deal that would send Ukrainian-made drones to the United States for testing on American soil. M eanwhile, last week in Kyiv, Germany’s defense minister signed an agreement to launch “Brave Germany,” a joint program to codevelop innovative armaments with Ukraini...

One answer: MosaicPalate  ·  Follow Sun Paradoxically, the soldier speaking the cleanest, textbook Ukrainian in a trench is often from the historically Russian-speaking east. Historically, Ukraine has possessed a rich tapestry of dialects and languages. A native speaker can frequently pinpoint a person's home region by listening for specific vocabulary, phonetic habits, and the degree of blending between languages. Here are a few ways these differences manifest: Western Dialects:  Soldiers from regions like Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, or Zakarpattia often speak with distinct regional accents heavily influenced by historical ties to Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. A soldier from Galicia might use regional vocabulary like  faino  (good or nice) or  filiyanka  (cup), and they often have a distinct, slightly softer pronunciation of certain consonants. Eastern and Southern Surzhyk:  In the east and south, historically areas with higher rates of Russian langu...