🇨🇦⚜️ polisci prof @mcgillu, Director Jean Monnet Centre Montreal; Rule of law, anticorruption, democracy; Book on Ru-Ukraine War: https://xitter.cf/t.co/8ZtQUyWPFG
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Joined May 2013
- Tweets39K
- Following2K
- Followers22.2K
- Likes101K
Pinned Tweet
Our book isn't straightforwardly about "war and peace", but about the regime and identity divergence between Ru and Ukraine, which Ru refuses to accept. We'll take the "hot new releases" label, though! Thanks, Amazon. @OxanaShevel @politybooks
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Would be nice if the rest of the world listened to us Europeans who actually know how Russia operates in our part of the world.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
The takeaway from the Stubb–Støre call is that #Putin has no intention of negotiating an end to the war. Let’s stop indulging in the West’s usual self-flagellation over whether the call was coordinated with other Europeans, whether it makes us look weak or strong, and so on.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
In light of Norway’s 🇳🇴 and Finland’s 🇫🇮 peace efforts, it is important to stress that Europe 🇪🇺 faces a momentous choice: either to accept Russia’s agenda and acquiesce in a new reality imposed by force, or to act, in both word and deed, in pursuit of a just and lasting peace that ultimately secures a free, united Europe with real geopolitical clout.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
My take on the Stubb, Støre, and Putin call:
There should be no talks while Russia refuses to compromise. Yet since Trump insists on fake negotiations, having Stubb and Støre take the lead over Witkoff and Kushner is much better, especially as it was coordinated with Zelensky
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Der deutsche Verteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius: "Nichts, aber auch gar nichts deutet darauf hin, dass Wladimir Putin auch nur im Entferntesten an einem Waffenstillstand oder gar an einem Frieden interessiert ist." (Politico Berlin Playbook)
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
I have got to be honest. I dont think we are anywhere near the end of the war in Ukraine.
Russia shows no signs of being willing to compromise or being reasonable or realistic. Now they apparently raise a demand that the rest of Eastern Europe have to leave NATO. And they still want to have all of Ukraine.
Europe is not going to abandon hundreds of millions of people in Eastern Europe to live under Russian tyranny again.
We are ten times stronger than Russia and we are not going to agree to such insane demands.
Russia is on the defensive in Ukraine. Over the past six months they have lost - not gained - territory. Their oil refineries are destroyed. Their economy is being crippled and there is no victory in sight for them. Compared to Europe they have a small population and a very small and not very advanced economy.
The only problem is that Russia does not understand this and continues to act like they can bully and threaten their way to dominance over a Europe that is so much stronger than them.
We want peace. Of course. Since the fall of the USSR we have shown no aggression to Russia but have only wanted to live as good and peaceful neighbours. There is literally nobody in Europe that wants war with Russia. It is a mindset that does not exist.
But we are not going to surrender to Russia's insane idea that their weak country has a right to rule half of Europe. As long they stick to that, there will be no settlement. So the war will probably continue for a long time which is a tragedy and a disaster.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Insane just-released CNN report on Russian military recruitment tactics alleges that bounty hunters are kidnapping Russian men on the streets and forcing them into service to get "bring a friend" cash bonuses from the Russian state.
The incidents are on the rise, and most involve vulnerable men, often in debt or with health or alcohol problems.
"In July, the person said, their uncle, an employee at a state defense company in his late 50s, was approached outside his apartment block by several men in civilian clothes and taken away in a car. They didn’t know where he was taken, but said that day 'they slipped him a document to sign, supposedly a 'notification that they were there.' It turned out to be a contract (to join the military)."
In this case, after signing the document, the uncle returned home, his relative said, but a week later he disappeared. A few days after that he called to say he was at a training ground in Luhansk, in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine. In late September came the news he was missing in action.
cnn.com/2026/10/26/europe/ru…
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
After a night of ballistic missile barrages, I was genuinely surprised to read that a UN commission had issued a report explicitly stating that russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
A UN body has more guts to call a spade a spade than the US administration.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Vucic won his first election on an anti-corruption platform (Styrofoam Revolution).
As did the people before him (who he rightfully accused of corruption) when they overthrew Milosevic (Bulldozer Revolution).
Milosevic also ran on an anti-corruption campaign (Anti-bureaucratic Revolution).
See a pattern? "It's different this time". If you are a 20 year old student.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Anyone with even a basic understanding of Russia knows this is true. Those blaming Ukraine’s supporters for prolonging the war have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
If this comes as a surprise to you, I've told you this 20 times.
The rest of Donetsk is NOT the peace deal.
It's the starting point for russian demands. Those demands (accept or we go back to war) will include demands from the EU and NATO.
Plus russian immunity for war crimes.
🚨 Putin plans to use Ukraine peace talks to push NATO back to its 1997 military posture
According to The Telegraph, the Kremlin wants to force NATO to scale back its military presence in Europe to levels seen before Eastern European countries joined the Alliance.
This could mean demanding the withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland.
That is why Moscow is pushing for European countries to participate in negotiations over Ukraine. Diplomatic sources cited by The Telegraph say Putin wants to turn talks about ending the war into negotiations over the entire European security architecture.
The issue may also have been discussed during Putin's three-hour meeting with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in St. Petersburg.
However, European countries have previously rejected the Kremlin's demands to reduce NATO's military presence on its eastern flank.
Repeat after me: Russia has no legitimate security concerns; only its neighbours do. Russia has been the only one invading others.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
If defending yourself is prolonging the war, then what is attacking you? A peace initiative?
A little story about how dehumanizing the russian state is and how passive/docile russian society is, devoid of any efficacy and agency. Putting any hope on russian society ending the war or demanding deimperialization or democracy after Putin is gone is extremely naive.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Absolutely. No one should mistake Moscow’s proposal to involve Europe for a sign that Russia has suddenly come to its senses. Quite the contrary.
What Ushakov is effectively referring to is Russia’s ultimatum to NATO in December 2021, demanding, among other things, a rollback of NATO’s military deployments in Europe to their 1997 levels.
In other words, Moscow wants Europe involved not to accommodate European interests, but to impose its own demands not only on Ukraine but on Europe as well.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Zelenskyy: Russia already has an army of around 2M. No country in Europe has an army ready for such a fight. I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about armies.
That is why Europe needs a strong Ukraine as part of NATO, on its eastern flank — Hudson Institute. 1/
And most of the Russian soldiers aren't even conscripts but contract.
Russian conscripts have a choice:
1. Overthrow Putin’s regime;
2. Flee the country before conscription;
3. Go to prison;
4. Surrender as soon as they end up on the front.
Instead, they choose to invade another country and kill.
Honestly, there’s already no point in reacting to the stupidity of the current American administration and its lobbyists.
A Russian conscript is not a lonely island in an ocean of madness. He is an integral part of the Russian ecosystem of terror that once drove a mine fragment into my neck and will gladly do it again and again.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Zelenskyy: I offered the US three options if they want us to stop hitting Russian refineries:
1. Russia stops attacking our energy.
2. Open Starlink over Russian ballistic missile launch sites.
3. Give us Patriot missiles.
We got none. Instead, Starlink was restricted.
Maria Popova 🇨🇦 retweeted
Why the War Was the West's Fault — and Why Mearsheimer Is 100% Wrong
I'm always puzzled by people who profess to be huge fans of Mearsheimer because of the supposed depth and strength of his theory of Realism, and who seem totally unaware that his own theory shows that his takes on the war in Ukraine are wrong.
Start with the word that frames his entire position. His 2014 essay in Foreign Affairs was titled "Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West's Fault," and everything he has said since repeats that verdict: the West provoked Russia by expanding NATO, so the West is to blame for the war.
But fault is not a category in Realism. The theory is about incentives and constraints, not blame. If we translate "fault" into something the theory can work with, namely the key cause that made the war happen, then his own theory assigns it to the opposite of what he asserts.
The West didn't cause the war by threatening Russia. It caused it by failing to make aggression costly.
1/5