A fresh piece on the Circassians and their continuing struggle to have the Russian genocide against their people acknowledged.
"A December 2025 conference in Vilnius is proving to be a turning point in the history of the Circassian national movement, not only because representatives of the Circassian community met with parliamentarians of an EU and NATO-member country. Perhaps even more importantly, the meeting has become a model for Circassian efforts elsewhere to counter Moscow’s information war against their nation and to unify what is the largest and most divided people among the non-Russian nationalities whose homeland is inside the current borders of the Russian Federation.
"If the symbolic importance of the Vilnius conference was recognized immediately not only by participants but by observers the practical impact of that meeting was not long in coming, with activists in yet another country – in this case, Azerbaijan -- moving to recognize the actions of the Russian state against the Circassians as an act of genocide and a prominent Circassian expert pointing to how the Vilnius meeting can help to unify the divided Circassian nation and show what needs to be done yet as that nation seeks to recover its rightful place in the world."
"Oleksandr Ihorovych Matsievskyi was captured by Russian soldiers in December 2022. When told to surrender, he responded with “Slava Ukraini”, and then Russians killed him."
As far as I remember, he *did* surrender (which is why killing him was a war crime). He most likely said "Slava Ukraini" when they realised his captors want to execute him. Apparently they first ordered him to dig his grave.
If he was called to surrender and instead of doing so responded with Slava Ukraini, then shooting him, although brutal, would have probably been legal under laws of war. But that's not what happened.
It’s unfortunate one has to go to these lengths to defend the existence of a modern, sovereign nation. But keep on keeping on - in both the military 🪖and academic 📄sphere.
It's great to see you back, Eastsplaining!
A fresh piece on the Circassians and their continuing struggle to have the Russian genocide against their people acknowledged.
"A December 2025 conference in Vilnius is proving to be a turning point in the history of the Circassian national movement, not only because representatives of the Circassian community met with parliamentarians of an EU and NATO-member country. Perhaps even more importantly, the meeting has become a model for Circassian efforts elsewhere to counter Moscow’s information war against their nation and to unify what is the largest and most divided people among the non-Russian nationalities whose homeland is inside the current borders of the Russian Federation.
"If the symbolic importance of the Vilnius conference was recognized immediately not only by participants but by observers the practical impact of that meeting was not long in coming, with activists in yet another country – in this case, Azerbaijan -- moving to recognize the actions of the Russian state against the Circassians as an act of genocide and a prominent Circassian expert pointing to how the Vilnius meeting can help to unify the divided Circassian nation and show what needs to be done yet as that nation seeks to recover its rightful place in the world."
https://open.substack.com/pub/thesaratogafoundation/p/conference-in-lithuanian-parliament
"Oleksandr Ihorovych Matsievskyi was captured by Russian soldiers in December 2022. When told to surrender, he responded with “Slava Ukraini”, and then Russians killed him."
As far as I remember, he *did* surrender (which is why killing him was a war crime). He most likely said "Slava Ukraini" when they realised his captors want to execute him. Apparently they first ordered him to dig his grave.
If he was called to surrender and instead of doing so responded with Slava Ukraini, then shooting him, although brutal, would have probably been legal under laws of war. But that's not what happened.
It’s unfortunate one has to go to these lengths to defend the existence of a modern, sovereign nation. But keep on keeping on - in both the military 🪖and academic 📄sphere.
A great, illuminating read, so well written.