New Eastern Europe Magazine May-August 2015 Back Issue

The May-August 2015 issue of New Eastern Europe is dedicated to examining the role of religion in Eastern Europe, especially after the EuroMaidan Revolution and the outbreak of the conflict in the east. Concentrating mainly on Ukraine, this issue highlights the new dynamics in church-society relations. Our authors bring to light the inter-Church politics that have always existed between Ukraine and Russia, but emerged to the foreground since the onset of the Ukraine crisis.

Beyond Ukraine, analysing the issue of spirituality in other countries of the post-Soviet space, such topics are also discussed: Orthodox and non-Orthodox identity in Russia, attitudes towards Christians in Azerbaijan and an increasing presence of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq in Central Asia.

Specifically on Russia and the recent assassination of Boris Nemtsov, we present two perspectives of the oppositionist’s final fate. They include: a reflection by British journalist Luke Harding, who himself experienced repressions from the Russian authorities, and an interview with Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor with Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper considered one of the few critical voices of Russian politics.

Beyond this the issue also includes:
- An exclusive interview with Leszek Balcerowicz Polish economist and architect of Poland’s economic reforms in the 1990s;
- A debate on whether Ukraine is a “failed state”;
- An analysis of Russian and European security policies over the last decade;
- An essay by Tatiana Zhurzenko on the unique role that Kharkiv plays in Ukraine;
- Magdaléna Vášáryová’s essay on why Central Europe cannot unite;
- An interview with Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, son of Georgia’s first freely-elected president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia;
- And much, much more.