War in Ukraine? Unrest in Kazakhstan? What’s going on?

All things having to do with Russia are seen in the West through a renewed Cold War prism, with simplistic portrayals more befitting a Hollywood villain. Western media has been in a panic about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, while they celebrated a countrywide uprising in Kazakhstan that after a few days was put down. So what’s really happening? Is it all right-wing color revolutions provoked by the West? Local anger manipulated by elites? Perhaps a bit of both? What are the local dynamics at play? To discuss, Rania Khalek was joined by Volodymyr Ishchenko, a research associate at the Institute of East European Studies at Free University Berlin. TIME CODES: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Is there really a threat of Russia invading Ukraine? 14:02 What was behind the protests in Kazakhstan? 25:09 Ukraine’s Euromaidan benefited neoliberalism & empowered the nationalist far right 36:56 Impact of Western-funded civil society & NGOs 45:37 The mainstream erasure of millions of pro-Russia Ukrainians 54:56 Were th