Here's a story from our news desk that will be of general interest to Ukraine-watchers:
Leader Of 1953 Soviet Gulag Uprising Dies In Ukraine At 90
One of the leaders of the 1953 Norilsk uprising, a major protest by inmates of the Soviet gulag prison-camp system, has died in Ukraine at the age of 90.
Yevhen Hrytsyak died in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk on May 14.
Hrytsyak was a leader of protests by thousands of inmates over prison conditions and alleged torture at several labor camps near Norilsk, a frigid mining city 400 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, shortly after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's death.
The uprising lasted from May 26 to August 4, 1953.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook that Hrytsyak was "one of fearless leaders of political prisoners, who stood against gulag system."
Hrytsyak spent many years in the gulag after he was arrested in 1949 and convicted of fighting in the ranks of a Ukrainian nationalist group in the beginning of the World War II.
With reporting by UNIAN
An excerpt:
Over the past two years there has been a major realignment in American politics with regard to Russia. The Republican Party had always positioned itself as tough on communism and highly patriotic, defending America’s national interests around the world. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it remained staunchly anti-Russian, and suspicion of Moscow was expressed by the two previous Republican presidential candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
During Barack Obama’s second term Russia became considerably more aggressive around the world and more hostile toward the United States, openly stating that it is fighting a war against Washington – and in fact engaging in what could be considered an act of war by hacking the U.S .presidential election.
Yet, Republican officeholders, while sporting flag pins on their lapels, seem to be indifferent to mounting evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. More to the point, the party and its donors not only have not turned on Trump but seem to be actively supportive of their leader in his kowtowing to Putin.