Category Archives: Regimes

Andrew L. Urban Brought up in the grunt town of  Kryvyi Rih, a Soviet-looking industrial city in the southeast of Ukraine, a centre of iron mining and metallurgy, Volodymyr Zelensky knew about bullies before he left school. To survive among … Continue reading →

Ukraine’s most popular comedic actor was an unlikely President of his country. And now even more improbably, Volodymyr Zelensky has become the world’s most celebrated statesman. Yet more improbably, the first book about him comes from Australia. Australian authors Andrew L. … Continue reading →

Wearing his now iconic battle green T-shirt, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was beamed into the Australian Parliament chamber on March 31, 2022, above the heads of the business-wear dressed members and senators filling the seats in respectful anticipation. After the … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban All three signatories to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum promising protection for Ukraine against attack in return for Ukraine abandoning all of its nuclear weapons, have failed to abide by that agreement. The Russian Federation most egregiously by … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban Perhaps the biggest mistake of the American intel world is to have imagined that Russians think like Americans. They don’t, writes Rebekah Koffler in her authoritative and alarming book Putin’s Playbook – Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban Western leaders shrivelled in the face of an undefined threat of escalation by Vladimir Putin, as they tried to tailor their military assistance to Ukraine according to whatever Putin found acceptable. He has nukes! Yes, he has … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban The 1994 Budapest Memorandum , states that “Taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time” ..the following is agreed: “Article 4. The United States … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban It cannot be any clearer: 141 countries of the world have condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as illegitimate in a vote at the UN General Assembly. And all 141 countries have done nothing to stop … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban Taking control of Kyiv is one thing. Taking control of the entire country quite another. But even if Putin wins the invasion of Ukraine, Russia will still not be the grand old Soviet-style empire of which Putin … Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban Thank you Premier Daniel Andrews for shaking Victorians – and Australians everywhere – out of the tolerance, complacency and stupor of comfortable democracy, crowning your previous undemocratic actions with your anti-democratic Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Act 2021. … Continue reading →