Last week, the Russian leadership provoked a clamorous diplomatic scandal over the anti-Semitic remarks of russian Foreign Minister, sergei lavrov. Leaders of russia, as evidenced by their statements, had to refute the information disseminated by Western media that on May 9, President vladimir putin would declare general mobilization and the war on Ukraine. Russian politicians and diplomats have systematically threatened Western countries with a decisive response to "external" intervention in...

This week, russian narratives revolved around several topics: scandalous anti-Semitic statements by Russian foreign ministers, reassuring the public that official mass mobilization would not begin on May 9, and the traditional shift of blame for the war to the collective West. There are the main topics on May 5 during the OPORA's broadcast "War Speeches".

As a result of the full-scale aggression, russia seized a number of territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv Oblasts, and new communities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The aggressor state has already undertaken to establish an illegitimate system of governa

On May, 3, 90 votes were cast in the Verkhovna Rada. In total, MPs have passed 9 legislative initiatives. The average attendance of MPs was 88%. MPs voted “in favour” in 40% of cases, there was 31% of “abstained”, in 0.5% of cases they voted “against”. In 16.5% of cases, they did not vote at all. The absenteeism rate was 12%. The "low motivation" of MPs in many votes can be explained by consideration of a large number of amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the Legal Regime of Martial Law, reg...

Ukrainian law assumes criminal liability for collaborative activity, i.e. cooperation with the aggressor state and its occupation administration. At the same time, prospects of holding pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of southern Ukraine constantly appear in the information space. In response to this, OPORA has prepared some advice on how citizens should behave in the event of illegal voting.

Last week, the russian leadership renewed the vigour to portray the war against Ukraine as a confrontation with the West, thus diminishing Ukraine's role and role in the current situation. Leaders of russia, as evidenced by their statements, had to somehow explain to their citizens the absence of significant military and political achievements in Ukraine. They did so by reinforcing the propaganda concept of russia's “historical struggle” against the West's “attempts” to thwart its development...

Since the onset of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada has convened 7 times to pass nationally significant decisions. Over this time, MPs have voted over 200 times and passed 103 legal acts. The total number of legislative initiatives registered in slightly over two months is 267. At the same time, the average attendance rates of MPs during the sessions was 88%.

The Russian invaders have not been consistent so far in their approach to governing the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv Oblasts. In some places, L/DPR militants ‘appoint’ unknown persons to nonexistent offices, in others, there are talks of holding a pseudo-referendum, and PR campaigns are run elsewhere to promote their incorporation in the occupied Crimea. The ‘people’s republic’ format is not going to work this time, however, ...