Interview with Stephen Cohen on the John Batchelor radio program, Nov 5, 2014. Listen to the 40-minute interview at the weblink provided.
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The Donetsk and Luhanks People’s Republics have been the scenes of violent assualts by Ukrainian troops and militias against pro-autonomy rebels. On The John Batchelor Show, Stephen Cohen explains that it is not clear whether or not the Kremlin wanted the Nov. 2 elections in Donetsk and Luhansk to take place. The situation reminds us that “the Kremlin is not in complete control of the Donbass”.
Newly elected Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko of the Donetsk Peoples Republic “an interesting figure partly because he is so local,” says Cohen. “He is representative of the political forces in the Donbass, not the ones in Moscow.”
Stephen F. Cohen is professor emeritus at New York University and Princeton University. He is the author of Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War and The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin.
