The contract is signed, so now it’s official: starting next year, I'll be working on the project “Tropics of Tsardom: Plants and Empire in the South Caucasus,” an environmental history of the tsarist society’s longing for the tropical world, funded by #RiksbankensJubileumsfond.

@AnSir86 One of the said "several settlements"?

@redeyedcommie Рома, поздравляю!

@MSimanovskyy How can we, as scholars, quantitatively measure this risk? What does it look like in real life across Russophone cities in Ukraine? How many actual cases are there of people being publicly beaten just for speaking Russian "inside Ukraine," even now during wartime?

Personal announcement: I’m transitioning to BlueSky from this collapsing platform. For those in academia still undecided – take the step! It's just so much better there.

@MathStatistics1 @tooslick2230267 Thanks, but this is from the same speech. Lavrov doesn't specify this particular demand here – he only refers to the "guarantees" without mentioning the part about the 1997 borders.

@MathStatistics1 @tooslick2230267 Did he? I can't find anything.

@EugeneSmelyans2 No idea! 🙂

Lavrov didn't say it outright in 2022. He denied Ukraine's sovereignty on the eve of the full-scale invasion but didn't label Ukraine's government as "illegal." Up until then, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had consistently recognized it as both legitimate and legal since at least 2019.

@DrRobDale Thank you!

@AnSir86 This statement makes it clear that, from Russia's POV, the Ukrainian government was "illegal" back in February 2022.

@eugene_finkel @monthly The review is puzzling, to say the least, but what confused me first was the choice of the cover photo and its caption. Why would anyone label it "Russian Cossack forces in Ukraine" when you can clearly see one of Red Square's most iconic buildings – GUM – right behind them?

@polidemitolog Exactly. Maybe Paskevich had an "anti-colonial" art colony in mind. 🙃

@polidemitolog I love how the "anti-imperialist" crowd keeps popping into my comments with lines like, "And this is your proof that Russia was imperial?!"

There are books you want to grab right away, and this one tops the list.

@thwbottelier

h/t @den_kazansky