Vladimir Pachkov, SJ

On October 15, 2006, the journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was killed in the lift of her central Moscow home. She was 48 years old. The perpetrators of her murder have still not been found.[1] Exactly 15 years later, the editor of the newspaper where Anna worked, Dmitry Muratov, together with the Filipina… Read the full article

Thomas Flichy de La Neuville’s book Chine, Iran, Russie: un nouvel empire mongol? was published in 2013.[1] At the time the question was largely hypothetical. Today it appears to be a real possibility, particularly after China and Iran signed a treaty on April 27, 2021, firming the bilateral relations between these three Asian powers as… Read the full article

July 4th –  United States Independence Day – could have become an important date in Afghan history as well. On the previous Friday night, July 2nd, the Americans abandoned Bagram airport without notifying their Afghan allies, leaving behind a pile of military equipment that they had intentionally destroyed. They also cut off the electricity supply,… Read the full article

When we talk about traditional religions that have been rooted for centuries in Europe, obviously we think first of all about Christianity, Judaism, and also Islam. Buddhism is considered a religion of  South and East Asia: one immediately thinks of India, the birthplace of this religion, but also of China, Japan, Korea and their cultures,… Read the full article

If Russia is a country of extremes, Siberia is so to a greater extent. In Europe, Siberia is a byword for the freezing cold, but not everyone knows that much of Siberia is tropically hot in the summer. Siberia is a part of the world rich in fossil fuels, which, while helping to keep the… Read the full article

Turkmenistan is one of the most mysterious countries in the world. The reason is simple: it is not easily accessible to outsiders. Although the history of civilization in the region of present-day Turkmenistan is almost as old as that of the agricultural centers of the Middle East, the Turkmen tribes – who would later come… Read the full article

“Russia needs to be frozen”: these words, which are attributed to a 19th century thinker and also to a government official, best express the current intentions of those wielding power and of conservative ideologues in Russia. During the inauguration of a monument dedicated to Czar Alexander III – who on March 13, 1881, had succeeded… Read the full article

Will there be a union of all Turkic peoples? For the first time in the 100-year history of the Turkish Republic, restoration of past greatness has become the policy of the Turkish government.[1] The failure of integration with Europe makes the idea of a new “empire” very attractive. Alongside the neo-Ottoman idea that focuses on… Read the full article