Special Section: Russia's Annexation of Crimea I Guest Editors: Gergana Dimova and Andreas Umland Legal Loopholes and Judicial Debates: Essays on Russia's 2014 Annexation of Crimea and Its Consequences for International Law Gergana Dimova The Obligation of Non-recognition: The Case of the Annexation of Crimea Agata Kleczkowska Russia's Legal Position on the Annexation of Crimea Dasha Dubinsky and Peter Rutland Business as Usual: Sanctions Circumvention by Western Firms in Crimea Maria Shagina *** The Return to Patriotic Education in Post-Soviet Russia: How, When, and Why the Russian Military Engaged in Civilian Nation Building Håvard Bækken Political Parties and the Institution of Membership in Ukraine Melanie G. Mierzejewski-Voznyak Reviews Kiril Kolev on: Ognian Shentov, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, The Russian Economic Grip on Central and Eastern Europe Ana-Maria Anghelescu on: Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw, Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia Aija Lulle on: Irene Kacandes and Yuliya Komska (eds.), Eastern Europe Unmapped: Beyond Borders and Peripheries Vera Rogova on: Chris Miller, Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia Elliot Dolan-Evans on: Marci Shore, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution Aleksandra Pomiecko on: Lawrence Douglas, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and The Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial

Autorentext
Eleonora Narvselius, PhD, is an anthropologist affiliated with the Centre for Language and Literature and Center for European Studies at Lund University. She is the author of Ukrainian Intelligentsia in Post-Soviet L'viv: Narratives, Identity and Power (Lexington Books, 2012), and co-editor (with Gelinada Grinchenko) of Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory: Formulas of Betrayal (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She recently participated in the international project Memory of Vanished Population Groups and Societies in Today's East- and Central European Urban Environments. Memory Treatment and Urban Planning in Lviv, Chernivci, Chisinau and Wrocaw (funded by the Swedish research foundation Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2011-2014). Gergana Dimova holds a PhD in politics from Harvard University. She is currently an associate lecturer in global politics at the University of Winchester in the UK and has previously taught at the University of Cambridge. Her forthcoming book, titled Democracy beyond Elections: Government Accountability in the Media Age, examines the crisis of democracy through the prism of media allegations and government accountability. Gergana's academic articles and media expertise have been featured in Demokratizatsiya, Observatorio, New Atlanticist, and Huffington Post, among others. Dr Dimova is the book reviews editor for the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society. Andreas Umland (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation at Kyiv, and General Editor of the book series Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (ibidem Press 2004-). His papers have appeared in, among other journals, Political Studies Review, European Political Science, Journal of Democracy, Europe-Asia Studies, East European Jewish Affairs, and Russian Politics and Law.

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Featuring a special section on "Russian Foreign Policy Towards the 'Near Abroad'"

Issue 5.1 deals with Russia's post-Maidan foreign policy towards the so-called "near abroad," or the former Soviet states. This is an important and timely topic, as Russia's policy perspectives have changed dramatically since 2013/2014, as have those of its neighbors. The Kremlin today is paradoxically following an aggressive "realist" agenda that seeks to clearly delineate its sphere of influence in Europe and Eurasia while simultaneously attempting to promote "soft-power" and a historical-civilizational justification for its recent actions in Ukraine (and elsewhere). The result is an often perplexing amalgam of policy positions that are difficult to disentangle. The contributors to this special issue are all regional specialists based either in Europe or the United States.

Zusammenfassung
Special Sections: Remembering Diversity in East-Central European CityscapesandRussia's Annexation of Crimea IBased on up-to-date field material, this issue focuses on the palimpsest-like environments of East-Central European borderland cities. The present shapes and contents of these urban environments derive from combinations of cultural continuities and political ruptures, present-day heritage industries and collective memories about the contentious past, expressive material forms and less conspicuous meaning-making activities of human actors; they evolve from perpetual tensions between the choices of the present and the weight of the past. The contributors address a set of key questions: What is specific about the transnationalization of memory in these urban public spaces? What are the political rationales and ramifications of the different approaches taken to the legacies of perished population groups in different cities? How do these approaches relate to European dimensions of memory and the European vector of identity-making of the contemporary urban populations?