[Final personal note : As some readers of this article may know, I live in Kyiv and am thus myself a participant of the post-Soviet discourse I am criticizing here. My attack could thus be seen as a defamation of my local competitors in public political punditry. However, while I am frequently interviewed by Ukrainian mass media and sometimes invited to TV shows, my opinion is mostly sought because I am a German citizen, or (wrongly) seen as a representative of the EU. While I would regard myself as an expert on some selected political topics, my role on Ukrainian TV is rather that of providing an outsider's, German or "European" view on this or that Ukrainian domestic matter. I am thus only sometimes directly competing with local real and pseudo-experts. Being funded, on a long-term basis, by a German government-supported scholarly organization, I am not competing with local pundits for Ukrainian research funding, consulting contracts, academic posts, etc. - none of which I need in order to sustain or advance myself.]
First published in English in: Eurasia Review, October 2nd, 2012 , click here
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