More than a century ago, the German historian Carl Hempel pronounced that history doesn’t recognize any “ifs”, even though he himself was obsessed with finding the general laws of the historic process.
The conflict in and over Ukraine came as a huge shock to most of us, but, given the imperatives and impediments of the sides involved, was it really such a big surprise?
To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council.