Leonid Bershidsky - The Japan Times

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Leonid Bershidsky

For Leonid Bershidsky's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 5, 2014

Give Putin's peace a chance to aid Ukrainians

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's seven-point plan would at least stave off the defeat of Ukraine's ragtag army at the hands of crack Russian troops and bring some order to eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe should back the plan.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 3, 2014

The West must decide whether Putin is Hitler

The West faces a dilemma now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated his willingness to win at any cost in Ukraine: Does it, too, go all in, or does it admit Putin's de-facto sovereignty over Russia's post-Soviet neighbors?

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 2, 2014

Moscow views world as war theater

Even if Ukraine is defeated militarily, that's just one small battle won in an eternal, multi-modal war that Russia is fighting against the West because Russia's leadership is convinced the West is waging one against Russia.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 1, 2014

Russians change game in Ukraine

Anecdotal information about troops' funerals and reports from the Russian Soldiers' Mothers' Committee indicate that the second front opened by Russian troops against the Ukrainian army comprise elite airborne units.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 29, 2014

Putin's bluff in Ukraine has become untenable

Despite increasingly surreal disavowals from Moscow, it is now apparent just how invested Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the outcome of the eastern Ukraine conflict. That investment terrifies Europe and the U.S., which have no desire to match it.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 18, 2014

Watch women win more mathematics prizes

Stereotyped notions of what men and women should study at university may be about to change. A U.S. education report shows that — between 2003 and 2009 — men had a higher rate of dropping or changing their majors than women in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2014

A Wi-Fi router could flood your house

Pretty much all home Wi-Fi routers can be hacked, which is a problem if you've already adopted connected light bulbs and faucets.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 9, 2014

A Russian bureaucrat rebels on Facebook

President Vladimir Putin's standoff with the West, which has turned Russia into a corporate state in defensive mode, makes the rebellion of a lone bureaucrat in the Economics Ministry all the more impressive.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 8, 2014

Why emerging world leaders are so like Putin

The leaders of some of the biggest developing nations — China, India, Turkey, South Africa — are increasingly acting like Russian President Vladimir Putin. It may be that the West will have to compete with a new strain of authoritarianism.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 5, 2014

Putin's friends want to build fortress Russia

If anyone expected Western sanctions against Russia to give President Vladimir Putin pause or to damp his imperialist fervor, they hadn't counted on Russian elites acting like a hedgehog when threatened: roll into a ball and stick out quills.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Aug 4, 2014

Russia sanctions will hurt innocent companies

For all the West's efforts to punish companies close to Russian President Vladimir Putin with financial sanctions, it's the blameless private companies that will probably suffer the most.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 29, 2014

Russia will pay a steep price for Putin victories

Russians may not yet understand that they are going to have to pay for Vladimir Putin's confiscations and annexations, starting perhaps with the $50 billion that the Permanent Court of Arbitration has just ordered Russia to pay to shareholders of the dismantled oil company Yukos.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 26, 2014

Putin might have just killed Russia's brand

Has the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 put Russia on its way to taking on the Soviet Union's one-time status as an object of fear and hatred?

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 23, 2014

Airline deaths won't end conflict in Ukraine

Thanks to a perverse kind of geographical bias, the downing of MH17 won't put an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 18, 2014

Flight MH17 and the role of Ukraine's rebels

The Ukraine crisis is an emotional, dirty, ad-hoc war and a major accident waiting to happen. The only solution is for professionals to intervene, separate the sides and oversee their disarmament.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 15, 2014

Kremlin's expensive trip down memory lane

Moscow is preparing to spend billions of dollars to restart construction on the storied and ill-starred Baikal-Amur Mainline railroad. Sadly Vladimir Putin's nostalgia will come at great cost to the country's pension system.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 11, 2014

Germany's triumph in Brazil was no surprise

Everything about the 7-1 German victory over Brazil in a World Cup semifinal was logical and even overdue. The entire German soccer system has been working toward this moment since 2001.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 8, 2014

Shevardnadze's lessons for the West

Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister and Georgian president who died Monday at 86, was not an effective leader, but if Western leaders had paid closer attention to what he said when he was alive, they would have been better prepared for today's crisis in Ukraine.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 1, 2014

U.K.'s David Cameron loses and so does the EU

The U.K. and the EU may well part ways simply because that's the way the tide is going. Like Jean-Claude Juncker's selection to lead the European Commission despite British Prime Minister David Cameron's objections, it's beginning to look like predestination.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 27, 2014

Putin ready to go to stealth mode in Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin's cancellation of his mandate to send troops into Ukraine pushed up Russian stocks and bonds this week. Now he is ready to enter the quiet phase of his Ukraine operation.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

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