Welcome to Professor Maria Popova's hub for research, teaching, and public outreach on issues related to democracy, corruption, and the rule of law in Europe. Prof. Popova's current research focuses on the Russo-Ukrainian war and Ukraine's road to EU accession.

In February 2022, Russian missiles rained on Ukrainian cities, and tanks rolled towards Kyiv to end Ukrainian independent statehood. President Zelensky declined a Western evacuation offer and Ukrainians rallied to defend their country. What are the roots of this war, which has upended the international legal order and brought back the spectre of nuclear escalation? How did these supposedly “brotherly peoples” become each other’s worst nightmare?
In Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States, Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel explain how since 1991 Russia and Ukraine diverged politically, ending up on a collision course. Russia slid back into authoritarianism and imperialism, while Ukraine consolidated a competitive political system and pro-European identity. As Ukraine built a democratic nation-state, Russia refused to accept it and came to see it as an “anti-Russia” project. After political and economic pressure proved ineffective, and even counterproductive, Putin went to war to force Ukraine back into the fold of the “Russian world.” Ukraine resisted, determined to pursue European integration as a sovereign state. These irreconcilable goals, rather than geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West over NATO expansion, are – the authors argue – essential to understanding Russia’s war on Ukraine.


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Also, russia keeps asking Ukraine to demilitarize and reduce its army, obviously because it wants to have an easier time invading and ending Ukraine's sovereignty. Now russia has asked the US to reduce its troops in Europe. Europe beware!

Russia in 2022: We have no plans to invade Ukraine. This all Western warmongering!

Russia in 2025: We have no plans to invade Europe. This all Western warmongering!

European leaders have an historic opportunity today to show that they are no longer taken in by Russian lies

You know what's actually sobering about this? It's not the disrespect towards the Ukrainian people or that russophilia in the West will never die.
What is sobering however is the clear as day truth that international laws, courts and orgs have no power behind them. Putin can…

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In other news, Ru continues trying to conquer Ukraine because Ukraine refuses to surrender peacefully. Why is our media exposing readers to Pu’s propaganda and self-serving narratives directly and uncritically?

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— Maria Popova (@popovaprof.bsky.social) Nov 21, 2024 at 5:39 PM

Oxana and I in the book blurb we wrote in 2022

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— Maria Popova (@popovaprof.bsky.social) Dec 6, 2024 at 9:13 PM

The author copies made it to Canada too! Our book with @oxanashevel.bsky.social is out! If you want to order it from Polity, it's available here and code 20POL will get you 20% off: www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

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— Maria Popova (@popovaprof.bsky.social) Nov 17, 2023 at 4:31 PM

         

March 8, 2025
Professor Popova Quoted in Rolling Stone Article About Trump’s Mineral Deal with Ukraine

Following a complete dismissal of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy at the White House, the agreement initially slated to benefit Ukrainian economic and technological endeavours in its current war against Russia has slowly revealed a dark underbelly that experts, including Professor Popova, point to being beneficial to both Presidents Putin and Trump.

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February 28, 2025
Professors Popova and Shevel Pen a New Op-Ed in The National Interest, “Be Wary of Putin’s Call for Negotiations”

The end of the Russo-Ukrainian War draws near. While halting the terrible violence is a net positive, there are legitimate fears of Russian manipulation to create peace terms suitable for Putin.

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January 21, 2025
Professors Popova & Shevel: Pushing Back Against John Mearsheimer’s Views on Ukraine

Professors Maria Popova & Oxana Shevel spoke to UkeTube Podcast host William Szuch about how pushing back against John Mearshimer’s arguments, which are “disconnected from past and immediate history”, motivated the authors to write Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States.

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Maria Popova (PhD, Harvard) is Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University and Scientific Director of the Jean Monnet Centre Montreal. Her work explores rule of law and democracy in Eastern Europe. Her first book Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies, which won the American Association for Ukrainian Studies book prize in 2013, examines the weaponization of law to manipulate elections and control the media in Russia and Ukraine. Her recent articles have focused on judicial and anticorruption reform in post-Maidan Ukraine, the politics of anticorruption campaigns in Eastern Europe, conspiracies, and illiberalism. Her new book (co-authored with Oxana Shevel), on the roots of the Russo-Ukrainian war, entitled “Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States” is now available from Polity Press.
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Professor Maria Popova
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science

McGill University
855 Sherbrooke Ouest
Montréal, Quebec
H3A 2T7
Canada
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