A hachapuri is very much a meal, but they don't treat it like a meal. Since the 19 nineties, russia has effectively controlled 20 % of a georgian territory by controlling the breakaway republics of apcasia and o fetia. When i visited donetsk in 20 16, more than ten thousand people had been killed already. And i remember very vividly, as we crossed the border to the youngest breakaway republic in the world, that we could hear shooting not far away. I came back to a country that was at war. Evenin in kiv or in odessa, far away from where the fighting was on going, you could feel
Tracing Russia’s vast border, which meets those of 14 other countries, helps tells the history of Russia itself. From its imperial past to Soviet-era expansions and contractions leading up to its current war of aggression in Ukraine today, the Russian border is a landscape of uneasy uncertainty for many of the country's immediate neighbours. Erika Fatland is a Norwegian writer whose work has focused on issues that range from terrorism to travel and cultural history. Her 2020 book, The Border, followed the path of Russia's border over thousands of miles in order to understand how countries approach being a neighbour to a temperamental superpower. Following the tragic events in Ukraine, the book is even more relevant and Erika joined our producer Catharine Hughes to talk about it.
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