Ivan Katchanovski (Ukrainian: Іван Гнатович Качановський, romanized: Ivan Hnatovych Kachanovskyi; born 11 September 1967)^[2] is a Ukrainian-Canadian political scientist.^[3] He teaches at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.^[1][4] Katchanovski's research focuses on democratization, comparative politics, political communication, and conflicts: in particular, in Ukraine,^[5] and especially the origins of the Donbas War, which he has characterized as a civil war,^[6][7] and the Russo-Ukrainian War.^[8]

Academic career

Katchanovski graduated from the Economy and Social Planning programme at the Kyiv Instite of National Economy in 1990, going on to study Society and Politics at the Central European University until 1993. He moved to the US to pursue a master's degree in economics at George Mason University, which he completed in 1996. He stayed at the same university for his PhD studies in Public Policy under the direction of Seymour Martin Lipset, obtaining his degree in 2002.^[2][9] He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, a visiting professor at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and assistant professor at SUNY Potsdam. Currently he teaches part-time at the School of Political Studies and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.^[9]

False flag theory of Euromaidan

In public lectures in 2014^[10][11] and 2015,^[12] and subsequent academic works,^[13][14][15] Katchanovski presented research arguing that the Revolution of Dignity resulted from a massacre organised by the Euromaidan protestors' own leadership. He based this on information from video footage, TV and Internet broadcasting, radio intercepts, witness testimonies, and bullet hole locations.^[12][16] In particular, he suggested that "Maidan protesters may have shot police officers first, provoking a response that led to 100 deaths",^[17] a contention for which first-hand evidence subsequently came to light.^[18] Katchanovski also claimed that far-right nationalists murdered Maidan protesters themselves in a false flag operation.^[16]

While cited with approval by scholars including Richard Sakwa^[19] and Stephen F. Cohen,^[20] his work has faced criticism from notable commentators including David R. Marples,^[10] Taras Kuzio^[11][21] and Cathy Young.^[22]

Commentary on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Katchanovski has been active in providing commentary on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in both traditional and social media. Prior to the invasion he had stressed the possibility of a war between Russia and Ukraine.^[23][8] According to Katchanovski, "Neo-Nazis are a relatively small segment of Ukraine", but "the fact that they are integrated in the Ukrainian armed forces and tolerated by Zelenskyy" has been exploited by Russian propaganda to justify the war.^[4]

Books

• Katchanovski, Ivan; Kohut, Zenon E.; Nebesio, Bohdan Y.; Yurkevich, Myroslav (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7845-7.
• Katchanovski, Ivan (2006). Cleft Countries: Regional Political Divisions and Cultures in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. Ibidem Press. ISBN 978-3-89821-558-9.
• Virchenko, Nina; Katchanovski, Ivan; Haidey, Viktor; Andrushkiw, Roman; Voronka, Roman, eds. (2004). Development of the mathematical ideas of Mykhailo Kravchuk (Krawtchouk). National Technical University of Ukraine, Kyiv and Shevchenko Scientific Society (USA). ISBN 978-0-88054-141-1.
• Lipset, Seymour Martin; Meltz, Noah M.; Gomez, Rafael; Katchanovski, Ivan (2004). The paradox of American unionism: Why Americans Like Unions More Than Canadians Do, But Join Much Less. Cornell University Press. doi:10.7591/9781501727696. ISBN 978-0-8014-4200-1.

References

External links

• Ivan Katchanovski on Twitter
• Profile at the University of Ottawa