Republic continues the project dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Cold War. We are publishing a conversation between historian Andrei Kozovoy and Zinaida Pronchenko about “bad Russians,” “stupid Americans,” “scoops,” the Iron Curtain and other myths of the Cold War. — What led you to study the Cold War? — In a sense, I consider myself a child of the Cold War. I was born in 1975 in Moscow - at the peak of what was then called “détente”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Photo by SARAH MEYSSONNIER / POOL / AFP There is a real political earthquake in China - two members of the Central Military Council have been arrested. Something happened that no military enemy could have done. The senior command staff of the country's armed forces was almost completely destroyed.

Ukrainian soldiers fire from the BM-21 Grad MLRS at Russian positions near Druzhkovka, Donetsk region. Photo by IRYNA RYBAKOVA / THE 93RD KHOLODNYI YAR SEPARATE MECHANIZED BRIGADE / AFP While delegates in Abu Dhabi discussed the terms of the truce, the Russian army targeted Konstantinovka, a key city on the outskirts of Kramatorsk.