“The most important political figure in Europe—I think it’s fair to say she is—is coming to Kiev, ” said Stephen Cohen on The John Batchelor Show this Tuesday. Cohen, contributing editor for The Nation and author of Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold Wars, and The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin, is referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s upcoming visit with President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, which is scheduled for this Saturday. In debating whether Merkel’s position has or has not changed, Cohen asserted, “The fact that she’s going to Kiev is an enormous concession for Kiev. She is coming…but she wants something in return. I have to assume that what she wants in return is for Poroshenko to declare a cease-fire before something happens in the East.” —Victoria Ford