Ukraine, Russia and a new Cold War

Are Russia and the West entering a new cold war with Ukraine as the battleground?

In this week’s UpFront, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Vitali Klitschko, former heavyweight champion-turned-mayor of Kiev, about Ukraine’s political crisis and conflict with Russia.

We also ask if China’s economic growth is fact or fiction in the Reality Check.

And in the Arena, we debate whether Venezuela is witnessing the end of Chavez’s socialist project with Max Arvelaiz, adviser to Presidents Chavez and Maduro, and Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer for The New Yorker

Headliner: Klitschko on Ukraine, Russia and new Cold War threat

This week marks two years since protesters toppled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Today, the country faces rampant corruption, an ongoing political crisis and a conflict in the east of the country that has resulted in more than 9,000 deaths and nearly 1.4 million internally displaced people.

At the forefront of the 2014 protests was Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight champion who is now the mayor of Kiev. In this week’s Headliner, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Klitschko, one of the rising political figures in Ukraine, who says Russia is to blame for a new Cold War.

Reality Check: China’s economic boom: Miracle or myth?

China has hit its growth targets for 14 of the 15 past years, but are the official numbers a miracle or myth?

In the Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan asks whether China’s economic boom is as big as the government claims it is.

Arena: Was Venezuela’s socialist revolution buried with Chavez?

Three years ago Hugo Chavez lost his battle with cancer, but did his lifelong fight to establish an inclusive socialist state die with him?

Chavez’s 17 years in power brought unprecedented social change to Venezuela, including gains in healthcare, education and a dramatic drop in extreme poverty. But in December of last year, with the oil-rich country in the midst of economic and political crises, his United Socialist Party of Venezuela suffered the biggest electoral defeat in its history, and lost control of parliament.

In the Arena, Max Arvelaiz, an adviser to Presidents Chavez and Maduro and the current Venezuelan Ambassador Designate to the United States, debates with Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer for The New Yorker who interviewed Chavez several times, and whom the late president called a “critical friend”.