The first time I saw the word "lustration," I thought it was a case of bad translation from Ukrainian. In Kiev, a flyer advertised a talk by the head of parliament's "lustration" committee.
"What does this word mean in English?" I asked a press aide.
"I don't know the English word for it, but it will be an interesting speech," he replied.
And indeed, it was.
Weeks later, Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King's College in London, explained to me that lustration actually is an English word.
"It comes from Latin.