Russia Monthly Digest: Russia-Ukraine Tensions Rise in the Black Sea and Putin’s Stasi Card Discovered in an Archive
– 1st December – At the end of November, Russian Navy forces attacked and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels in the Black Sea. As a result of this, the Ukrainian Government voted to [...]
“People are opposing it in a very vivid way”: an interview with a Polish protester and abortion rights activist
Since 2016, tens of thousands of Polish citizens have been protesting in favour of the liberalization of abortion rights, the so called Black Protests. No one expected that Polish society would [...]
Bulgaria Monthly Digest: Implementation of E-Voting Is Postponed and the President Calls for Release of Ukrainian Military Ships
Politics in Bulgaria in the last month looked much like the December air above Sofia: misty, dirty, and dangerous. – On November 22nd the Russian newspaper Kommersant published an article [...]
The return of a grievous epidemic: rising HIV/AIDs infections in the post-Soviet states
On December 1st, dozens of countries and organizations around the world observed World AIDS Day, an opportunity to mourn those lost to a disease that the United Nations once hoped to eradicate by [...]
Ukraine Monthly Digest: Euromaidan Anniversary and Kerch Strait Confrontation
– On November 3rd, Ukraine made another step to the establishment of a unified local Orthodox Church when President Poroshenko signed an agreement on cooperation with the Ecumenical [...]
Macron vs. Orbán: a new iron curtain in Europe?
Almost thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one can wonder whether the European cleavage between West and East is back in fashion. A migrant crisis has shaken up the entire continent, [...]
Hungary Monthly Digest: Orbán Grants Political Asylum and Prominent University Is Forced to Relocate
– The end of October saw rising tensions on the Bosnian-Croatian border, where Croatian police were refusing migrants from Asia and Africa to enter into the European Union. As a result, [...]
War requires heroes: Ukraine rewrites its own history five years after the Euromaidan
Clinging tight to the cold, grey asphalt, the old man refuses to budge, trying to protect the statue from the crowd. With the intimacy of a lover forced to separate from his loved one, the man [...]
From “terrorist” to human rights defender: a conversation with Elena Urlaeva
As a so-called terrorist and enemy of the people according to the former Uzbek regime, long-time human rights defender Elena Urlaeva has also been called the bravest person in her native [...]
