Category: Eurasia

‘Harassed, Imprisoned, Exiled’ – Azerbaijan’s crackdown on dissent

     

The Azerbaijani government has renewed its vicious crackdown on critics and independent groups, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today: The 75-page report, “Harassed, Imprisoned, Exiled: Azerbaijan’s Continuing… Read more »

Next steps in democratic renewal

     

Democracy is moving away from mass representation and the bureaucracy of the welfare state towards something more networked, open and personalized, argues Anthony Zacharzewski, the director of the Democratic Society,… Read more »

UK bank drops Russian info warfare outlet’s accounts

     

Russia’s main English-language satellite network complained on Monday that its British bank, NatWest, was abruptly closing its accounts, The New York Times reports: . It was the latest controversy for… Read more »

Russia is guiding Europe’s illiberal turn

     

Russia is financing far-right political parties and critics of the European Union as part of a broader Kremlin strategy to sow disinformation and mistrust on the Continent, according to a… Read more »

Autocrats more trusted than democrats?

     

Authoritarian leaders are seen as far more trustworthy than politicians in more openly democratic countries across the emerging world, according to data compiled by the World Economic Forum, The Financial… Read more »

Beyond the Euromaidan: Will the West ever stand up to Putin?

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to expand the invasion of Ukraine in January, according to independent Russian military analyst Pavel Felgengauer. Such a development would retard Ukraine’s fitful reform… Read more »

Russia’s ‘Kremlin Playbook’ boosts covert influence in Eastern Europe

     

Russia has mounted a campaign of covert economic and political measures to manipulate five countries in central and eastern Europe, discredit the West’s liberal democratic model, and undermine trans-Atlantic ties,… Read more »

Why is Russia simultaneously attacking and promoting civil society?

     

Russia’s government has declared groups like the National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, to be undesirable and the regime has cracked down on the rights of… Read more »

Kleptocracy not only a problem of ‘faraway, nasty countries’

     

A sorry parade of arms smugglers, oligarchs, defense contractors, mafia dons, drug dealers, gambling fraudsters, sanctions breakers, and kleptocrats emerge from the Panama Papers, journalist Alan Rusbridger writes for The… Read more »