PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • The Determinants of Assistance to Ukrainian and Syrian Refugees | New Voices on Eurasia with Volha Charnysh (Feb. 16)

    View
  • Conflicts in the North Caucasus Since 1991 | PONARS Eurasia Online Academy

    View
  • Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

    View
  • Pro-Kremlin Propaganda’s Failure in Ukraine | New Voices on Eurasia with Aaron Erlich (Jan. 19)

    View
  • Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Eastern Europe: Globalization through Mega-Events

  • November 12, 2012
  • Andrey Makarychev

 

Many recent mega-events, from sports to culture, have been held in non-Western countries. Do these over-sized activities redefine socio-cultural-political boundaries between host countries and the West? Do they draw non-Western countries toward the West or vice versa?

The Beijing Olympics were more about celebrating Chinese global identity, while most of the mega-events in Eastern Europe, on the contrary, were meant to bridge social and cultural gaps with Europe. A recent workshop in Lviv, Ukraine, by the Center for Urban History explored the East-West dynamics of mega-events.

The Eurovision song contest held in Baku and attempts by the Russian city of Perm to be nominated as a European Capital of Culture are certainly efforts at redefining and expanding the EU-centric concept of Europe.

Ukraine’s co-hosting of the Euro-2012 Football Cup included an important cross-border potential of further attaching and associating Ukraine with Europe. However, the whole project was seriously challenged by European (and in particularly German) voices that tried to “Orientalize” Ukraine by publicly displaying its non-European characteristics such as its lack of democracy, disrespect for human rights, maltreatment of the opposition, etc.

Looking more closely, did Ukraine move closer to Europe via the Euro-2012 tournament? On the one hand, yes, it did, especially in the eyes of “ordinary” Europeans who had the chance to travel to Ukraine and see the country. Yet, on the other hand, Ukraine was stigmatized by European politicians and the media.

For one, Vasil Kosiv, the vice mayor of Lviv, indicated that it was a mistake for Angela Merkel to support the political boycott of Ukraine because it failed to achieve any political goals. Moreover, it may have prompted less fans and tourists to go to Ukraine than expected.

“The boycott was a problem for organizers, not for the political elites of Kyiv. It caused a negative impact on what we are doing in Ukraine,” said Holger Neuweger, head of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Ukraine. Neuweger alluded to this form of Germany’s soft power and discussed the lessons of Ukraine’s Euro-2012 dynamics for 2018, when the World Football Cup will be held in a dozen Russian cities.

It is at this point that mega-events produce spillover effects: the Germans wish to work with Russian cities in modernizing and upgrading urban infrastructure, using as a push-factor their previous expertise and experience in Ukraine.

The German heritage certainly does help in these endeavors. The city of Lviv is eager to take advantages of its German roots in promoting itself internationally (“Lviv can be unknown in Germany, but Lemberg does tell something to many in Europe,” a local participant claimed, referring to the German name of the city). This is in sharp contrast with Kaliningrad where the authorities are much more hesitant to refer to the German legacy of this East Prussian city, obviously due to political reasons.

Russia, however, can be an important partner for those wishing to invest in sports mega-events. Before the 2018 World Football Cup, Russia will host the Universiade-2013 in Kazan and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. These two projects may bring different effects.

Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, wishes to (re)position itself not only domestically as Russia’s “sports capital” but also globally as an important actor in the Islamic world.

The case of Sochi seems more complicated. On the one hand, the Kremlin presents the Winter Olympics as a manifestation of Russia’s great power status in the world. Yet on the other hand, the Sochi project is routinely covered in the Western media in negative tones. It has been labeled as a huge, corruptive enterprise with multiple social troubles, exemplified, for example, by mass evictions of residents, which have been documented by journalists and civic activists.

Whether mega-events are a boon or a bust for East-West relations and orientations is still to be seen. For now, the East continues to reach for them: in 2014, Lviv will submit its application to be a host city for the Winter Olympics.

Andrey Makarychev is a Guest Professor at the Free University of Berlin, blogging for PONARS Eurasia on the Russia-EU neighborhood.

Related Topics
  • Makarychev
Previous Article
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Subversive Institutions in Russia

  • November 11, 2012
  • Vladimir Gel'man
View
Next Article
  • In the News | Hовости

“Барак Обама будет менять внешнюю политику или “перезагружать “перезагузку”

  • November 12, 2012
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • January 11, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Prevailing Soviet Legacies

  • Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov
  • December 27, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In Russia’s Nuclear Messaging to West and Ukraine, Putin Plays Both Bad and Good Cop

  • Simon Saradzhyan
  • December 23, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukraine’s Asymmetric Responses to the Russian Invasion

  • Nurlan Aliyev
  • July 28, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Territorial Conflict

Dominating Ukraine’s Sky

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • March 5, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russian Anti-War Protests and the State’s Response

  • Lauren McCarthy
  • March 4, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gel'man
  • August 22, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.