Russia’s War on Ukrainian Farms
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian farms have been under siege. This memo documents the damage inflicted on Ukrainian agricultural assets and production and draws…
Cloudy Forecast for the Climate: Russia’s Climate Policy in a Time of War
How will the war in Ukraine affect Russia’s climate politics? Our research demonstrates that authoritarian regimes are not necessarily weak on climate policy. In fact, they may actively participate in…
Putin’s Home Front: A War on Time
The Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert—born in what is today Ukrainian Lviv—famously dubbed Iosif Stalin the “Great Linguist,” a derisive reference to the Soviet dictator’s intellectual pretensions. Despite marked differences between Russian President…
The EU Takes Aim at Russia’s Natural Gas Weak Spot
In mid-May, the European Commission introduced its “REPowerEU” plan, a response to recent developments in regional and global energy markets and, mainly, disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.…
Fused and Diffused Systems of Public Power in Russia
The 2020 constitutional amendments changed Russia’s institutional design significantly. Apart from granting President Vladimir Putin the right to participate in subsequent presidential campaigns, one of the most controversial motions was de…
Outsourcing Violence: Provocateurs and Power Struggles in Kazakhstan, January 2022
Authoritarian rulers in post-Soviet Eurasia draw upon an array of security and police force mechanisms to enforce loyalty and undermine opponents. Beyond these familiar, state-centered agents of repression, we observe…
The Informational Dictator’s Dilemma: Citizen Responses to Media Censorship and Control in Russia and Belarus
In Russia and throughout much of the post-Soviet space, media are now less free than at any point since the end of the Soviet Union. Authoritarian regimes across the region…
Ready to Protest? Calculating Protest Potential in Russian Regional Capitals
In recent years, massive urban protests have taken place in the post-Soviet space. Some demonstrations have contributed to political change, like in Ukraine, while elsewhere, they made no difference or…
Contentious Cities: Urban Conflicts in Russian Millionniks
This past January, residents of Troitsk, a research town (naukograd) of over 60,000 inhabitants to the southwest of Moscow, gathered to protest against the cutting down of a forest for…
Influencers, Echo Chambers, and Epistemic Bubbles: Russia’s Academic Discourse in the Wake of the War in Ukraine
Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine and Russian troops’ atrocities against the Ukrainian people have unleashed an outpouring of condemnation around the world. Sweeping economic sanctions imposed on Moscow have spilled over…
The Changing “De-facto State Playbook”: From Opportunism to Strategic Calculation
We see clear signs that Russia has been applying a “de facto state playbook” in the Ukrainian territories it has seized since the beginning of its war on Ukraine. This…
The Limits of Authoritarian Learning: Deconstructing Kazakhstan’s 2022 Coup Attempt
Throughout his nearly three-decade rule of Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has always been eager to project a positive image of himself in the international arena. In a 2016 interview with…