Inside the Fight Over Russia’s Domestic Violence Law
By Alexey Yurtaev — Who is preventing Russia’s domestic violence legislation from going ahead – and does it have any future? Read more.
A Failure for Fake News
By Peter Gross — Despite all the disinformation during Romania’s presidential election, citizens were not tricked, and rejected both the “lying” media and the candidate favored by them. Read more.
Slow Progress on Moldova’s Thorny Judicial Reforms
By Victoria Dodon — Ambitious judicial reform clashes with political self-interest — yet again. Read more.
How Russia Influences Serbian Media
By Jovana Presic — Criticism of the Kremlin is almost non-existent in Serbian public discourse. Read more.
A Look Back at Romania’s Hopeful Presidential Election
By Brindusa Armanca and Peter Gross — Last November’s reelection of Klaus Iohannis offers substance to claims that the country is on a path to rejecting corruption, political circuses, and nationalist proclivities. Read more.
Embracing the Homeless in Istanbul
By Derya Dogan — After a childhood of sexual abuse and violence, and a life on the streets, Ayse Tukrukcu’s projects are feeding the needy in Istanbul. Read more.
Reading Posters in Donetsk
By Yulia Tkachenko — In separatist-controlled Donetsk, cultural life goes on, and there are even famous names on the advertising posters. Read more.
A Pale Imitation
By Martin Ehl — A theory on the failure of liberalism offers food for thought, but falls short through its narrow focus on elites. Read more.
North Macedonia: Downstream Dreams End in a Cocktail of Pollution
By Vidi Vaka — Even if all the country’s decrepit water treatment plants were fit for service, they could only provide clean water to a fourth of the country’s people. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 17 February
Headlines from around the region: Russian provocateur shakes up French politics; Srebrenica survivors still homeless; no progress on Nagorno-Karabakh; no U.S. visas for Kyrgyzstan; and two Russian movies to watch out for. Read more.
30 Years After: How a State Dies
By Martin Ehl — Brain drain and population loss are crippling the EU’s eastern countries, and the epidemic could spread westward. Read more
Around the Bloc – 14 February
Headlines from around the region: a young man on the rise; Hungarian public opinion; Air Serbia; a Russian banker’s fall from grace; and more charges against Bulgarian billionaire Vasil Bozhkov. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 13 February
Headlines from around the region: MH17 trial; a solitary voice in Baku; Romania warned over trees; Facebook purges fake pages; and a pay cut in Pristina. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 12 February
Headlines from around the region: Pussy Riot in trouble; Belarus uses oil reserves; Ukraine’s new chief of staff’s Giuliani connection; ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia; and Mongolia and the coronavirus. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 11 February
Headlines from around the region: anarchists sentenced in Russia; more jail time for Gigi Ugulava; rights for gay couples in Croatia; a banking scandal in Lithuania; and an amused Russian TV anchor. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 10 February
Headlines from around the region: civil unrest in Kazakhstan; a step closer to sacking judges in Armenia; a (potential) Nemtsov Square in Prague; a groundbreaking TV series about Ukrainian teenagers; and refugees learning AI in Bulgaria. Read more.
Around the Bloc – 7 February
Headlines from around the region: elections in Azerbaijan; Lithuania warns against spies; Insta-quarantine in Russia; Albania reckons with earthquake bill; and the sources of prosperity in Kyrgyzstan. Read more.