Alasdair McCallum, Monash University and Pete Lentini, Monash University Russia is not a democracy. However, Russia does have elections – many of them, in fact. From September 18-20, Russian voters will elect their national parliamentary representatives (to the Russian State Duma), as well as 11 governors, deputies to 39 regional assemblies, and deputies
Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham; Elīna Šteinerte, University of Bristol, and Hervé Ascensio, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne When we were asked to investigate Russia’s indoctrination and militarisation of children living in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow since 2014, we had a general idea of the Kremlin’s occupation policies. Two of us grew
Sarah Whitmore, Oxford Brookes University and Bettina Renz, University of Nottingham The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has dismissed the country’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi after a turbulent week in which he also removed his defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. The dismissal of the popular defence minister, who is credited by many as the brains behind
Alexander Korolev, UNSW Sydney It’s been quite a week for Beijing, with back-to-back visits by the leaders of the United States and Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping has had his hands full with hosting duties, gun salutes, photo opportunities and high-level talks. Each visit was important in its own way. US President Donald
Ph. Martina Tonetto Clare Carolin, King’s College London I was texting a museum director friend in Asia recently. We were discussing whether a trip to this year’s “artworld Olympics”, the Venice Biennale, justified the carbon release. I felt ambivalent. The main exhibition is curated by Koyo Kouoh, whose 2016 edition of Ireland’s Biennale,
Oula Kadhum, SOAS, University of London You could be forgiven for thinking everyone in Russia either supports the war in Ukraine or is too scared to do anything about it. A dominant narrative is that Russian civil society is passive, complicit or has been quashed to the point of being neutralised. Some elements
Ph. China and Russia view the U.S. grand strategy as increasingly out of focus. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson Jeffrey Taliaferro, Tufts University “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Napoleon Bonaparte’s maxim may well have been in the minds of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing these past weeks, as the
Ph. Does the nation stand behind him? Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AFP via Getty Images Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University and Elizaveta Gaufman, University of Groningen Perceived wisdom has it that the longer a war goes on, the less enthusiastic a public becomes for continuing the conflict. After all, it is ordinary citizens who tend to bear
Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy In a surprise announcement on February 10, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that his administration was preparing to hold presidential elections before the middle of May. Alongside these elections, he is reported to be planning to hold a referendum on
Ph. Russian army special forces inspect vehicles at a checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in February 2024. Sergey Nikonov/Shutterstock Christo Atanasov Kostov, IE University The scenes have become grimly familiar: Russian tanks rolling into Georgia in 2008, the seizure of Crimea in 2014, the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian military jets violating European