I wonder if this will lead some of the Romanian far right to rethink their pro-Russian positions. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/w...

Excited to announce that my paper "Socioeconomic development and the uneven legacies of authoritarian repression" has been published at the Journal of Historical Political Economy. This grew out of my second year ("591") PhD paper. www.emerald.com/jhpe/article...

My latest piece with @grigopop.bsky.social in @goodauth.bsky.social analyzing Peter Magyar’s campaign strategy in Hungary’s 🇭🇺 latest election. goodauthority.org/news/did-mag...

I keep waiting for them to call it a "special military operation" www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

This is amazing!! www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...

A non-trivial number of accounts flocking to tell me that "Stalin murdered millions" is a Nazi thing to say and equivalent to Holocaust denial. Unbelievable. Is no one teaching the purges. What the actual hell.

Now I kinda wish I had used this as a cover pic instead.😀

The end of Viktor Orbán’s ‘Hungarian model’? New data show why Orbán’s Fidesz party finally fell after 16 years in power. Read the latest from @grigopop.bsky.social here: goodauthority.org/news/the-end...

My 2 cents @goodauth.bsky.social on Orban's loss in the Hungarian elections based on survey data from last week. goodauthority.org/news/the-end...

My online pre-electoral survey had a question about how people would respond to Fidesz declaring victory and the opposition disputing the results + calling for protests. The graph below shows a lot of opposition mobilization but very limited willingness by Fidesz supporters to join counter-protests.

I did not expect Orban to fold so easily! It suggests that the difference is too large to overturn... www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Betting markets also look promising

Here is some very preliminary data (survey is still running) of vote intentions in #Hungary based on my own online survey (of 2200 respondents). The patterns suggest a growing difference post April 8, which may or may not be due to JD Vance's visit.

Trump's increasingly desperate efforts to boost Orban are not only misguided but apparently also counter-productive www.newsweek.com/viktor-orban...

Ceaușescu would have been jealous... search.app/463c4

My kid came back upset and terrified from school, after they had a shelter-in-place due to an ICE raid. This cruelty and madness has to stop!

Ru has tried to murder Zelensky numerous times. Pu reportedly promised Israeli ex-PM Naftali Bennet to spare Zelensky's life in exchange for Ukr surrender. So do not juxtapose Maduro's kidnapping to the fact Zelensky is still in Kyiv. Ru keeps trying and failing to kidnap/assassinate Zelensky!

There are some horrible analogies flying around today. A reminder: the US kidnapping of Maduro in no way justifies, vindicates, or lifts responsibility from the Ru govt or the Ru people. Their war against Ukraine continues to be an unprovoked act of aggression with war crimes and genocidal intent.

This from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Venezuela is both 100% correct and completely laughable: "An unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, the respect for which is a fundamental principle of international law." mid.ru/en/foreign_p...

Trump is rapidly achieving levels of personalism and a cult of personality that it took Romania's #Ceaușescu and Turkmenistan's #Niyazov many years to achieve. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-h...

UNC’s CSEEES was such a bright part of my time at UNC. It not only supported my research, but also felt like home. Such a loss for UNC, its students, and Eastern European and Eurasian studies in the US.

Looks like this story is gaining momentum: over 650 judges have signed a petition confirming the charges in the documentary. tvrinfo.ro/creste-numar...

In other news, Romania is being rocked by the revelations about the political capture of judicial institutions and the successful neutralization of anti-corruption institutions in an excellent new documentary. Well worth watching! recorder.ro/documentar-r...

Great NYT exposé on how the Trumps, Tucker Carlson, and former Romanian PM Victor Ponta, helped free the accused child trafficker, rapist, and manosphere icon, Andrew Tate. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

Trying their best to kill US tourism (in addition to its democracy). Brought to you by the people complaining of free speech restrictions under Biden. www.cbsnews.com/news/us-tour...

Leave it to a Claremonter and Orban propagandist to claim that "three and a half decades of American-style liberal international order" have been more of a threat to Europe than Hitler and Stalin.

Of course it makes more sense to try to do business with dictators and war criminals than to engage with your democratic allies to support a country fighting for its survival. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

It makes perfect sense coming from one of the most corrupt international organizations. But maybe this will slow down Trump's haste for "peace" at all costs in Ukraine?

Very timely (and interesting) article by Milan Svolik in World Politics.

Exhilarating performance by Pussy Riot in Brooklyn last night!

It is puzzling indeed that Ukraine is not jumping for joy at the opportunity to give up most of what they fought for almost 4 years just to give Trump a PR win in time for Thanksgiving. www.bbc.com/news/live/c3...

Trump's "peace' plan for Ukraine is not only morally unacceptable but myopic and no basis for a lasting peace. goodauthority.org/news/ukraini...

It's nice when science reaffirms our natural inclinations. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

Hard to believe that even Putin's endorsement wasn't enough for Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Check out my new piece on Moldovan 🇲🇩 elections with @grigopop.bsky.social

Moldovan voters have given the pro-EU PAS (of President Maia Sandu) a narrow but clear parliamentary majority, despite Russia hybrid warfare tactics. Let's hope that the planned opposition protests are not a foil for even more aggressive Russian tactics.

We don't need to worry about stealth authoritarianism anymore. It's pretty clearly out in the open. www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/t...

The authoritarian playbook in action... www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Yet another instance of the staggering human costs of US deportation practices. ‘I told my family, I’ll probably die’: US immigration sends Russian asylum seekers back to Moscow www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In case you were curious about what Ukrainians think about Putin-style "peace" negotiations...

The insistence of Texas Republicans to have Dem reps sign agreements to be shadowed by police reminds me of a line from a novel by Marin Preda: "[the communists] aren't content to take your cow from the barn, they also make you sign that you gave it willingly". thehill.com/homenews/sta...

And the prize for understatement of the day goes to ... search.app/qHk7P

This is so depressing- and makes me so grateful for growing up biking everywhere, and for my kids having the same experience 30 years later.

Glad to see that tax payers' money is being put to good use. apnews.com/article/vp-v...

My 2 cents on the recent Romanian elections in ‪@goodauth.bsky.social. Romanian democracy dodged a bullet (barely) but this is no time to be complacent...

Just when we thought the circus was finally over, Simion decided to challenge the results of the elections (after he had conceded earlier). Not surprisingly, his argument echoes the rhetoric of his Russian handlers. This could get ugly. www.g4media.ro/breaking-geo...

Here's a graph (based on my own online survey from May9-17) showing where support in yesterday's Romanian presidential vote came from vv. the parliamentary vote from 2024. As expected, Dan dominated overwhelmingly among USR and UDMR voters, and quite clearly among PSD and PNL voters.

Nicușor Dan won after an incredible campaign that culminated in an unexpectedly clear reversal of the first round vote. He also won because of the remarkable mobilization of many Romanian citizens, who drove the record turnout. But let us not get dizzy with success:

At this point Dan leads by over 800K votes, a difference that is virtually impossible to overcome with the roughly one million diaspora votes left to count. The question is whether Simion will accept defeat or whether he (and his handlers/followers) will resort to Jan 6 tactics.

Exit polls and turnout figures look very promising for Nicușor Dan (and prediction markets seem to agree). But lots of uncertainty remains given the gap between exit polls and results in the first wave. Meanwhile, Simion claimed victory, setting the stage for fraud claims (and possibly violence.)