Sitzen zwei Dikatoren in Europa beisammen und jammern, wie schlecht es ihnen geht: "Gestern saß ich den ganzen Tag mit Putin zusammen und wir haben darüber nachgedacht, wie wir diese schwierigen Zeiten überstehen können.”

Over the last century, many democracies have started down the road to autocracy. Some managed to turn around. What did these 'U-turns' have in common? Political economist @marinanord.bsky.social & colleagues' conclusions are clear and succinct. Full research summary: www.v-dem.net/media/public...

A highly recommended read: policyreview.info/articles/ana...

My new article, “ANO Dialog: Innovation in Controlling Russia’s Digital Information”, is out in Post-Soviet Affairs in Open Access. With @florian-toepfl.bsky.social & @jkling288.bsky.social, we extend our OSINT CV analysis method of Prigozhin’s troll factory to a new case doi.org/10.1080/1060... 1/3

A new paper of ours on one of the successor organizations of Russsia's infamous Internet Research Agency (IRA) has been published: Congratulations to my (former) doctoral students and co-authors @sergepoliakoff.bsky.social and @jkling288.bsky.social! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Am 18.9. erscheint unser Buch „Der Stille Krieg. Wie Autokraten Deutschland angreifen“ (mit @RBingener). Es zeigt das Spektrum hybrider Kriegführung von Sabotage über Desinformation bis zu Migration und enthält eine Fortsetzung der #MoskauConnection.

A free, democratic and independent Ukraine. That's what you are fighting for. That's what our efforts are all about. We are with you, for as long as it takes. Because a free Ukraine is a free Europe. Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Vance can’t be this ignorant, can he? WWII was not ended with a negotiation. Germany and Japan were dictatorial and genicidal regimes that had to be crushed by the military might of the US and Russia. FDR did not sit down and negotiate with Hitler.

We refuse to allow Ukraine to interfere in its own internal affairs.

What are the chances Budapest II holds when Budapest I collapsed so spectacularly? The first was a toothless failure, empty assurances with no enforcement. All signs point to Budapest II being more of the same: non-binding, unenforceable, and already discredited by precedent.

This is amazing. (Is there a precedent?) The Ukrainian Embassy in DC becomes THE welcome place for some of the world’s most powerful leaders. European unity is on display and Ukraine is the host and unifer. United for just and sustainable peace. Video c/o President Zelensky’s Official Telegram

Center-right politicians erode democractic norms more through rhetoric than their far-right counterparts. A new study looking at Germany🇩🇪 by @dziblatt.bsky.social @valentimvicente.bsky.social & @eliasdinas.bsky.social in @bjpols.bsky.social ‪⤵️ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Empfehlenswerter F.A.Z. Beitrag: In Alaska droht ein zweites Münchner Abkommen www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

Great article by @gabrielagreilinger.bsky.social on Orbán's successful efforts to bring far right and "mainstream right" elites together. What is important about these recent event though, is that the "mainstream right" and far right now meet on far-right events and, thus, on their terms.

Meanwhile in Russia: state media outlet RIA Novosti:

The wheels of anticorruption must be turning for real if we see this kind of growing pains. Ukr institutions and society need to push forward. Defending free, independent media like Ukrainska Pravda is essential.

This seems to indicate a qualitative change in Russian policy towards media use, shifting the focus from punishing publication to punishing reception of banned ('extremist') content. (1/2)

This seems to indicate a qualitative change in Russian policy towards media use, shifting the focus from punishing publication to punishing reception of banned ('extremist') content. (1/2)

After Trump shut off funding to the US-backed Radio Free Asia, the Chinese expanded their own broadcasts www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

New publication out in Political Psychology! Joint work with the wonderful @piwoni.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

“Don’t Complain. Adapt. Be Successful”: How Highly Educated, #MiddleClass #Germans of Polish, Turkish, and Sub-Saharan African Background Respond to #Racism Author: Eunike Piwoni @piwoni.bsky.social University of Passau Coming soon! #antiRacism #qualitativeInterviews

‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe #ICYMI www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

📢 Big news for platform researchers across Europe and beyond: Today, the @ec.europa.eu adopted the Delegated Act for Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) – a long-anticipated milestone enabling researchers to request access to non-public platform data under Article 40.4.

Good 🧵 from the excellent @dsaobservatory.bsky.social on the newly dropped Delegated Act on data access 💥 Full Act ⬇️ Time to put it to work. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/d...

Just so we're clear on what MAGA's "final solution" really is, they're not hiding it. The problem isn’t that it’s a secret; it’s that you don’t believe they actually mean it when they talk about ethnic cleansing.

This is an amazing and important graphic and close monitoring of the damage being done to #pressfreedoms and to independent media. Analysis and deeper dive here at @justsecurity.org: www.justsecurity.org/112792/trump... Thanks to the brilliant @bechamilton.bsky.social

After months of talk about a ceasefire to which Ukraine has agreed & sanctions against Russia if it does not too, the US has now reduced sanctions against a long list of Russian banks & cut twice earlier promised military support for Ukraine. Peace is punished. War is rewarded.

I wrote this a year ago when Stanford told Jim Jordan we wouldn’t study the 2024 election, & I wasn’t being renewed. Jordan took a victory lap: House Weaponization had exercised “robust oversight” over Stanford. It wasn’t Jordan’s place to dictate research agenda. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/o...

Why do people search for individual politicians? Because they (don't) like them. In a new paper we find sympathy/antipathy to be important predictors of political information seeking. We also find searches for female politicians more often concerned with appearance & family. doi.org/10.1177/1461...

I call on the Hungarian authorities to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead. Without fear of any criminal or administrative sanctions against the organisers or participants. To the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary and beyond: I will always be your ally.

YouTube's API search function is "not adequate for robust academic research, especially concerning Digital Services Act requirements". Clear and problematic conclusions by @riederb.bsky.social Adrian Padilla & Oscar Coromina #commsky #DSA #dataacess #youtube arxiv.org/abs/2506.11727

Meanwhile, IR students will be reading Barry Posen’s recent article, which claims Ru is pursuing a defensive, preemptive war. Because it’s important to have a scholarly debate or something, regardless of how disconnected from facts some takes are.

This Teaching Database is an excellent initiative from our @polcomm.bsky.social divisions #ica25 #apsa25 #polcomm #commsky 🚀

Ein russisches Militärgericht in Belgorod hat Nadine Geisler (Nadezhda Rossinskaya) zu 22 Jahren Haft verurteilt. Sie gründete Armiya Krasotok, eine von Frauen geführte Freiwilligeninitiative, die ukrainische Zivilisten unterstützt.

Sergej Tichanowski ist nach fünf Jahren endlich frei! Seine Frau erhielt zwischendurch Nachrichten, er sei tot - und nun das! Was für eine gute Nachricht! Er ist einer von 14 politischen Gefangenen, die Lukaschenko frei gelassen hat. Hunderte andere bleiben in seinen Kerkern.

On 16 June, the #Viadrina celebrates the opening of the first graduate programme for Ukrainian Studies. 12 doctoral students will start their dissertations in June in the @kiu-network.bsky.social. Registration by 13 June to: [email protected]. 👇

Eine sehr interessante Recherche zu den Verbindungen zwischen Telegram und dem russischen Geheimdienst FSB. istories.media/en/stories/2...

Liebe Freunde Osteuropas! Der Monat Mai ist rum, Zeit zurückzublicken, was sich so Neues auf dem #Osteuropa-Buchmarkt tummelt. Der vergangene Monat war etwas ruhiger, aber ich habe 27 Sachbücher und 17 Romane für auch ausfindig gemacht. Da sollte für jeden was dabei sein. 1/33

Today, we received notice that our team’s last remaining NSF grant was terminated. For the first time since 2009, when I received an NSF Fellowship for Graduate Research, I have no active NSF grants.

Eine der schönsten Städte Deutschlands? Görlitz! Wären die SED-Kommunisten länger an der Macht geblieben, hätte es dort wie in vielen anderen ostdeutschen Städten nichts mehr zum Sanieren gegeben. Wer die DDR verklärt - zeigt Ihnen solche Fotos und Videos! www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

We enjoyed reading this recent piece in @theguardian.com from @casmudde.bsky.social and what is, essentially, a call to action to speak to intrinsic values www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears' www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Excited to announce the FirstView (and Open Access) publication of my latest article in Nationalities Papers @nationalitiesp.bsky.social: Russian Propaganda from V to Z: Projecting Banal and Everyday Nationalism in Unsettled Times A brief intro 🧵(1/6) doi.org/10.1017/nps....

Skytte prize winners speak out www.ft.com/content/939b...

Figures, as distinguished and authoritative as it gets, from Habermas to Mansbridge, ringing political alarm bells:

Trump’s story has always been that he should be president because he was rich. That was always false. In order to become rich he had to first become the president. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

I spoke to Canadian radio audiences about the Istanbul talks and hosts asked me how I see further negotiations playing out. My answer: Diplomatic progress/breakthrough are highly unlikely because nothing has changed politically/militarily to suggest a different outcome from previous rounds... 1/

Russia imprisons head of independent election watchdog for five years Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos, has been jailed over alleged ties to an "undesirable" organization. Known for exposing electoral violations, Golos called the 2024 presidential vote the most fraudulent in Russia's history.