Publication alert: We have a new publication on "Disrupting or invigorating an anti-democratic counterpublic? How highly active commenters engage on RT German’s Facebook page" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Publication alert: We have a new publication on "Disrupting or invigorating an anti-democratic counterpublic? How highly active commenters engage on RT German’s Facebook page" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Co-authored with @florian-toepfl.bsky.social, our new Europe-Asia Studies article is out in open access. Using 350 self-published CVs (2013-2021) from Prigozhin’s IRA “troll farm”, we map staffing, task divisions, a five-level hierarchy, 2014 recruitment surge. doi.org/10.1080/0966...

Ready or not, "Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone." www.ft.com/content/1da0...

My Op-ed @theguardian.com on #Ukraine, the Paris declaration & unrealistic hopes for a ceasefire⬇️

My university, Kyiv School of Economics, is hiring postdocs & professors of all levels! Join the best economics department in Ukraine, with excellent colleagues, modern campus and make an impact teaching the new generation of Ukrainians! Link: www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.... #EconSky #econjobmarket

Als Tipp, weil ich das Paper gerade im Examensseminar bespreche: Ein exzellentes Paper und must-read für alle, die Kriegsberichterstattung inhaltsanalysieren. Uns fehlen aktuell vergleichbare normative Reflektionen zum Umgang mit rechtsextremen Akteuren: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Als Tipp, weil ich das Paper gerade im Examensseminar bespreche: Ein exzellentes Paper und must-read für alle, die Kriegsberichterstattung inhaltsanalysieren. Uns fehlen aktuell vergleichbare normative Reflektionen zum Umgang mit rechtsextremen Akteuren: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📰 Dr. Teresa Völker zeigt, wie politische Debatten zur Normalisierung der AfD beitragen. Wenn demokratische Parteien rechte Narrative übernehmen, verschiebt sich der Rahmen unserer Demokratie. Deswegen der Appel: wachsam bleiben und Haltung zeigen. 👉 www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft...

Time to ask: In whose interests is American foreign policy being conducted?

Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments. 🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...

The ibidem-Verlag Book series "Ukrainian Voices" on Amazon: www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

A schoolbook example of a propaganda campaign. Banal and and very likely effective at the same time. meduza.io/en/feature/2...

There's always a Russian connection ... "Jeffrey Epstein claims he gave Russians insight into Trump. Newly released emails show the late convicted sex offender’s extensive network of foreign contacts, whom he corresponded with about Trump’s policy decisions." www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

New from me: “working the refs” has come for Wikipedia. The same type of attacks alleging anti-conservative bias that right wing politicians have make about social media are coming for the encyclopedia — because of its critical role in shaping AI answer engines. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

For the government to remain on X is now unconscionable.

Out now: key data from the third wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study. 75 countries, >32,350 journalists, >300 researchers, seven years of successful collaboration. Many thanks to all who contributed to this project! www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/

That there will likely be no Trump-Putin meeting in the near future does not change the fact that Putin’s psychological operation to disrupt the Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine has been, so far, a success. That disruption was the only thing that actually mattered.

Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

1/Die Berlinskaja Prawda bietet heute ihren Leser*innen eine besondere Überraschung an: eine Kurzreise "Auf den Spuren Wilhelm Piecks". Ich vermute, nur wenige werden sich daran stören - wer war Pieck schon. Ein alter Mann mit immer guter Laune, den alle mochten... Kann man doch

Trump will den Krieg seit Amtsantritt einfrieren. Die Ukraine ist seit Monaten dazu bereit. Doch Russland verhindert Frieden. Putin will mehr ukrainisches Staatsgebiet, als er erobern konnte. Ohne echten Druck der USA wird er weiter mit Gewalt versuchen, sein Ziel zu erreichen.

media world vs. real world 😵‍💫

why don't I see any critical coverage of this in Germany?

Excellent read with many leading academics cited. On how Trump provokes violence to gain control. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Excellent read with many leading academics cited. On how Trump provokes violence to gain control. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

"We've been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies." - Macron defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

It seems likely that Russia will use the nuclear power plant in the next days and weeks to put pressure on Ukraine, in a very risky game. kyivindependent.com/its-a-risky-...

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/...