This is a false dichotomy. Backing defense against imperialism is precisely what saves lives: those that are being annihilated by the violence of Russian occupation, while its perpetrators vow to re-occupy societies harmed by Soviet Russia. Only defence can stop the escalation of a war of aggression

Education restructuring is one of the main things that will happen in #Georgia in 2026 -- possibly with generational impact. We created a site that will track this. Find key analysis, commentary, letters & petitions all there are ganatleba.substack.com #education #highereducation

Christmas in Odesa💙💛

Christmas in Kyiv💙💛 📷Щоденник Києва у світлинах Галини Лапіної

Thinking of the reason why many of us in Europe are able to have holidays free from the violence of Russian occupation and war of aggression… and it’s Ukrainian resistance to which we are indebted

On the darkest days, I always write the most optimistic texts. This one is called “What Ukraine Should Do with Russia”. open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

Same old tune the before Russians concocted new theories why they want Donbas or any other parts of Ukraine in particular. Crimea was different, a Russian apocryphal story that drunk Khruschov unfairly gave it to Ukrainian SSR already existed.

This is how a lot of Western media constantly normalises Russian imperial violence toward Europe’s East: and for that, the media bears co-responsibility

Jewish Currents is looking for a new editor in chief. I learned so much from Arielle and thankfully, she's not leaving. But whoever takes on the role of editor in chief will be leading the magazine in a very exciting time of expansion. Apply here: jewishcurrents.org/careers?toke...

I deplore how the German and western political classes have abused Holocaust memory to the point that publics have lost faith in its lessons.

'Are authoritarian regimes appropriating decolonial discourse? What is BRICS-Postcolonialism? Have you ever asked yourself these questions?'

A testimony for all the feminists who have advised to not militarise in response to a russian military occupation so that there could be ‘peace’

A great dissection of the common anti-imperial leftist tropes like 'imperialism is only when sea' and 'if Russia does colonialism, then those people deserved it'.

“Now let us consider the responsibility of academia in all these debates. Just imagine: From 1970 to 1980, US universities produced 900 books (roughly 90 per year) in the so-called field of Soviet and Slavic studies (colonial name, of course), and only 3% of them focused on non-Russians.”

People from Eastern Europe often experience discrimination in job centres in Germany. "According to a study (by @aleksandralewicki.bsky.social and colleagues), Ukrainian refugees are accused of social tourism in job centres. As a result, they are prematurely pushed into low-wage jobs."

Thank you, glad the text is being read. In Germany it received a lot of silence, given how inconvenient is what we’re saying and the standpoints we’re saying it from, that are still treated as [intellectually] inferior, thus, rather underscoring what we’re saying about inter-imperiality and racism…

worth reading in translation: "Soviet repression and Western colonial violence are more similar than many would like to admit. Both the Nazi Generalplan Ost and the Soviet deportations were colonial projects in nature"

Yesterday was the day honoring the liquidators of Chornobyl disaster. One of them is Oleh Veklenko. He was a young conscript in the Soviet army sent to Chornobyl in 1986. His sketches started an exhibition and then a festival of eco poster. I deeply admire Oleh’s activism.

Can't take this seriously; Macron's words are nice but the wishful thinking lurking behind them can't be ignored-- the Americans are, in fact, diverging and Ru clearly chooses war. I'll stick to pointing out that Rutte's smile is clownish, Ze's is forced, and the Americans look uncomfortable again

A talk by Charles Heller from @borderforensics.bsky.social on border forensics and documenting border violence at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Sitting here with the core team of Researchers on the Border, urgently important discussions! Follow their work @badaczkinagranicy.bsky.social

More episodes of the YurtJurt podcast!

On this International Human Rights Defenders Day I’d like to remind the world about this👇🏼 “Did Georgian police use a chemical weapon against protesters?”

For those in Warsaw: this conference on anti-gender campaigns and the politics of knowledge production will be of great interest to many scholars and social justice advocates in our RUTA communities

Important essay by T. Hendl and S. Durdiyeva on the left's "emotionally charged and invested connection to the USSR and Soviet Utopia" and the continuing harm these phantasies cause progressive politics worldwide. @terezahendl.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As our paper with Selbi Durdiyeva On Collateral Damage, Selective Anti-imperialism and the Path to Liberation comes out in American Communist History, my thoughts are back with Joy James and Lucius Outlaw with whom we were lucky to have incredibly insightful and interesting conversations on our work

New work from our members: political philosopher Tereza Hendl and transitional justice scholar Selbi Durdiyeva, critically exploring concerns of selective anti-imperialism and decoloniality on the left

About new Russian Studies „Our goal is to study Russia from different angles — its economy, its society, its elites, its foreign policy — in order to take a critical look at what Russia has done to us and the world,” said Prof Maksym Yakovlyev, co-founder of the program at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

These days, Oksana Zabushko probably wouldn't be published in the NYT. "Russia will not become a democracy until it falls apart. That’s because Russia is not really a nation-state but the same premodern multiethnic empire living on geographic expansion and resource looting as 300 years ago"

The recording from our latest insightful and urgent webinar. Many thanks to all speakers for their powerful words and @epp-annus.bsky.social for her moderating and leadership in the RUTA Environmental Initiative. Those interested to join the initiative are welcome to… m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid...

Today. For all who need to re-connect to an approach to life, land and sustainability that refuses to normalise genocidal and ecocidal violence: our next webinar will be a conversation on ecocultural identity, the politics of reconstruction, and artistic responsibility amid fighting for survival

“It’s your war. You’ve just outsourced the dying.” And fighting

Join us today at 17:00 Kyiv & Tallinn / 16:00 CET for conversations about possible futures, more-than-human worlds and the land to which Ukrainians belong. Themes will include decoloniality, ecocultural identity, the politics of reconstruction, and artistic responsibility amid fighting for survival

Very proud audience member at @dianakudaibergen.bsky.social’s @uclssees.bsky.social book launch of What Does It Mean to Be Kazakhstani? Congratulations! Great work 👏 Looking forward to having a read

In this episode, Kamila Smagulova draws on her historical research on the 1986 Jeltoksan uprising and the history of suppressed dissent in Qazaqstan. In a moving tribute to resistance and identity, she reflects on how the state’s refusal to fully acknowledge these events has shaped collective memory

On how the Western coercion of Ukraine into giving up nuclear weapons enabled a Russian military invasion that threatens new nuclear harms to Ukrainians and fellow societies harmed by Russian imperialism, while the IAEA remains compromised through collaboration with Russian occupying forces

Prague is asking the obvious question: Why isn't Europe using Russia's €183 billion to rebuild what Russia destroyed? Belgium's answer: too risky. EU leaders vote Dec 18-19. euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/03/b... 📸 Photo: Tomáš Kozel

Another example of a European leader failing Ukraine and Europe.

What is tragic and counter-productive is how much of the left can’t identify and oppose these far right synergies because it hasn’t been listening to knowers from Europe’s East about the patterns and harms from Russian imperialism. Western left’s failures undermine effective antifascist strategies

I am not joking when I say it could have been written by Breivik. or indeed Dugin. They have a Hitlerian fetish about Europe and considerable power having hijacked the US. This is a very dangerous moment when the fantasies of white nationalism could be imposed by violence upon the world.

Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:

“The research documents extensive Russian influence infrastructure across Europe. Several major EU political parties received Russian energy sector financing, including Austria’s FPÖ, France’s National Rally (€9.4 million loan, 2014), and Germany’s AfD (connections promoting Russian gas dependency)”

Our next webinar will be a conversation among remarkable thinkers Adrian Ivakhiv, Kateryna Botanova, Kateryna Filyuk, Lesia Kulchynska, Taras Polataiko, Maria Sonevytsky, Oleksiy Vasyliuk and Olya Zikrata about reviving multispecies relations with the land Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

I have finally gotten around to writing a new piece for my newsletter. We hear a lot about "agreements" which could be reached with Russia in the future. So I decided to look at Russia's history through this lens. Spoiler alert: Don't expect Russia to abide by agreements as long as it's an empire.

More than three decades after USSR’s collapse, Moscow still refuses to accept that its former colonies are now internationally recognized sovereign nations. Russia’s war against Ukraine is the horrifying embodiment of this refusal. A nightmarish attempt to turn back the time.

RUTA continues to stand in solidarity with the Georgian civil resistance movement for democracy and freedom from Russian interference and occupation

Health research as a site of resistance

Concerning findings from Georgia

A crucial episode in which Botakoz Kassymbekova takes a critical look at ‘imperial innocence’ and the Soviet tale of the ‘friendship among nations’, exploring how the so-called friendship served as a colonial tool, reinforcing racial hierarchies, inequality, and systemic injustice under Soviet rule

For all RUTA members and friends who might be in London this week, this book launch will be of interest!

cc @associationruta.bsky.social also: rec-on.org/onfemicide.h...