Monthly Archives: May 2022

27 years ago the flag was taken down from the Belarus parliament building. On Lukashenka’s orders, the flag was cut into pieces and the perpetrators put their signatures on it.

Autocrats face hard choices about rewarding narrow interest groups or pursuing policies with broader benefits, using repression or persuasion against political opponents, and choosing how much to censor the media, cheat in elections, and violate human rights in order to … Continue reading →

Thomas Pepinsky, Vox: The mental image that most Americans harbor of what actual authoritarianism looks like is fantastical and cartoonish. This vision has jackbooted thugs, all-powerful elites acting with impunity, poverty and desperate hardship for everyone else, strict controls on … Continue reading →

On the night of February 21, 2014, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia. His flight followed months of protest against his government for backing out of an agreement with the European Union—protests Yanukovych had tried to repress with ever-greater … Continue reading →

Guardian: DeSantis signed into law House Bill 395, designating 7 November as Victims of Communism Day. Florida is one of a handful of states to adopt the designation, but is believed to be the first to mandate school instruction on … Continue reading →

FAZ: Selenskyj: Ukraine ist Teil der freien Welt, Russland ist isoliert Der ukrainische Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj sieht eine große Symbolkraft in den Reisen internationaler Prominenz in sein Land zum Jahrestag des Welt­kriegs­endes in Europa. „Der heutige Tag in der Ukraine … Continue reading →