Chechnya
Opinion | Chechen women are speaking up, but is anybody listening?
The first all-women Chechen March highlights how Chechen women are forced to live at the intersection of Islamophobia and xenophobia.
Opinion
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Azerbaijan
Opinion | Jack of all trades, master of none: Azerbaijan seeks renewables to sustain the status quo
Increasing investments in renewables may seem like a positive change, battling the climate crisis and diversifying Azerbaijan’s oil-dependent economy. Yet, without a decrease in fossil fuel investments and renewables mostly exported, there may not be a change after all. Azerbaijan, an authoritarian petro-state, is hosting COP29, the global conference to grapple with the climate crisis. The challenge calls for the phase-out of fossil fuels and the tripling (at least) of renewables by 2030.
Chechnya
Opinion | Chechen volunteer battalions have been abandoned by Ukraine
Despite verbal support for an independent Chechnya, Ukraine has abandoned Chechen fighters who have been fighting on their side against Russia for a decade. Is Russian cultural influence and propaganda the main reason behind this, and if so, what does it mean for Ukraine’s ability to stand against Russian aggression in general? In October 2022, Ukraine’s parliament recognised the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as an independent state that is ‘temporarily’ occupied by Russia, and condemned ‘t
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections
Opinion | Georgian civil society needs sustained support from the international community
On 26 October, the architect of Georgian authoritarianism, Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, robbed Georgians of their election. Any future government change through elections is ruled out if the status quo persists. An ominous calm pervades the country. It appears as though nothing has changed, yet a looming crisis haunts each home, office, and street, whispering of impending disaster. Yet it is also clear that the election administration has finally dismantled the illusion of democrat
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections
Opinion | Georgia’s ‘democratic’ institutions are reinforcing autocracy
Georgia’s authoritarian regime uses democratic-seeming institutions to maintain its hold on power and so complicate efforts to resist, as seen recently with their use of the Anti-Corruption Bureau to crack down on election observers. Georgia’s authoritarian regime, constructed by billionaire ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, is a prime case of how democratic institutions can deteriorate, becoming mere facades of democracy while fully enabling the repressive machinery of authoritariani
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections
Opinion | Georgia’s new electronic voting system comes with risks
The deployment of new electronic voting systems in Georgia as the country faces a critical election brings with it a number of risks. With less than a month to go before the 2024 parliamentary elections on 26 October, Georgia’s voters are facing a critical juncture with the potential to transform the country’s immediate and long-term future. Alongside an unprecedented political landscape and a first ever fully proportional election, voters will also be faced with large-scale use of electron
Chechnya
Opinion | Fighting on two fronts: Chechen activists in the West
Exiled from their republic due to threats to their lives, Chechen activists in the West navigate a difficult balance between visibility and caution, facing erasure by both Russian and Western society. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might offer Chechnya and its activists a shift in the tides. ‘Ukraine’s incredible incursion into the Kursk region made me finally believe that Russia could soon be defeated’. This is what Ali Bakaev, a Chechen online activist who now lives in London tells m
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