This is the bleakest period for Ukraine since the invasion, with no reason to think things will get better. As things stand, Europe and America have abandoned Ukraine to Putin, and it is indulging ourselves to think otherwise.

The Kremlin’s creeping nationalizations hit Chelyabinsk businesses. My latest, with super comments from Nick “Shanda Rhymes” Birman-Trickett and Alexey Eremenko.

themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/11/the…

🌍📚I discussed with Manuel Férez the significance of RUTA-our aim is to provide an alternative space for EQUITABLE attention to regional issues. We also talked about engaging with Latin American academics. The RUTA Association Orientemedio.news #NagornoKarabakh
orientemedio.news/ruta-nuevos-es…

Another terrible night for Ukraine's energy system with 82 different rockets and drones launched. In March, Russia gutted several Ukrainian power plants outside Kyiv where the air defense is weaker, dread to think what other bits of the system they took out last night.

I saw a The New York Times story about New York City trying to use birth control to combat its rat problem, so I had Google Gemini write lyrics about it and and Sonu AI turn it into a disco song.

I'm not 100% sold on AI changing the way we work, but it is changing the way I waste time.

I think there are few journalists who know as much about the Covid Inquiry (which will rumble on for years even when it's not top of the news agenda) as Ruby does - she would be a great hire anywhere but especially at news orgs interested in quality reporting of the inquiry.

I’ve been made redundant from openDemocracy along with several of the kindest, most supportive and talented people I’ve had the honour of working with

I’m now looking for new opportunities. Here are some of the stories I’m most proud of:

I've been made redundant from openDemocracy along with several of my brilliant colleagues.

I'm looking for work. Here are some of my clippings:

My article on the transnational history of dissent in the Eastern Bloc is out! Based on fieldwork in Moscow, Wroclaw and Warsaw, it tells the story of how the largest socialist dissident circle of the Brezhnev era interpreted the rise of Solidarność & made contact with activists

Life-long left-wing democratic activist Alexander Skobov has been arrested for 'justifying terrorism' in Russia.

Vladimir Putin, Agentstvo reports, was likely involving in prosecuting him back in the 1980s.

agents.media/v-rossii-arest…

One tiny checkpoint between Ukraine and Russia remains open for Ukrainians coming home on foot. They return with whatever they can carry, usually just a bag or two, and face security service questioning at either end of the 2km path that crosses the border irishtimes.com/world/europe/2…

I recently returned from a reporting trip to Armenia. There was palpable excitement in the air around the flurry of talks with Europe. But it was mixed with the sense of insecurity, and fear of new war, all on the backdrop of pain and sense of abandonment of Karabakh refugees.

I got my hands on a thousand files about training programs that China offers to foreign government officials. For Fikra Forum | منتدى فكرة Washington Institute I argue there are clear evidence revealing Beijing intention to export Chinese governance preferences & practices. washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysi…

'Implicit and explicit threats of expanding the war in Ukraine to Moldova are always couched in terms of a choice – Moldova can either join NATO and the “collective West” or embrace its constitutional neutrality.'

This is full-on.

I really love this portrait by Tom Rowley
of one of the new, idiosyncratic cohort of Russian activists helping Ukrainian refugees. The truest, strongest activists I've met are those who help people and solve problems, directly, hands-on, with abandon.
neweasterneurope.eu/2024/03/13/why…