"Manuscripts don't burn." - Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Written by: Anna Nardone, Arina Lopukhina Until now, the Moria migrant facility on the Greek island of Lesbos was seen as the most faithful representation of hell on earth, despite rarely making big headlines. Nobody could predict that, after the fire occurred in the night between the 8th and the… Read More »Moria Fire in the European Scenario: How Far Has the Debate Got?
Belarus, a small state on the edge of Europe, rarely makes it to international headlines. However, starting August 9, astonishing hard-to-miss protests sparked in the country following the presidential election results. As in 2011 elections (and the ones earlier), opposition activists pointed out deliberate falsification of vote counts, which… Read More »Mass Protests in Belarus: Tipping Point for Europe’s Last Dictatorship
Chechnya is infamous for the blaring cases of human rights violations and terrorism, which are often blamed on the prevalence of Islam in the region. However, ironically, Chechens have only undergone a major process of Islamization relatively recently and historically preferred a syncretist approach to socio-religious matters. In the modern… Read More »Chechnya: Forceful Reshaping of National Identity
The global pandemic has left a footprint on everyone’s life, challenging the concept of normality. However, some places on the map were shaken to their core, but not (only) due to the health-related concerns posed by the menacing virus. Hong Kong perfectly manages to sustain the COVID threat: as of… Read More »COVID-19 as a Threat to Hong Kong’s Jurisdictional Independence
On January 15, President Putin held an annual meeting with the Russian government, which is usually a quite unexciting event for both the parliament members and the general public. However, this year’s meeting was preceded with peculiar novelties: Russian media agencies speculated that the recording of the meeting would be… Read More »Russia: Acting Out Democracy as Never Before