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The Conflict between Russia and Ukraine Is Neither Bluff nor Ultimatum

First published in French on December 30 in Révolution Permanente. Translation for LeftVoice by Scott Cooper. Moscow is amassing 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, whose government is seeking to lean on NATO to counter Putin. But even if Russian military intervention is central to that country’s defense, it is a very risky option. Are […]

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How to start a gender transition in Russia

Note from LeftEast editors . We reprint Jeremy Morris article, which appeared on his own Postsocialism website. This is a short post ‘answering’ my own question on Twitter: What is life really like in Russia for transgender people seeking to transition when they interact with the very ‘medical gaze’ of the state? A medical commission […]

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With Ruling Party Ties, Serbian Right-Wing ‘Security’ Groups Flourish

Note from LeftEast editors. We reprint Saša Dragojlo’s pathbreaking investigative piece, originally published on December 9, 2021 at Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – BIRN BIRN has identified a handful of self-proclaimed ‘expert’ security organisations in Serbia that promote the police, military and right-wing tropes while enjoying ties to the country’s ruling party. In October, a […]

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How Capitalism Erases the Human Costs of Post-1989 Transitions

Note from LeftEast editors: We reprint this article, which appeared in the Black Box East section of the Berliner Gazette in German on December 2, 2021.  After the post-1989 shock therapies imposed on “communist” regimes forced countless workers to move to Greece, where they became essential to the country’s economy, Troika’s austerity measures imposed on Greece at […]

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“We harbor no fear and we will defend ourselves!”, protesters state in unison

Note from LeftEast editors: We repost Iskra Krstić’s article published by Mašina on November 29, 2021 – a report from last weekend’s protests. This weekend the protests turned even more massive with blockades in about 50 towns. It is the second text in a series of interventions LeftEast will publish on the eco uprising in Serbia. […]

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Small protests in Azerbaijan mirror larger social tensions

LeftEast would like to gratefully acknowledge OpenDemocracy for allowing it to reprint this article by Najmin Kamilsoy. In an online survey conducted in Azerbaijan last year, shortly after the 2020 Karabakh War, the majority of respondents, 79%, expressed optimism about the future of the country. This dominant public attitude mirrored the ruling elite’s triumphant post-war rhetoric, […]

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The Politics of Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths in Romania

Note from LeftEast editors: We reprint this article, which appeared in the Black Box East section of the Berliner Gazette in German on November 23, 2021. Since the beginning of November, Romania’s infection rates dropped significantly compared to the previous month. The number of people in ICUs and the death rate remain however, high. Its medical […]

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Afghanistan and Its Challenge to Feminism

Note from LeftEast editors: We reprint the online version of an article that appeared in New Politics on November 17, 2021. The article will be also appearing in the Winter 2022 print issue of New Politics. The Taliban’s takeover of power after the United States’ brutal twenty-year imperialist occupation is a catastrophe for women not […]

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Forced labour in supply chains: missing links between industrial and sexual labour

Note from LeftEast editors. As the issue of forced labour is gaining increasing attention in Eastern Europe, we repost Rutvica Andrijasevic’s text, originally published by Migration Mobilities Bristol on September 14 2021, to draw attention on the importance of the transnational supply chain perspective.  I was in the midst of fieldwork researching the working conditions […]

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Foreign workers in Zrenjanin forced to live in extremely poor accomodation

We repost Marko Miletić’s article published by Mašina. In Serbia, near Zrenjanin, local journalists recently found out that about 500 workers from Vietnam were hired to build the Linglong tire factory in that town. These migrant workers were housed in barracks, under inhuman circumstances, lacking heating, warm clothes, and potable water. Suspecting that these construction workers […]