... security forces in both camps might get no pay. To make matters worse, prices of essential goods have gone up.
Ivan Bocharov:
Prospects for a Settlement of the Libyan Conflict: Three Scenarios of the Mid-Term Forecast
All this led to a wave of mass protests sweeping across Libya’s major cities. Protestors are calling for the resignation of all power structures, in both east and west of the country. “There are many reasons why protesters have decided to take to the streets in anger,”
wrote
...
... Tokayev discourse is limited in its imaginatory scope. Kazakhstan’s discourse has thus centred on shifting agency away from both the factional power struggle as well moving culpability away from the
incensed local citizenry whose initial legitimate protests
appear to have been hijacked by political opportunism.
Artem Dankov:
A Post-Crisis Kazakhstan: Economic and Social Transformation
Russia’s emerging narrative has been to position its intervention rhetorically against an overt ‘revolution’ ...
For Kazakhstan, a transformation of its economic model should become the crucial consequence of the January rioting
Preconditions for protests
The deepening gap between what can be seen as economic successes and the low quality of life that a majority of the population has to endure, coupled with a super-concentration of national wealth in the hands of the elite and a resource-based ...
... current situation in Kazakhstan remaining unclear and reports on last-minute developments being incomplete and controversial, many fundamental questions about the unfolding crisis so far have not received clear and convincing answers. Were the street protests purely spontaneous or had they been carefully planned and skillfully organized? Does the public outrage and mutiny have exclusively domestic roots or is it linked to powerful foreign sponsors, managers and instigators? What are the core demands ...
... corruption cases are seen as an instrument of settling scores within the political elites, while the Ennahda Party, having recovered from the initial shock, mobilizes its supporters to defend the “values of the revolution.” This could lead to fresh protests and a gradual increase in political violence. If events unfold in this way, attempts will likely be made to repeat the successful experience of the National Dialogue, although it is far from clear how prepared the main actors will be amid these ...
Like Asgard, Armenia is not a place, it is a people
The relatively recent (2017) Hollywood blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok has a memorable scene of the heavenly kingdom of Asgard collapsing. A happenstance witness to and participant in
Ragnarok
, the last battle between the good and the evil, King of Asgard and God Thor, finds himself unable to avert this disaster. Suddenly, when everything seems hopelessly lost, he has a revelation: “Asgard’s not a place, it’s a people.” And he sets about evacuating...
There seem to be two key factors—whether the main contender was previously part of power structures and how loyal security forces are to the incumbent’s administration
In the second half of 2020, within a time span of two months, post-election protests occurred in two former Soviet countries. In Kyrgyzstan, the protests after the October parliamentary elections led to a swift and complete replacement of people at the very top of the decision-making structure, without attracting much international ...
The Crisis in Belarus is Much More than “Just” a Colour Revolution
The massive street protests that have taken place in Belarus recently are only the tip of the iceberg of what we can expect to see in the coming months and years. Although, of course, the situation in the country bears little resemblance to the endless crises in Belgium ...
... other purposes, forms with white-sounding names received
50 percent more
call-backs than those with black-sounding names.
“Repressive” Racism
Andrey Kortunov:
Trump 2.0: End of the Old Era, but Not the Beginning of a New One
African American protests provoked by deliberate or accidental killings of black people by law enforcement cannot be understood unless we grasp the overall “presumption of guilt” concerning black Americans that reigns in the United States. For instance, the police ...
Floyd’s tragic death will become an opportunistic chaotic catalyst for Joe Biden and the Democrats to point to President Trump as the racist in the White House
The Democrats and their supporters in the news media have been relentless in their attempts to prevent President Donald Trump from being re-elected to a second term in what one could describe as a coup d’etat to overthrow the president in the Russian collusion rouse. The President’s handling of the coronavirus and a hopeful faltering economy...
