Latest Articles about Domestic/Social

Government Pressure Puts Georgian NGOs on Brink

Executive Summary: Georgian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say they are enduring one of the most difficult periods in the country’s history, yet they vow to continue their work despite the financial restrictions. Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office has frozen the bank accounts of seven prominent Georgian civil society... MORE

The Trust Lives! Moscow Uses Early Soviet Cheka Operations as Model

Executive Summary: The Trust, the Soviet secret police’s first great intelligence operation in the 1920s, is making a comeback under Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Moscow setting up Federal Security Service (FSB) groups to penetrate, hamstring, and ultimately discredit emigres opposed to his regime. These... MORE

Kremlin Uses Government-Organized NGOs to Promote War

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin met with activists from the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) in July, demonstrating the Kremlin’s reliance on government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs) to mobilize support for his war against Ukraine. The ONF highlights achievements in infrastructure and social projects while directly... MORE

Belarus 2020–2025: Domestic Repression and Russian Influence

Executive Summary:    In the five years since Belarus’s 2020 protest movement, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s authoritarian regime has become characterized by systematic, violent repression of dissent. The country, isolated from the West, became a military foothold for Russia and fell into political, economic, and informational... MORE

Moscow’s Policies Increasingly Agitate Local Elites

Executive Summary: The Kremlin has increased its suppression of regional self-government since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, fearing any manifestation of independence. In several regions, however, the local population has opposed such suppression, and the people’s mood aligns closer with... MORE