Georgians attend a protest against a bill on ‘foreign agents’ near the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 16 2024.
David Mdzinarishvili / EPA
Georgians have taken to the streets to protest a Putin-style ‘foreign agents’ law.
Environmental activists protest against Energy Charter Treaty while its reform is negotiated.
OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA
The Energy Charter Treaty allows fossil fuel investors to sue governments over climate action – prompting EU countries to withdraw.
Decaying monument to the ‘people’s uprising against fascism’ at Petrova Gora in Croatia.
Ilija Ascic via Shutterstock
For many in former Soviet Bloc countries the desire to forget the communist past conflicts with the need to make money from dark tourism sites.
‘East German or West German?’
EPA/Rainer Jensen
The collapse of the East German economy following unification has combined with racism and neoliberalism to feed far right support.
A damaged Confederate statue lies on a pallet in a warehouse in Durham, N.C. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, after protesters yanked it off its pedestal in front of a government building.
AP Photo/Allen Breed
Where do old Confederate statues go when they die? The former Soviet bloc countries could teach the US something about dealing with monuments from a painful past.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a mass in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia, on Jan. 7, 2018.
Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
During the Cold War, American evangelicals smuggled Bibles and other Christian literature to the Soviet Union and other communist countries. They still see Russia as a partner on evangelical values.
Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria, painted overnight on February 24 2014 by unknown activists in solidarity with anti-Russian protests in Ukraine.
Wikimedia Commons
The Soviet programme of building war memorials in Eastern Bloc countries was a bid to win the hearts and minds of future generations.
Lithuania’s soldiers are seen during a celebration of Lithuanian Independence Day in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 11, 2018. The country was marking the 28th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
(AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A stint teaching university students in Lithuania leaves a longtime economics professor optimistic about the future of Eastern Europe as it continues its transition to a free-market economy.