A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Baltic Worlds’ Online Covid-19 Coverage examines how politicians in different parts of the region are reacting to the crisis, and to what consequences.
In this article, we compare the differing responses of the five Central Asian republics to Covid-19. We pay particular attention to how the virus presents opportunities to strengthen authoritarian rule within the region: for authoritarian regimes, the virus offers an opportunity to suppress dissent and strengthen authoritarian norms. While authoritarian states have recognised the spread of the virus in order to receive international humanitarian assistance, they have hidden the true number of infected and victims of the disease, as well as forbidding doctors to talk about the dangerous working conditions in hospitals, and imprisoning citizens for spreading false information.
The period of pandemic demonstrated the main problem which affected dynamic of statistics and overall situation in the country – a lack of trust of citizens in the state institutions, adding to their already undermined fabric by many years of exclusive policies of the self-interest driven elite. The pandemic situation could have served as an excuse for solidarity and mobilization of the society vis-a-vis common threat. Instead it was used by the government to strengthen its power.
As the citizens in this time of crisis have found they have to take responsibility for their own and others wellbeing the social contract could potentially be considered broken, or at least breaking. Perhaps this in fact the reason the Belarusian authorities have found themselves faced with a unique volatile situation as the general frustration over how they handled the Covid-19 situation is spilling over to the ongoing presidential election campaign.
As Poland lifts restrictions and comes out of the lockdown ensued by COVID-19, much has been said on what the pandemic has revealed about our economy, public institutions, gender relations, and state of democratic checks and balances. What has been less discussed, yet not gone unnoticed, is the way this security crisis has revealed ongoing processes of societal militarization, and the shift of society-military relations towards closer ties and interactions. Just like the war in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis, Covid-19 has further normalized bringing the Polish society into defense through militarized channels. However, a closer look reveals the potential for shifting this process into more civilian-based forms.
We can all agree that this pandemic is hard to manage and that the saving citizens’ life is the most important issue to deal with initially, but let us reflect on the consequences of the responses. The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania, among other perspectives, can be analysed by answering two main questions: 1. What is the socio-economic cost of the lockdown for almost 3 months? 2. What are the implications for the democratic system, is the freedom challenged?
The context in which these elections were held included not only the President's rise to power and party build-up, but also ongoing protests, boycotts, several ‘affairs’ and problematic behavior of party officials, and chaos in the handling of the health crisis.
The brutal presidential campaign only exemplified the degree of polarization in the Polish society. The campaign before the first round turned out to be relatively calm, where most of the candidates had to show their conciliatory side. However, due to the course, the intensity of the competition had revealed long-lasting divisions in Poland.
The Nordic Belarusian History Dialogue took place in Lund, Sweden, in January 2020. The gathering brought together colleagues from Tromsø on the northern coast of Norway to Polesia in southern Belarus with the aim of engaging Nordic and Belarusian historians in dialogue.
Since twenty or thirty years back countries in the northern hemisphere have paid more attention to honour based violence (HBV) meaning collectively sanctioned violence and abuse. Mostly this concerns female victims; their lives are controlled in a way which may inflict on their choices and freedom, and risk to escalate to violence and abuses if the girls do not follow the restrictions of the family. So, what can be done to prevent or at least lower the extent of honour-based violence and abuse? Here you meet and hear from Swedish experts, NGOs, youth recreation centres, schools, day care centres, social services, shelters, doctors and even the Prison and Probation service.
In this article, we compare the differing responses of the five Central Asian republics to Covid-19. We pay particular attention to how the virus presents opportunities to strengthen authoritarian rule within the region: for authoritarian regimes, the virus offers an opportunity to suppress dissent and strengthen authoritarian norms. While authoritarian states have recognised the spread of the virus in order to receive international humanitarian assistance, they have hidden the true number of infected and victims of the disease, as well as forbidding doctors to talk about the dangerous working conditions in hospitals, and imprisoning citizens for spreading false information.
The period of pandemic demonstrated the main problem which affected dynamic of statistics and overall situation in the country – a lack of trust of citizens in the state institutions, adding to their already undermined fabric by many years of exclusive policies of the self-interest driven elite. The pandemic situation could have served as an excuse for solidarity and mobilization of the society vis-a-vis common threat. Instead it was used by the government to strengthen its power.
As the citizens in this time of crisis have found they have to take responsibility for their own and others wellbeing the social contract could potentially be considered broken, or at least breaking. Perhaps this in fact the reason the Belarusian authorities have found themselves faced with a unique volatile situation as the general frustration over how they handled the Covid-19 situation is spilling over to the ongoing presidential election campaign.
As Poland lifts restrictions and comes out of the lockdown ensued by COVID-19, much has been said on what the pandemic has revealed about our economy, public institutions, gender relations, and state of democratic checks and balances. What has been less discussed, yet not gone unnoticed, is the way this security crisis has revealed ongoing processes of societal militarization, and the shift of society-military relations towards closer ties and interactions. Just like the war in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis, Covid-19 has further normalized bringing the Polish society into defense through militarized channels. However, a closer look reveals the potential for shifting this process into more civilian-based forms.
The Covid-19 pandemic created the need to find a new way for 100 Latvian MP’s to debate and pass laws without sitting side-by-side in their historical parliamentary hall. A new e-system now enables Latvian MP’s to perform their legislative functions from anywhere they have an Internet connection.
Presidential elections were formally held in Poland on Sunday, May 10, 2020, but in practice no election took place and no ballots were cast. The distinction between what happens formally and what takes place in practice has become more and more important for Polish politics and public life.
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.
Issue 2020:1, Special Issue: Women and “the People” 
Issue 2019:4 Special Section: Remembering and reimagining rural communities 
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