On 15 April 2026, the human rights project ‘First Division’ released information which came as no surprise to those who systematically study the nature of Russian statehood, yet served as significant documentary evidence of what researchers of carceral practices have long been saying. According to documents from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, following…
Category: Research Centre
‘FlamingChina’: the Largest Cyber-Espionage Hack in China’s History
In April 2026, the global community of cybersecurity and international security experts found itself on high alert. The reason was a statement by an unknown hacker group or individual using the pseudonym “FlamingChina” claiming to have maliciously infiltrated the infrastructure of China’s National Supercomputing Centre in Tianjin and stolen over 10 petabytes of top-secret military…
The Empire Returns to the Screen Once Again: Russian Propaganda About ‘Novorossiya’ and the Continuity of the Colonial Narrative
Whenever Russia embarks on the next phase of its aggressive policy, its cultural apparatus responds with predictable precision – churning out products designed not so much to entertain as to justify its actions after the fact. The new Russian series Novorossiya. Potemkin, set in the era of Catherine II, Potemkin, and the conquest of Taurida,…
🇱🇻 Visit to Latvia: A Dialogue on Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners and Informal Prison Hierarchies
Yesterday, I had the great honour and privilege of speaking with staff from the Prison Service of the Republic of Latvia. Words can hardly capture my gratitude — and genuine delight — at the warmth of what I encountered when I visited the newly established Training Centre for Prison Officers and met with so many…
Lecture for the Latvian Legal Community: Torture, ECHR Standards, ECtHR Case Law and the Impact of Russian Aggression on the Ukrainian Justice System
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia for the invitation and for organising this event — it is a particular honour for me to have the opportunity to spend a whole day in dialogue with representatives of the Latvian legal community. The audience included…
‘Two Prosecutors’: A Movie About a Russia That Cannot Bring Itself to Be Any Different
There are works that do not require a review in the conventional sense — they require a testimony. Two Prosecutors is precisely such a work. The film is a co-production of six European countries — Latvia, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania and Lithuania. It is an adaptation of the novella of the same name by…
Institutional Loyalty and Identity Dependence: the Phenomenon of ‘Liberal Imperialism’ in Post-Soviet Religious Discourse
Compulsory self-identification as a ‘foreign agent’ — a legal mechanism introduced in the Russian Federation and extended to private individuals between 2017 and 2022 — is not merely an administrative restriction, but an instrument of discursive control operating on the principle of internalised surveillance. An individual obliged to affix a stigmatising label to every text…