⚡️Kremlin issues veiled threats towards Moldova, cites Ukraine as warning.

2. Possessing tear gas, nerve agents, or other toxic substances;
3. Intentionally obstructing the movement of people or vehicles;
4. Erecting temporary structures that impede police efforts to maintain public order and safety;
5. Partially or fully blocking roads when demos could occur without it.

One might imagine that, with many regime critics, expelled from Russia—amid the proclaimed "support for the regime"—the Kremlin wouldn't need to manipulate the election results much. On the contrary, it has to rig them like never before.
ridl.io/political-fi...

Remarkable words here from David Webb, who has done so much for corporate governance in HK and Asia. Due to serious illness, he is shutting down his website and transferring to a substack. Have huge respect for what he has done over the years webb-site.com/articles/shu...

Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network publishes AI-generated images mocking Armenia’s PM Nikol Pashinyan

Matryoshka began its pre-election activities in Armenia with a record lead time of eight months, the Bot Blocker Project @antibot4navalny.bsky.social reports.

It’s been more than four months since I was expelled from Georgia with no word on a hearing date for my appeal. Here’s my latest for Index on Censorship about the ban, and what it says more broadly about the dire situation the country now finds itself in.
papyrus.exacteditions.com/issues/14183...

“The Trump administration’s calculation could be that doing regime change on the cheap will help them avoid the penalties of the ‘Pottery Barn rule,’” said Peter Feaver, a former national security hand in the George W. Bush administration."

If Feaver is right, and he may well be ... oh boy.

⚡️Across Central Europe, politicians used paid social media ads to attack journalists, activists, NGOs. From Hungary to Slovakia, these campaigns spread disinformation and hate, reaching tens of thousands while Meta and Google profit from #SponsoredHate.

She sure hit that one not so much out of the park as out of the country (also speaking as a Liverpool fan)

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

🧵 I'm excited to share that my article "Democratic Backsliding and the Limits of Civilian Control of the Military" has been accepted @thejop.bsky.social.

It answers the question "how ought militaries act when civilian leaders turn on democratic institutions?"

1/
#CivMilSky #PolTheory

I had the pleasure to discuss the alleged case of Hungarian espionage against the European Commission with TVP World @tvpworld.bsky.social.
Find the link and my main points in THREAD.

The deportation of pro-democracy dissidents to their home countries is a major reversal of years of U.S. policymaking on a topic that had bipartisan support.

Now we're seeing confirmation of the NSO acquisition.

Mark my words, this is the path through which Pegasus gets put on Americans iPhones & Androids.

This dictatorship-in-a-box belongs nowhere near our constitutional rights.

I like how in the same breath these guys will be like “that’s why we need to put everyone’s eyeball scans on the blockchain”

great cover, too!

"The Grand Oligarch Hotel: Checking Out of Democracy, Checking into Authoritarianism."
politicsgeo.com/current-issue/

It gets worse. After he and his family checked in for their flight, got their boarding passes, and cleared security, somebody cancelled their reservations before they could board. Expert hackers now involved? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/n...

... in Central and Eastern Europe, where the Trump admin. seems to be doing everything it can to erode pro-American feeling among both the population and among elites. Source: Mureșan's Facebook, Oct. 7.

... the Eastern Neighborhood (incl. Moldova) in the EU's 2026 budget to offset partially the U.S. withdrawal of aid to civil society. The EU can, and should, obviously do more, but this proposal is interesting because it's a direct consequence of the U.S.'s own goals ...

An update: here's a good example of some EU politicians smartly stepping in where an incoherent, short-sighted, and instinctively pro-Kremlin U.S. admin. has just been throwing away soft power: Euro-M.P. Siegfried Mureșan has proposed the addition of 25 million Euros for ...

To scroll down or not to scroll down: the central dilemma of this moment in time.

🧵 As an academic whose formative college and graduate experiences took place during the 'modernists' vs. 'neo-primordialist' debates about nationalism, I find the causal ideological & methodological nationalism of even left-wing social media shocking.

"Rather than antagonize the servicemembers in their midst, citizens .. could instead seize this rare opportunity to bridge the civil-military divide with constructive, respectful, nonconfrontational conversations with them."

Sharing a gift link to this important one by @charlicarpenter.bsky.social.

Delegitimizing women and limiting their rights goes hand in hand with democratic backsliding around the world.

@saskiabr.bsky.social explained the relationship between women’s rights and democratic resilience, for @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/w...