RUSSIAN YOUTH ABOUT RUSSIA, UKRAINE, AND BELARUS — IMAGES OF COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES

The main goal of the present examination was to study the ideas of the Russian youth about Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus under existing social and political conditions. To this end, in 2018-2020, in a number of Moscow universities, sociological research was carried out, studying the images of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus as perceived by Russian students. As far back as 30 years ago, the Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians had been perceived as three tight-knit ethnic groups within a broader category of East Slavs, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union, three independent states were formed, whose fates began to develop in different ways. At the present time complicated by all sorts of political controversies between the three countries under consideration, it seems important to know how these countries, their leaders, and peoples appear to the young people of Russia, what their attitude is to certain significant recent political events, namely the events in Ukraine, and to the opposition movement in their own country. The main research method was a sociological survey plus a certain amount of psychological testing. In total, 600 people were interviewed in several major universities in Moscow. The materials were then processed using the SPSS computer program. Also, the students were asked to present their perceptions of the country, its people, and its leadership in drawings, making the images as emblematic as possible. The results of the study showed that despite the difficult socio-political situation, Russian youth demonstrate a rather positive attitude towards their own country and its leadership; they regret the conflict in Ukraine, sympathize with its people, and condemn the ongoing civil war in the east of the country. Russians perceive Belarus as a friendly country with which it is necessary to strengthen cooperation. The research materials may be useful to specialists dealing with the ethnic issues in the three countries and with their political, economic, and cultural construction.

Swaziland faces prolonged period of instability

Significance One person was shot in the head and left in critical condition. The opposition movement has grown dramatically this year following the death in late May of law student Thabani Nkomonye in police custody, which sparked mass protests. Impacts Failure to resolve the crisis could lead to increasingly radical and more violent strategies by pro-democracy protesters. The persistence of mass opposition may encourage Mswati to escalate repression, moving the country closer to a police state. The United States is unlikely to be willing to intervene directly without the support of powerful regional players such as South Africa.

Errata

Erratum for the article: Hoover, Elizabeth. “Fires were lit inside them”. Review of International American Studies, 12 (1/2019), 11-44. https://doi.org/10.31261/rias.7391 The article "The Fires Were Lit Inside Them: The Pyropolitics of Water Protector Camps at Standing Rock" by Elizabeth Hoover, published in the Spring/Summer issue of Volume 12 of RIAS is regretfully missing a citation. Much of the history of the NoDAPL movement on pages 18-19 was drawn from a presentation compiled by Jennifer Weston, a Standing Rock Sioux Tribal member, educator, and language advocate who has been working tirelessly to inform the public about the Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline Opposition movement.

Renamo and Mozambique

The history of independent Mozambique is a history of war and peace, and it is closely intertwined with the history of the main opposition movement Renamo (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana), which formed as an armed movement and transitioned into a political party. Mozambique gained independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975 after a ten-year liberation struggle. The main liberation movement Frelimo (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) became the ruling party and introduced far-reaching social, economic, and political reforms. These reforms generated discontent, which contributed to the formation of opposition movements in the center of the country. From the late 1970s onwards, an armed movement, later known as Renamo, gained ground in central Mozambique and fought a guerrilla war against the Mozambican government. Renamo received support from Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) and apartheid South Africa who sought to undermine Frelimo aid to liberation movements in their respective countries. It was only in 1992 that Renamo and Frelimo reached a settlement with the help of international mediators, with a path to multiparty elections in 1994. Since then, Renamo has participated in elections as a political party but has never won a majority in parliament nor was it able to claim the presidency. Political conflict between Frelimo and Renamo has never subsided, with Renamo regularly protesting election results and alleging fraud. Tensions escalated in 2013 and led to low-level conflict in the central region. A ceasefire agreement in 2014 and a unilateral truce by Renamo in December 2016 ended that conflict, but a peace accord was only struck after Afonso Dhlakama—president of Renamo—died of natural causes in 2018. Since then, tensions have remained due to armed activity by a Renamo breakaway movement and a slow demobilization process, and peace remains precarious. Renamo’s transition from an armed movement into a political movement, similarly to Mozambique’s transition from war to peace, has not yet fully materialized.

‘Good Muslim, bad Muslim’ in Togo: religious minority identity construction amid a sociopolitical crisis (2017–2018)

In Togo, the opposition movement behind the anti-government protests that broke out in 2017–2018 appears to reflect a greater role for Islam in politics. Tikpi Atchadam, leader of the Parti National Panafricain, was the preeminent figure in the movement, having built a solid grassroots base among his fellow Muslims. This article examines the unique role that Muslim leaders played in these protests, as well as the Faure Gnassingbé regime's strategic response. The ruling party made spurious claims against Muslim opponents, associating them with a dangerous wave of political Islam. I argue that by portraying Atchadam as the leader of a radical ethnic and religious movement with Islamist goals, Faure Gnassingbé and his supporters sought to weaken this emerging challenger and deter members of the public from backing calls for political change. The strategy also helped garner support from Western countries while simultaneously driving a wedge between Muslim community leaders.

Charter 77 in the journalism of the Parisian “Kultura”

Although the Czechoslovak theme was not of particular interest in the journalism of “Kultura” (compared to Ukrainian or Lithuanian issues), it covered issues concerning Poland’s southern neighbour. The year 1968 marked a special period of increased interest in Czechoslovakia and the associated process of a series of social, political and economic reforms, which went down in history under the name of the Prague Spring. The period after the invasion by the Warsaw Pact troops and the start of the so-called process of normalization was also closely commented on by columnists and analysts of “Kultura”. However, particular attention was paid to the activities of the opposition in the area of Charter 77. The purpose of this article is to show how the Parisian “Kultura” referred to the opposition movement in Czechoslovakia. Moreover, Czechoslovak writers associated with Czechoslovak immigrant communities spoke out more often in “Kultura” pages

THE BATTLE OF THREE POLITICAL REGIMES IN MALAYSIA PRIOR AND POST GE 14TH: AN ANALYSIS OF BARISAN NASIONAL, PAKATAN HARAPAN & THE FORMATION OF PERIKATAN NASIONAL (PN)

This chapter discusses the battle of the three political regimes in Malaysia, the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), in the 14th General Election and the formation of Perikatan Nasional (PN) after the collapse of the PH government. The BN coalition has shown its political influence throughout 63 years of ruling the country since independence which has been hard to break by other opposition parties in Malaysia. BN has manipulated various government instruments in ruling to form a strong political hegemony that affects the voting behaviour of voters in determining rational choice, especially when elections are conducted. However, the strong political domination has been broken by the opposition movement that began in the 12th General Election that eventually toppled the old political regime, BN in the last GE-14. The failure of BN to defend its position as a government is due to several factors including scandals and misuse of power by political leaders, the weaknesses of the government in addressing economic issues, and pressures faced by the people on the cost of living, and limited employment opportunities. Issues that arise are then manipulated by the opposition parties at the same time, which managed to convince voters to change their support from BN to PH in the last GE-14. However, PH, which then had the opportunity to govern the country with a dilemma, as it failed to capitalize on the opportunity and fulfilled its manifesto as promised in their election campaigns. Subsequently, Malaysians, especially the voters in a series of by-election have begun to send a message to the government by voting for opposition candidates as a gesture of protest against the PH government. Furthermore, an analysis of the developments and dilemmas of the direction of the two political regimes before and after the GE-14 is discussed in detail in this chapter.

THE POLITICAL CIRCLE OF NIZHNY NOVGOROD STUDENTS UNDER THE PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP

By the mid-1920s, the remnants of the multi-party system in the USSR were eliminated, and the political monopoly of the RCP(b) fully established in the country. During Lenin’s illness in 1922–1923, Stalin and his allies began to solve all the issues in the highest party leadership. During this period, a struggle for power began between the Bolshevik leaders, which found expression in the subsequent party discussions. In May-June 1927, a Statement of the 83 appeared, which at that time collected about 1.5 thousand signatures of representatives of the old Leninist Guard. This statement was signed by supporters of Trotsky in the opposition of 1923–1924 and supporters of Zinoviev and Kamenev in the opposition of 1925–1926. They shared a common goal — the desire to change the intra-party regime. Since the party-state apparatus prevented the opposition from forming a legal faction, it was forced to use the methods of illegal work familiar from pre-revolutionary times: creation of a coordination center, its own channels for distributing information, issuing statements, «platforms», leaflets, sending representatives to the places, organization of secret meetings. Under these conditions, a political circle formes among Nizhny Novgorod students, basing on the ideas of the opposition. Students with the help of leaflets called on the population to unite those who disagree with the political arbitrariness of the authorities and create an opposition movement «Union of Struggle for the Dictatorship of the Working Class», which could resist the party and state bodies basing on «militant Marxism». OGPU rapid operational actions led to finding and eliminating the political circle among Nizhny Novgorod student youth. Thus, the forced use of illegal methods by the opposition gave Stalin a reason to strengthen punitive measures against dissenters. Thus, at the end of the 1920s, the prerequisites for the formation of totalitarianism finally formed in the USSR.