Weekly Updates: Eastern Europe
April 1, 2025 by Lora Tseytlin
Last week at Columbia Academics in Foreign Affairs, our Eastern Europe representative, Lora Tseytlin, covered a new citizenship law in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, Turkey’s crackdown on political dissent, and mass mobilization in Serbia.
A new citizenship law decreed by the Russian Federation states that Ukrainians in currently occupied territories of Ukraine must accept Russian citizenship or face deportation from their homes, detention, revocation of property rights and employment, intimidation, restrictions on access to medical services, social benefits, and freedom of movement. This law is Russia’s latest effort to integrate violently annexed territories into the Russian federalist system, legitimizing their illegal occupation of Ukrainian land. Additionally, Istanbul Mayor Recep Tayyip Imamoglu, Turkish president Erdogan’s strongest political opponent, was arrested on charges of corruption on March 19th. His detention triggered what some observers call the largest anti-government protests of the decade in Turkey. Since taking office in 2019, Mayor Tayyip has been credited with vast improvements to Istanbul’s infrastructure, social services, and cultural heritage. Despite his detention, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) nominated him as their presidential candidate on March 23rd.
Photo courtesy of © 2022 AP Photo
Serbian anti-corruption protesters hit the streets for four and a half consecutive months after the tragic November collapse of the roof of the Novi Sad Train Station raised mass public anger at government corruption and abuse of power. The disaster killed 16 people, with the 16th, a 19 year old boy, dying of Novi Sad-related injuries in mid-March. Last week, the Serbian capital Belgrade saw the biggest protest since the breakup of Yugoslavia over 30 years ago, with at least 325,000 people from all over the country demanding change from a government which has incredibly made the Serbian living situation unbearable for the vast majority of the public. President Aleksandar Vučić shut down all state-owned railways and bus lines to the capital in an attempt to quell the scale of the demonstrations. However, his measures only worked to inspire more solidarity amongst protests, as social networks of carpooling groups formed and taxis and even private bus companies transported protesters to Belgrade free of charge.