Nina Potarska is a Ukrainian sociologist and researcher in feminist political economy. She heads the Ukrainian Center for Social and Labor Research and is involved in the Global Women’s Alliance for Leadership in Security (WASL). Nina spent her childhood in Murmansk Oblast, from where Russian Air Force fighter jets now take off to carry out airstrikes on Kyiv. But Potarska does not agree with the widespread comparison between Ukraine after February 24 and Israel after October 7: she is in solidarity with Palestinians and criticizes Israel’s actions in Gaza. This spring, Nina joined the humanitarian flotilla «Sumud» — an international maritime initiative launched last year with the aim of breaking Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. She gave the first part of the interview at the beginning of the flotilla’s voyage, and the second part after she, along with other pro-Palestinian activists, was detained by Israeli security forces.

#bigtalk #war #warinGaza #WarinUkraine #Israel #interview #conflict #Palestine #GazaStrip #securityforces #Sumudflotilla

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Russian activists are not always safe even after emigrating. Persecution can continue beyond Russia’s borders—including at the hands of informal groups acting in line with Russian propaganda. This is what sex educator and LGBTQ+ activist Sasha Kazantseva faced in Lithuania: last summer, she began receiving threats, and people associated with a homophobic group targeting queer teens and activists came to her home. Since then, Kazantseva has been seeking a response from Lithuanian authorities so that such cases do not go unpunished. In an interview with «Most,» Sasha Kazantseva explains how this pressure works, why it’s not an isolated case, and what is happening to queer people from Russia—both inside the country and abroad.

#bigtalk #homophobia #discrimination #europe #interview #LGBT #Lithuania #violence #police #repressions #SashaKazantseva #And #ultraright #Emigration

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Unprecedented mass anti-government protests continue in Iran—something never before seen in the history of the Islamic Republic. While Donald Trump makes vague promises to help the protesters and progressive Western public opinion remains silent, the number of Iranians killed by the regime may already be in the hundreds. Reliable information about the situation in the country is scarce: in Iran, it’s «tradition» to shut down the internet in such cases. Iran expert, Telegram channel author, and writer of «All Iran» Nikita Smagin (the Russian Ministry of Justice considers him a foreign agent) explains why the Islamic Revolution has erupted in mass protest, what the ayatollahs fear, and what lessons the Kremlin might draw from the situation in this eastern country.

#bigtalk #state #dictatorship #interview #Iran #IslamicRevolutionof1979 #NikitaSmagin #society #Internetshutdown #protests #repressions #Russia #sanctions #USA #Khamenei #censorship

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How can political émigrés who end up in American immigration jails be saved from extradition to Russia? What do FSB psychologists ask passengers on deportation flights during interrogations? And why don’t Western governments help Russian antiwar refugees? A wide-ranging conversation with Dmitry Valuev, president of the human rights organization Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR).

#refugees #bigtalk #WarinUkraine #state #deportation #interview #personalexperience #Bulk #opposition #rightandleft #Putin #USA #Trump #Emigration

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