Almut Rochowanski
@almutrochowanski.bsky.social
Feminist activist. Working on women's rights, peace, justice, civil society in post-Soviet Eurasia while harboring grave doubts about how this work is done. Non-resident fellow @quincyinst.bsky.social.
"Indeed, Europe’s new militarist politics already undermines its democratic institutions and laws." @almutrochowanski.bsky.social responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-defen...
European militarism on steroids is not good, either
Lacking in any strategic thinking, a new bellicism has swept up the elites and gone into cataclysmic overdrive in recent weeks
responsiblestatecraft.org
We need a "military revival" like a hole in the head. It's throwing good money after bad. We need a revival of diplomacy and democratic participation in foreign policy. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
EU Seeks a Military Revival Under Pressure From Putin and Trump
European officials are working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and support Kyiv as President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine.
bloomberg.com
In my mental landscape of allies and leaders in the cause of peace in Europe, Wolfgang Sporrer was a mountain. He passed away unexpectedly this week. I tried to summarize his work and ideas in this eulogy. responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...
'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week
RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe
responsiblestatecraft.org
Wir trauern um unseren Autor und Freund, Wolfgang Sporrer. Sein Leben und Wirken waren geleitet von der Maxime, dass Frieden die Grundlage ist, auf der eine bessere Welt erst möglich wird. jacobin.de/autoren/wolf...
"These numbers are so remarkable that anyone serious about making peace cannot afford to ignore them." About inclusive, people-centered peacemaking, Ukraine and Wolfgang Sporrer, an outstanding diplomat and peace activist, who passed away this week. responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...
'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week
RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe
responsiblestatecraft.org
"Peace has to deliver for the people who suffered from war. [...] Ordinary people at the table and bread-and-butter issues on the agenda make the atmosphere calmer and more constructive overall." @almutrochowanski.bsky.social ⬇️ responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...
'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week
RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe
responsiblestatecraft.org
Late-night grant proposal editing with Ukrainian activists: "You know why this next project will be about violence against women? This is hard to say: very soon, all the veterans will return home. We remember from 2015 what will happen in those families, the horror of it."
@meduzaproject.bsky.social has now published a translation of the interview with Benyash. I have heard activists express similar sentiments dozens of times over the years, but only ever at their kitchen table. This is an important record. meduza.io/en/feature/2...
‘The grant money is cursed’ An exiled human rights lawyer describes how he lost faith in Russia’s opposition and found happiness in ‘honest work’ abroad — Meduza
Mikhail Benyash spent years working as a lawyer in the Krasnodar region, where he often defended Russians against persecution by the authorities. This undertaking invited its own police pressure, with...
meduza.io
Almut Rochowanski@almutrochowanski.bsky.social · last yr.The #USAID story is opening the flood gates. Mikhail Benyash, once a leading Russian human rights lawyer, now a plumber in Lithuania, gives voice to the revulsion, dysfunction and toxicity plaguing foreign-funded NGOs in this epic, caustic interview with @meduzaproject.bsky.social. ⬇️
The #USAID story is opening the flood gates. Mikhail Benyash, once a leading Russian human rights lawyer, now a plumber in Lithuania, gives voice to the revulsion, dysfunction and toxicity plaguing foreign-funded NGOs in this epic, caustic interview with @meduzaproject.bsky.social. ⬇️
Rarely taught media literacy lesson: if a news website has no advertising, no paywall and maybe just an unobtrusive "donate here" button, it is funded (to a large extent, if not exclusively) by grants from powerful institutions (governments, foundations, corporations).
Great stuff by @almutrochowanski.bsky.social on @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social about foreign funding, NGOs and civil society jacobin.com/2025/02/west...
Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society
Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...
jacobin.com
In post-Cold War CEE/Eurasia, there hasn't been a popular protest movement as important as the current one in Serbia that wasn't cultivated and coopted by outside powers. Which explains why the latter are literally speechless about it. By @lilylynch.bsky.social newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Lily Lynch, Sense of an Ending — Sidecar
Serbia’s unrest.
newleftreview.org
"In reality, deploying NGOs for explicitly political action has long been viewed as the pinnacle of foreign grant-making — the most exalted discipline for the most eminent players, yielding the biggest bang for their buck." jacobin.com/2025/02/west...
Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society
Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...
jacobin.com
In time for the #USAID story, ideas on civil society, money, power, freedom I've been chewing on for a very long time. Thanks, @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social for suggesting the original German version and @jacobinmag.bsky.social for editing the extended English version. jacobin.com/2025/02/west...
Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society
Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...
jacobin.com
Some of my early experiences in this line of work were in eastern Bosnia—investigating mass graves and interviewing the survivors of massacres perpetrated during ethnic cleansing. Did not expect to hear in 2025 a US official extolling the benefits of ethnic cleansing.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.Steve Witkoff: "Peace in the region means a better life for the Palestinians. A better life is not necessarily to tied to the physical space that you're in today ... that doesn't occur because you get to pitch a tent in the Gaza Strip."
If you're interested not in the lurid hype around #USAID (coups, Russiagate, rainbow flags etc), but the much greater and much more complicated story of how and why foreign aid fails or succeeds, this, by @jakobjohnston.bsky.social for @ceprdc.bsky.social, is a must-read. cepr.net/publications...
Where Does the Money Go? A Look at USAID Spending in Haiti
Discover the significance of USAID spending in Haiti and its implications for US foreign policy. Get expert analysis from Jake Johnston.
cepr.net
Very serious Democratic strategists advise the party to allow Trump to illegally dismantle USAID -- a decision that will result in the unnecessary deaths of people around the world. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Young white men who strut around newly freed from DEI, using the R-word, celebrating the return of the meritocracy then ask for extra time at exams because they have anxiety, turn their homework in late because their parents are mean to them and take plenty of mental health days
Ukraine's populist-dissident (and very successful) streamers express disdain for the 90% of Ukrainian media who had USAID funding: "they call us sell-outs, but it turns out they cannot find an audience that would support them, so they have to depend on foreigners".
Seeing a lot of "USAID's money - shock! horror! - causes corruption in poor countries and is wasteful" swirling about. Calm down. This happens with all foreign aid agencies, from any donor country. It's no secret. They've been teaching that in "foreign aid 101" for decades.
Weekend chat with Ukrainian activist: "there are soldiers at the front who have been fighting since the beginning of the war. Many of them are from the territories that are now occupied. They have nowhere to go home to. They will be demobilized into homelessness." ⬇️
Nowhere to go home to
Conversation with Ukrainian activists
discomfortzone.substack.com
22 days before Germany's elections, there's sudden panic/hope that the party leading in the polls will have to switch its candidate for chancellor. Not because he was discovered to be senile, but because he couldn't help reveal himself for the awful person and politician he is.
#Poltava If I have memories of encounters with people and places burnt into my heart, so deeply I will never forget them, after spending a just a few days there years ago, how infinitely more painful must today's attack feel for the people of the city. I can't even imagine it.
I've lived through several iterations of Trump-style mass firings (for the sin of holding a job under a previous govt). In Ukraine, Georgia etc. We called it "lustrations" and applauded when bright-eyed activists said it was imperative to rid their country of the ancien régime.
If Trump's freeze of US foreign aid spending has got you interested in what our money does in other countries' civil societies and whether there is a better way (better than Trump's and the default foreign aid industry's), here's my writing since 2012: discomfortzone.substack.com/p/list-of-pu...
List of publications on foreign funding for civil society and foreign agent laws
The issue all my work as an activist and analyst has always boiled down to
discomfortzone.substack.com
@macktubs.bsky.social has written what looks like, on the surface, a straight reported piece on the impact of Trump's foreign aid freeze on Russian and Ukrainian civil society and media, but he's a sly one and has packed it with poignant and revealing observations. Like this (1/7)
An elderly Chechen woman, fleeing Chechnya after publicly decrying Russia's war against Ukraine and facing persecution for it, has been denied asylum in the EU. Reason given by the asylum officer: "nobody in Chechnya cares about what 1. old and 2. women say"
Biggest putsch against the rule of law as such I've ever lived through (and I've been around for a lot of color revolutions etc). Really makes you wonder where these people draw their ideological inspiration from.
When DEI first became a thing, I was deep into feminist activist/philanthropic circles and there was this hiring frenzy for "DEI consultants" and guess what, none of the women who had been fighting the patriarchy for real applied for those lucrative jobs. They all went to hacks.
