On 3 March 2025, the REDEMOS Webinar series returned with an insightful discussion entitled “Belarus after another sham election: the hijacking of democracy continues”. The webinar featured Belarusian journalist, political activist, and former political prisoner Andrei Gnyot, alongside Professor Tobias Schumacher, Deputy Coordinator of REDEMOS, NTNU, Trondheim. On 26 January 2025, Belarus held presidential elections, denounced internationally as yet another sham election. Unsurprisingly, Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko emerged as the winner, securing for himself a seventh term, thus extending his 30-year rule. This REDEMOS webinar enquires into the regime’s latest efforts to scale up repression, exert rigid control over all aspects of Belarusians lives, and purge Belarus of all dissent, whilst at the same time signaling a presumptive desire to reengage with the West. It asks what the prospects are, if any, of political liberalisation, and what the European Union and EU Member States should do to support democratic development in Belarus in times of rapid geopolitical change and an emergent US-Russia rapprochement.
This REDEMOS webinar titled ‘Azerbaijan’s Descent into Full-blown Dictatorship in the face of Growing Anti-Western Rhetoric’, focuses on Azerbaijan’s domestic political and human rights-related developments in the context of the Aliyev regime’s increasingly dictatorial rule. We are delighted to welcome Dr. Eske van Gils, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Groningen working on EU-Azerbaijan relations, as well as Arzu Geybulla, journalist and activist advocating for democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan.
Speakers: Dr. Eske van Gils, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of Groningen
Arzu Geybulla, Journalist and Founder of Azerbaijan Internet Watch, Istanbul
Dr. Madalina Dobrescu, Principal Investigator, REDEMOS, NTNU, Trondheim (Moderator)
This REDEMOS webinar took a deep dive into Georgia’s crucial parliamentary elections, held on 26 October 2024, offering timely insights into the many challenges the country’s democratic system is faced with. They will provide a critical on-the-ground perspective on electoral integrity, monitoring, and voter engagement, whilst offering a larger analysis of the impact the elections are likely to have with respect to Georgia’s future political trajectory.
The event features Dr Hans Gutbrod, Professor of Public Policy at Ilia State University in Tbilisi and a well-known expert in political analysis and governance in the South Caucasus region, as well as Nino Dolidze, Executive Director of the Tbilisi-based Office of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). The webinar is moderated by REDEMOS’ very own Prof. Dr. Tobias Schumacher (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway & College of Europe, Natolin, Poland).
In this webinar, we explored domestic political developments in Moldova in the run-up to the presidential elections and EU referendum, taking place in the context of significant geopolitical challenges. Our expert panel offered key insights into current dynamics revolving around Moldova’s democratic consolidations, its westward shift towards Europe, and the question how external pressure, including security threats by Russia, are influencing the country’s future trajectory.
The event features Denis Cenusa, Program Director of European Integration, Expert-Grup, Chișinău, and Anastasia Pociumban, Research Fellow, German Council of Foreign Relations (DGAP), Berlin. Moderator: The webinar is moderated by REDEMOS’ very own Prof. Dr. Tobias Schumacher, REDEMOS Deputy Coordinator, NTNU, Trondheim.
As part of the REDEMOS webinar series, this event features Prof. Dr. Anna Ohanyan (Stonehill College, Easton, MA, USA) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nerses Kopalyan (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA) who share their knowledge on changes in Armenian foreign policy and how these link with domestic political development, particularly in the face of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and Russia’s war on Ukraine. The webinar is moderated by REDEMOS’ very own Prof. Dr. Tobias Schumacher (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway & College of Europe, Natolin, Poland).
