Month: June 2023

Is There a Future in Politics for Russia’s Wagner Boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin?

In the current political system, Prigozhin can only be against the elite so long as he is for Putin. It would take the slightest sign from the president for the Wagner boss to disappear.

No one in Russia embodies the anti-elite essence of populist politics today like Yevgeny Prigozhin, formerly known as “Putin’s chef,” more recently as the boss of a vast troll network, and right now as head of the infamous Wagner mercenary army.

The Great Convergence

Global Equality and Its Discontents

We live in an age of inequality—or so we’re frequently told. Across the globe, but especially in the wealthy economies of the West, the gap between the rich and the rest has widened year after year and become a chasm, spreading anxiety, stoking resentment, and roiling politics. It is to blame for everything from the rise of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom to the “yellow vest” movement in France and the recent protests of retirees in China, which has one of the world’s highest rates of income inequality. Globalization, the argument goes, may have enriched certain elites, but it hurt many other people, ravaging one-time industrial heartlands and making people susceptible to populist politics.

It’s Karimov Era 2.0 for Muslims in Uzbekistan

A new wave of arrests in Uzbekistan have centered on religious lectures, songs, and social media posts, calling up memories of the not-so-distant Karimov era.

On May 31, a 57-year-old woman from Navai region was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom for liking a social media post in 2018, when she was in Turkey. The video she “liked” on the Odnoklassniki.ru social media platform was a religious speech in Uzbek delivered by a person named Rafik Kamalov.

UN calls for halt to Libya migrant detention, expulsion

The United Nations has called on Libya to treat migrants and asylum seekers with dignity as it highlighted concerns over arbitrary detentions and mass expulsions.

The war-torn country has been accused of arresting men, women and children from the streets and their homes, with many held in overcrowded places.

L’Afrique du Sud, plaque tournante financière du jihadisme

Si elle n’est pas elle-même la cible d’attaques terroristes, l’Afrique du Sud est une place forte du financement du groupe État islamique (EI).

Alors qu’elle ne semble pas affectée par la montée des mouvements islamiques sur le continent, l’Afrique du Sud serait en réalité au centre de la stratégie financière du groupe État islamique (EI). Une situation que les États-Unis ont dénoncée les premiers en sanctionnant, en 2022, des entreprises et ressortissants sud-africains soupçonnés de faciliter des transferts de fonds au profit de l’EI.

En Libye, les fragilités d’une paix en clair-obscur

Le géant d’Afrique du Nord a renoué avec une stabilité apparente au prix de transactions volatiles entre rivaux d’hier.

La Libye ne défraie plus guère la chronique internationale. Une stabilité apparente, des fractures internes peu lisibles, des crises ailleurs autrement brûlantes : Tripoli et Benghazi n’intéressent plus, voire lassent. Ce n’est pas franchement la paix comme l’illustrent les incidents récents en Tripolitaine (Ouest). Ce n’est pas non plus la guerre. Nulle trace d’un choc frontal entre deux coalitions politico-militaires encouragées de l’étranger comme ce fut le cas lors de la guerre civile de l’été 2014 ou de la « bataille de Tripoli » en 2019-2020.