Yan Matusevich
@ymatusik.bsky.social
1.8K followers 690 following 1.4K posts
Journalist writing about politics, culture, migration and society in Central Asia and Eurasia more broadly | PhD candidate in Anthropology at CUNY GC | en-ru-fr-de | кыргызча сүйлөйм Words in @economist.com, @foreignpolicy.com, @eurasianet.bsky.social
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ymatusik.bsky.social
PSA: being on welfare in Germany is absolutely awful as it is. You're under an insane amount of bureaucratic surveillance, the money you get is barely enough to survive on. A socialist dreamland it is not!
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
georgdiez.bsky.social
Germany discusses massive changes to it's social welfare system, France is stubbornly insisting on neoliberal policies which haven't worked for decades – we see a replay of the nineties minus the optimism. My Substack about the wrong debates about "reforms".

open.substack.com/pub/survival...
To Hell With the Nineties
Why we are discussing reform the wrong way
open.substack.com
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
heissenstat.bsky.social
I’m a tenured professor with an endowed chair.

Looking back, I don’t think the freshly minted PhD version of me could land a job in today’s market. I was smart, I was driven — but mostly, I was lucky.

More of us in academia need to admit that.
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
nicholasdanfort.bsky.social
The Antisemitic/Tankie Left is real and noxious and dangerous. Its influence has been compounded by more reasonable progressives who refuse to call it out and those on the right who want to exaggerate its presence to avoid talking about Israeli crimes.
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
it was obvious from the moment the attack happened that this was not only a tragedy for Israel but was going to become a tragedy for Palestine, and I still remember who was cheering it on.
deckofcarterhist.bsky.social
If you were online on October 7, 2023, this is no surprise.

Overshadowed by the fact that Israel retaliated with a genocidal war is the reality that amid the attack seemingly professional/moral people spent days praising every report they found of Israelis, including children, being murdered.
ymatusik.bsky.social
Mindy O'Neall is the executive director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, which is a wonderful and very important institution in Alaska. Couldn't think of a more competent mayor for a city with a rough climate and difficult socioeconomic situation.
ymatusik.bsky.social
Small personal bright spot for me: my hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska just elected Mindy O'Neall (D) as mayor. Turnout was abysmal, but the incumbent Republican mayor is out and I'll take that as a win.

www.alaskasnewssource.com/2025/10/08/m...
Mayor Pruhs concedes reelection race to challenger Mindy O’Neall
Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs conceded the race for his position to challenger Mindy O’Neall on Tuesday night.
www.alaskasnewssource.com
ymatusik.bsky.social
Working with great editors has been a life-changing experience. It’s actually helped me get over my perfectionism and fear of making mistakes. If only journalism wasn’t being gutted as profession 😭
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
nateschenkkan.bsky.social
This interview by @vlastkz.bsky.social with Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratbai goes into great detail about what being a Central Asian activist is like at a time when democratic states are turning away from the concept of refugee protection vlast.kz/english/6671...
Karakalpak Activist Decries Repression in Uzbekistan and Bureaucratic Barriers in Kazakhstan - Аналитический интернет-журнал Власть
Читайте этот материал на русском.
vlast.kz
ymatusik.bsky.social
There’s no need to rewrite the 1951 Convention on Refugees as many EU officials have discussed in the past when it has for all intents and purposes been put to rest
ymatusik.bsky.social
IOM and UNHCR are facing budget crisis like the entire UN system. Resettlement is basically dead without the US and Canada (not seeing other countries filling in the breach). Countries like Germany are reneging on their resettlement commitments, the UK is finding new ways to dismantle asylum
ymatusik.bsky.social
The international refugee protection system is effectively on its last legs. Ukrainians will get their status extended in most European countries, but beyond that we’re looking at the end of asylum as we know it.
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
nateschenkkan.bsky.social
This opens the door to more transnational repression
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
emmcollet.bsky.social
Cette semaine dans @lexpress.fr, retrouvez mon reportage à Baïkonour, visité cet été. Situé dans les steppes du 🇰🇿, ce cosmodrome soviétique -d’où s’est envolé le premier homme dans l’espace, Youry Gagarine- et encore loué par la 🇷🇺, fête ses 70 ans cette année www.lexpress.fr/monde/asie/b...
Baïkonour ne répond plus : plongée au cœur du légendaire mais menacé cosmodrome russe
Situé au Kazakhstan, le mythique cosmodrome soviétique fête cette année ses 70 ans. Délaissé par Moscou, il se cherche un avenir.
www.lexpress.fr
Reposted by Yan Matusevich
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
I keep going back to this, but one of the reasons South Korea has an incredibly effective protest culture is because they have *decades* of organizational experience through daily/weekly protesting. it helps a lot to do the routine stuff to be able to pull off the big stuff.
socio-steve.bsky.social
Why doesn't the US have a general strike? Well you can point to culture or whatever but I think structure is of not immediate use here: does the US have organizations and institutions it can use to network, organize and mobilize a general strike? No.
ymatusik.bsky.social
Came across a Chechen AfD member named Noah Krieger (allegedly not his birth name) from Hannover who is all over Instagram promoting pretty cringy fascist content. Feels like the guy was created in an FSB lab

www.instagram.com/krieger_advo...
Login • Instagram
Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com
ymatusik.bsky.social
The current regime have found a tried and true method of combining symbolic nationalism while maintaining a very close relationship with Russia, particularly between security services.
ymatusik.bsky.social
Now that Jalal-Abad has been renamed “Manas” by the current regime, the next step is renaming the streets after the “Kyrk Choro”, the forty warriors in the Manas epic.

Kyrk Choro also happens to be a nationalist vigilante group that is known for its homophobia and xenophobic violence.
ymatusik.bsky.social
Props to @tumarov.bsky.social for very skillfully describing the cult of raw power being created by Tashiev, the Sopranos-esque head of Kyrgyzstan’s rapidly expanding security services

youtu.be/cQeb5cdHs1I?...
Могу и «отлупить»: культ силы Ташиева
YouTube video by Kloop на русском
youtu.be
ymatusik.bsky.social
I’ve been puzzled with the resurgence of far-right violence in Russia, echoing the bloody 2000s. But I think seething veterans scapegoating migrants for their problems is a big part of the answer