Despite the stable growth of the Russian economy, social inequality in the country remains very high. Experts predict that Russia’s GDP will increase by 1.8 percent this year but such economic stability doesn’t translate into improvements of the welfare state nor does it guarantee any social sustainability. As a journalist […]

Last summer, I went to pick up a backpacking German friend in Ankara’s busy bus station. After exchanging greetings and talking about how life had been, I asked about his initial impressions of Turkey. “The countryside is impressive,” he said, “but the cities are quite weird”. When I asked him […]

Two months after a public debt crisis was declared and with various anti-crisis scenarios in circulation, the budget of Serbia was rebalanced in early June. If the balancing act had been a play, “Much Ado about Nothing” would have been a very fitting title for a great deal of windy […]

The austerity issue is based on spending less. But if governments spend less, people believe they are being robbed of their jobs and income, and citizens start protesting in the streets. Yet despite severe public spending cuts in Lithuania of a relative magnitude to those in Spain and Greece, Lithuanians […]

In February and March 2011 thousands of citizens organized through social networks came out to protest in Zagreb against the worsening social and economic situation in Croatia. In January 2012 protests against austerity measures in Bucharest turned violent. In February 2013 the government of Bulgaria fell because of protests in […]