In November, Nerijus Maliukevičius, from the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, and Makimas Milta, from the Eastern Europe Studies Centre of Vilnius, will give a presentation on the case of Belarus and its regime’s enemy representations. The talk will be based on their research on how Lukashenka’s regime portrayed its enemy in the wake of brutal mass repression and forced relocation of Belarusian activists and media professionals.
About the research: Maliukevičius and Milta’s paper is based on research conducted in 2021, following mass repressions of the Belarusian society by Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime, and an exodus of civil society activists, including media professionals, overseas. By observing a series of focus groups, the study investigates the means through which Lukashenka’s regime portrayed its enemy in the early stages of regaining dominance in the public space. Ultimately, the paper presents intriguing pathways for assessing horizontal learning between different Kremlin’s vassal regimes (e.g., Aliaksandr Lukashenka and Ramzan Kadyrov), specifically in the area of representing the regime’s enemy.
Authors’ bio:
Dr. Nerijus Maliukevičius is a scholar and an Associate Professor at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science. His research focuses on information warfare, strategic communication, conflict management as well as Russian studies. He is the author of two books about Russian information warfare strategies. Dr. Maliukevičius teaches classes on Media in Conflict, Strategic Political Communication, Electoral Campaigns, and Information Warfare. His PhD thesis at Vilnius University focused on the potential and spread of Russian informational geopolitics in Lithuania.
Maksimas Milta is an Associate Expert at the Eastern Europe Studies Center and a former ReThink.CEE Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US. In 2013-2021, he worked in the leadership of the European Humanities University, a Vilnius-based Belarusian University-in-Exile. He authored the award-winning documentary series “Talaka” about the role of the women during 2020 protests in Belarus. Maksimas is a graduate of Vilnius University and Yale University, where he worked as a teaching assistant to Prof. Timothy Snyder.
Moderator: Olga Dovbysh, University of Helsinki
Online talk on Russian Media is a collaborative initiative between Russian Media Lab Network, University of Helsinki, and Tampere Research Center for Russian and Chinese Media.
Photo by Andrew Keymaster su Unsplash