Professional Affiliation

Founder, Independent Institute of Socioeconomic and Political Studies (Minsk-Vilnius); Visiting Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Wilson Center Project

Strengthening Legitimacy by Reshuffling Social Stratification In the “Slavic triangle"

Project Summary

The project provides a comparative analysis of changes in the social structure, in particular, growing inequality and polarization between the state and society in the "Slavic triangle", i.e. Belarus, Russia and Ukraine after the Soviet collapse. The basic idea is that reshuffling of social stratification became the most effective method of strengthening legitimacy for post-Soviet authorities. The central hypothesis is that this process has strengthened their legitimacy so far, but inevitably leads to growing corruption, poor governance, social tensions and conflicts in future. The project will also contribute to better understanding of deepening social/political polarization and rise of populism in the West.