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Seán Hanley

@drseanhanley.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.2K following 644 posts

Assoc Professor in Comparative Central and East European Politics, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Personal take on politics, Eastern Europe and suburbia.

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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Wrote this more than 12 years ago - in 2014. I’ve been wrong about many things, but this stands up pretty well. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/2014/0...
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
Will the West become the East? | UCL SSEES Research Blog
UCL Homepage
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The online far right conspiracy theorists’ obsession with the Fabians - stoked massively by GB News, Talk TV et al - is one of the weirdest, most disturbing things in British politics right now (and that’s saying something) Like a mini British QAnon Must be awful working for Fabians rn
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Maybe these are polls Reform didn’t covertly pay for…
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The Kyiv Independent @kyivindependent.com · 21/09/2026
⚡️ France and Slovakia's threat to scupper 3,000 EU sanctions to protect two Russian oligarchs gathers steam. "We will be asking for things in return if it goes that way," one EU diplomat told the Kyiv Independent.
kyivindependent.com
France and Slovakia's threat to scupper 3,000 EU sanctions to protect two Russian oligarchs gathers steam
"We will be asking for things in return if it goes that way," one EU diplomat told the Kyiv Independent.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I simply can’t understand why BBC Radio 4 Today Programme give an automatic platform to people simply because they’re super rich -  the interview was extremely soft and some of Radcliffe bizarre commments about the British empire went completely unchanged.
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Seher Asaf @seher-education.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
“I’ve been shocked over many years with the assumption that if one has studied Russia, they can easily understand Ukraine, when Ukraine is culturally and historically very different,” said Rory Finnin, who teaches Ukrainian Studies at Cambridge www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ukraini...
timeshighereducation.com
Ukrainian studies in ‘crisis’ despite rising demand in Europe
Most universities still treat Ukraine as a marginal topic even as need for specialists with deep knowledge of the country rises
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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
‘Not this never before seen institutional structure, *this* never before seen institutional structure’ (Kidding aside Fabian does know what he’s taking about)
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Luca Migo @victinibcn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
New statue spotted today in Dublin Ireland. Time to take out the trash 🚮! 🎥 AlternativeDublin
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The latest issue of the Democracy for Sale interview is my favourite yet I spoke to London Falling author Patrick Radden Keefe about corruption, Londongrad, MAGA in Britain - and he researches and writes such compelling stories Highly recommend a watch! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTvo...
youtube.com
Trump's America, Coming to Britain | Patrick Radden Keefe
YouTube video by Democracy for Sale
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Leaving #ECPRGC26 in Kraków with ideas about how parties in CEE are resilient but rather empty vessels with personality & technological change mattering more than we would really Good discussions, useful challenges, & plenty to think about on journey back. Esp abt binning some old paradigms.
Polish flag against Krakow buildings
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I guess if we’re thinking positively we might say that this super disruptive technology is a welcome opportunity to rethink what research and scholarship are about in the first place….
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Cold War Conversations Podcast @coldwarpod.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
For decades, ordinary Swedes secretly prepared for the day Soviet forces might occupy their country. Listen here 🎧🎧 coldwarconversations.com/episode473 #sweden #coldwar #staybehinds @johanwennstrom.bsky.social @ospreypublishing.bsky.social
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opendemocracy.net @opendemocracy.net · 10/09/2026
If we want to save democracy, the institutions of tomorrow must be shaped in accordance with the possibilities of tomorrow. www.opendemocracy.net/frontier-poli…
opendemocracy.net
Frontier Politics: AI and the Crisis of the Democratic Form
If we want to save democracy, the institutions of tomorrow must be shaped in accordance with the possibilities of tomorrow.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Les pays tcheques include Slovakia and they also want so little chunks of territory they didn’t get. The future Bratislava is slavonicised as Prešpurk (Pressburg). mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/posts/old-ma...
mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com
Map of Czechoslovakia used by the Czechoslovak delegation during the Paris Peace Conference, 1919
Map of Czechoslovakia used by the Czechoslovak delegation during the Paris Peace Conference, 1919
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
So many political science papers heavy on concepts and light(er) on empirical data and knowledge. Think there should perhaps be a concepts-per-paper limit.
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The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🇺🇦🕯️ Legendary Ukrainian soldier Serhiy “Bortsukha” died at the front — a fighter who, in the first days of the full-scale invasion, rode his bicycle to Irpin with three RPG-7 shells to stop Russian armored columns advancing on the Kyiv region. Serhiy was a commander of a marine unit…
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 09/09/2026
France’s Le Pen stays silent on far-right victory in German election ft.trib.al/fpsDGIc
ft.trib.al
France’s Le Pen stays silent on far-right victory in German election
Rassemblement National distances itself from Alternative for Germany ahead of next year’s French presidential vote
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Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
On the urgent task of stopping nationalists, pumped with Maga propaganda and Kremlin money, conniving against liberal democratic Europe www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
European democracies are running out of time to turn away from the abyss | Rafael Behr
Far-right parties, Maga ideology and Kremlin money are conniving to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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European Politics Briefly @europolbriefly.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Marine Le Pen’s best chance to win the Elysee Palace comes amid extreme French political fragmentation, while centrist rivals Philippe and Attal clash over timing and unity.
briefly.co
Save What Matters
Curate Feeds | Make Collections | Customize Email Briefs
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Rapporteur @euractiv.com · 09/09/2026
Serbia to hold October snap election
dlvr.it
Serbia to hold October snap election
The ruling SNS party named President Aleksandar Vučić as its candidate for prime minister
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Chairing a great #ecprgc26 Krakow panel on Crisis and Resilience of Parties in CE Europe Discussant @timhaughton.bsky.social suggests big polarising pol personalities a neglected part of the story Looking across at map of Africa I wonder if we need to borrow ideas from other regions
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Stephan G. Humer @humer.de · 08/09/2026
Der Kollege @mlewandowsky.bsky.social sagt mit "Es geht darum, die Räume zurückzugewinnen, die die AfD besetzt hat. Strukturen im ländlichen Raum, Lebensgefühl, Repräsentation. Und natürlich auch in den sozialen Medien." etwas sehr Wahres. #DigitaleKulturfehlt www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...
spiegel.de
(S+) AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt: Politologe erklärt Gründe für den Wahlerfolg der Partei
Die AfD könnte bald in Sachsen-Anhalt regieren. Der Politologe Marcel Lewandowsky erklärt, wie es so weit kommen konnte. Und er sagt, welche Lehren die Parteien der Mitte daraus ziehen sollten.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Strange to be transiting South Moravia by train; it’s a kind of home-from-home. I know all the places. Tempted to get off.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Next time I need to get to get Krakow from Friedrichshafen I will hire a bloody airship. #ecpr #ecprgc #ecprgc26
Airship shadow.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Travelling to #ecpr #ecprgc #epcrgc26 on train from Vienna to Krakow. Car 350 where I have my seat mysteriously absent. “Find an unreserved seat” they say. There are none. I’ve ended up in the restaurant car and will be here ordering occasional Polish railway food for the next five hours.
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Jana Puglierin @jpuglierin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Posting this again. For a reason.
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HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 06/09/2026
Patriot Platform, the far-right group whose black-clad masked members caused hours of disruption in Dover yesterday, calls itself a Christian “army of patriots” dedicated to protecting women and children. There’s a problem with that story.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Hmm, seems Sergei Brin is the Count Zeppelin de nos jours. But that’s still only half the size of the Hindenburg - or perhaps less. oaklandside.org/2026/09/02/a...
oaklandside.org
A massive airship drifted by the Port of Oakland today
The rigid ship — not a blimp — was likely Google co-founder Sergey Brin's Pathfinder 1.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
On holiday in Friedrichshafen I am surprised to see a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm - but it’s Kaiser Wilhelm I, so I guess that OK? Count Zeppelin is still a local hero and gets a memorial obelisk, although the Zeppelin Museum doesn’t duck the military funding and later Nazi propaganda use.
Bust on a plinthView of Friedrichshafen Obelisk
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 03/09/2026
"Carney's approval in Canada surged to 60 percent last week, after he rejected Trump’s 'counteroffers.' Those are the kind of eye-popping levels of support that a self-deluding Trump boasts about, when in fact he suffers from his lowest approval ratings to date."
publicnotice.co
How Trump tanked Canadian conservatives
ETTD, international edition.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
ambassador to the UK Václav Bartuška looking back over a career as a student activist, investigative journalist and energy diplomat. Sadly Czech Radio’s excellent international sr ice in English and other langs are set to be axed. english.radio.cz/vaclav-bartu...
english.radio.cz
Václav Bartuška: “The revolution was too velvety”
Václav Bartuška is Czechia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. In the past he has been a 1989 student leader, a journalist and the government's envoy for energy securituy.
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Szabolcs Panyi @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
📸 Viktor Orbán’s daughter Ráhel and son-in-law István Tiborcz – who officially head the family’s vast business empire – were spotted yesterday on Tavistock Street in London, getting out of a Hungarian-plated Mercedes G-Class. DM me if you have tips on what they were up to there.
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VSquare.org @vsquare.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Over the past 15 years, Hungary’s atlatszo.hu—meaning “transparent”—has become a leading investigative newsroom, uncovering Orbán-era corruption and environmental abuses while enduring police raids, smear campaigns and threats. Founder Tamás Bodoky looks back—and ahead.
vsquare.org
Investigating the Orbán Era and Surviving Its Attacks: Átlátszó at 15 - VSquare.org
Fifteen years ago, Átlátszó began as a largely unfunded experiment: a nonprofit investigative newsroom designed to protect journalists from the political and business pressures constraining Hungary’s media.
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Paul T. Levin @paultlevin.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I sound like a Ronald Reagan-era Republican, but here’s a simple truth: Today, the three Baltic states are free, democratic, and prosperous countries in no small part because they enjoy NATO protection. Georgia didn’t. Chechnya certainly didn’t. Belarus didn’t. And Ukraine didn’t.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I think we’ve realised in the present. It’s reminding myself that it is actually real not some adaptation of a Phillip K Dick novel that I struggle with.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
What happens if a UK government removes benefits from EU citizens in breach of the withdrawal agreement? My analysis of the likely EU response to Reform Party policy, if ever enacted - eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/08/what...
eulawanalysis.blogspot.com
What happens if a UK government removes benefits from EU citizens in breach of the withdrawal agreement?
Professor Steve Peers , Law School, Royal Holloway University of London   Photo credit : Martin Robson , via Wikimedia Commons  ...
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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I'm shocked that the 2024 Reform party candidate for Salisbury (!), who's tweeted about talking to Putin and refers to 'the Ukraine' and the 'SMO' - the official Russian designation for their unprovoked war against Ukraine - is amplifying the Kremlin's current attempt to scare the UK public.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yesterday’s nightmare scenario has horrible habit of becoming tomorrow’s reality: US-Iran conflict in Strait of Hormuz wargamed for years. Here a more terrifying one: simultaneous aggressions by Russia/China. Small Cz European Values thinktank gets big mention. paxsims.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/w...
paxsims.wordpress.com
Wargaming nightmare scenarios
In The Atlantic (paywalled), Simon Shuster argues that NATO has done little or no planning for a potential nightmare scenario: a simultaneous Russian attack on NATO and Chinese invasion of Taiwan. …
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Bálint Magyar’s new substack, building on his innovative thinking about post-communist regimes (and beyond with Bálint Madlovics, launchs with a post about the patronalistic self-enrichment of Trump. Worth subscribing postcommunistregimes.substack.com/p/make-trump...
postcommunistregimes.substack.com
Make Trump Rich Again
Or Take Back the Home
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Adam Przeworski @adamprz.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A summary of what I understand and do not understand about the way democracy works: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7269378
papers.ssrn.com
<p>Swan Song: My Understanding of Democracy</p>
I summarize my understanding of democracy: the theory which predicts when elections peacefully manage conflicts and the empirical evidence regarding the co
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Who voted for Count Binface in the Clacton by-election and why?
Cheaper Flakes and using Adele to fund the NHS - voters on why they support a man dressed as a bin.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Good post-election post-mortem from the NS: Count Binface is the (unexpected) vehicle for anti-Reform voters, the role taken by the Greens or Welsh nationalists in other contests. Some voters, even those disliking Farage, feel patronised by parody-only option podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
Farage wins again at Clacton circus
Podcast Episode · The Politics Show · 14 August · 18min
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Farage has dodged a bullet. Misjudged the resignation, poured effort into mobilising his base giving up on Manchester mayoralty. Got exactly vote national polls would predict in Clacton. Faces same questions about evading declaring crypto donation. Binface the real winner - perhaps the real story
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Okay Clacton. Let’s go.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
My sense is that the Binface phenomenon - fired up by the unusual circumstances of Clacton - has opened forms of anti-political mobilisation other than abstention, angry populism and contentless insignificant joke candidates.
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
“… Binface becomes more than a satirical candidate (..) uses humour, symbolism and theatrical gimmicks to transform political satire into a form of democratic communication” I agree - and wonder where, after gaining thousands of real (protest) votes, it all goes next www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/new...
ntu.ac.uk
What Count Binface tells us about political memes
Dr Tine Munk explores how Count Binface's Clacton campaign reveals the rise of defensive memetic warfare and its influence on political communication..
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Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Bohužel ani jeden český novinář, zdá se, neudělal rozhovor s Hrabětem Odpadkáčem – a to v zemi Haška a Járy Cimrmana.
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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 06/08/2026
A US tech oligarch and a Russian fascist, both preaching about the Antichrist and the end of history. What Peter Thiel and Alexander Dugin share is stranger than what divides them. shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/antichrist...
shekhovtsov.substack.com
Antichrists and Empires
Peter Thiel, Alexander Dugin, and the theology of illiberal power
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Commenting today: “Two of these people around Farage were in and out of the Russian Embassy discussing Gold and Diamond deals. The third has been sentenced to over 10 years in prison for taking Kremlin Gold. What did Nigel know?” ✍️ @peterjukes.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com
‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem
Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’s strategic plan to crush Ukrainian independence with ‘Moscow’s Man in Ukraine’
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the world's press: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEsa...
youtube.com
Count Binface meets the world's press
YouTube video by Count Binface
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