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Yan Matusevich

@ymatusik.bsky.social
2K followers 772 following 1.8K 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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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Awful news. İlkin helped me out a lot during a reporting trip I made to Azerbaijan in 2018 though I never managed to meet him in person. A generous, kind and very active member of Baku’s sadly shrinking artistic and activist scene.
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Meduza in English @meduza.io · 13/10/2026
Days after reporting on North Koreans in Russia's Far East, Japanese journalist Yuki Imai was detained on Sakhalin and jailed in Moscow. The FSB accuses him of spying for Japan by gathering data on mobilized and volunteer fighters in Ukraine from the Kurils. meduza.io/en/feature/2...
meduza.io
Who is Yuki Imai, the Japanese journalist Russia has arrested on espionage charges? — Meduza
A Japanese journalist has been detained on suspicion of espionage on Sakhalin, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said. The agency identified him as a Japanese national and a correspondent for…
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I’m at the very last (I swear) stage of my dissertation write up and this is exactly how it feels *logging off*
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The 4000+ comments under his post are mostly asking the government to shut down the school and deport all Jews from Kyrgyzstan. Social media is truly such a cesspool of misinformation, I’m truly at a loss for words
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
There’s a single Jewish school in Bishkek that is open to children of all faiths, but is being bombarded with hate messages. Their listing on the local equivalent of GMaps is filled with pictures of Nazi uniforms and Palestinian flags. Some Kyrgyz kid posted about it on Instagram and it went viral
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Looks like the Ukrainian strike on the Yandex data center in Russia has left customers in Central Asia without access to YandexGo, which is the most used taxi app in places like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan The dangers of dependency on Russian conglomerates
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Meduza in English @meduza.io · 09/10/2026
Liubov Rozhanska, a Ukrainian citizen detained in Kazakhstan at Russia’s request, has been released, her lawyer said. meduza.io/en/news/2026...
meduza.io
Ukrainian grandmother released after Russia had her arrested in Kazakhstan on kidnapping charges. She’d traveled there to retrieve her grandson. — Meduza
Liubov Rozhanska, a Ukrainian citizen detained in Kazakhstan at Russia’s request, has been released, her lawyer, Alexei Pryanishnikov, told Vot Tak.
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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Let me just say that anecdotally the mood of immigrants on the other side of academia is very much “get out of here, no matter what it takes.” A combination of nativist immigration policy and a complete disregard for higher education. Destroying a sector that this country could be proud of.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
He had unsuccessfully tried to set up an independent Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan that would not be under the Moscow Patriarchate—and is now paying a heavy price.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A Kazakhstani former Russian Orthodox priest, who was defrocked for condemning the war in Ukraine, has just been sentenced to four years in prison on trumped up drug charges by a court in Almaty vlast.kz/english/7115...
vlast.kz
Anti-War Orthodox Priest Sentenced on Drug Charges in Kazakhstan - Аналитический интернет-журнал Власть
Последние новости Алматы и Казахстана от интернет-журнала Власть. Новостной портал со своим мнением. Будьте в курсе событий!
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Jason Corcoran @jasoncorcoran.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My latest @moscowtimes.bsky.social OpEd: Afraid of Mobilisation, Many Russians Are Preparing for the Worst www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/10/07/a...
themoscowtimes.com
Afraid of Mobilization, Many Russians Are Preparing for the Worst. The West Should Help. - The Moscow Times
Opinion | I recently returned from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where conversations with old Russian friends and newer arrivals in the city who weren’t even of military age in 2022 left me with an unsettling...
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Sam Breazeale @sambreazeale.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I've spent the last month making Refused, a new podcast about Russia's draft dodgers and deserters, and where they can escape to. Episode 1 is out now, wherever podcasts are sold: novayagazeta.eu/en/articles/...
novayagazeta.eu
Where do Russia’s deserters go?
Introducing Refused, a new English-language podcast about the people who refuse to fight in Russia’s war. Russia’s biggest advantage in its war against Ukraine is manpower.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I’m often hesitant to even bring it up because it immediately gets instrumentalised for a very racist, islamophobic discourse of “see they all hate us.” Reality is more complex: it’s a mix of imported Russian antisemitism with TikTok preachers appealing to the umma. It’s old & new at the same time
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It is truly the ultimate “taxi driver theory” of the world—and one that was so omnipresent when I lived in Central Asia tthat I almost stopped noticing it. At the same time, I never felt unsafe pushing back against these “theories” because often times these people have never experienced any pushback
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The Diplomat @thediplomat.com · 01/10/2026
In lieu of decisive regulatory action and funding, much of the work of adapting to new climate realities in Central Asia falls on individual gardeners and cooperatives. buff.ly/4GQ83B7
buff.ly
Can a Network of Miniature Sponge Cities Help Central Asia Curb Climate Change?
In lieu of decisive regulatory action and funding, much of the work of adapting to new climate realities falls on individual gardeners and cooperatives.
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Shirin Aitmatova @shirinaitmatova.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Why is the LDS network so interested in helping whitewash authoritarian regimes—and what’s in it for them? I’m fascinated by the American kok-boru team, reportedly composed almost entirely of LDS members. Toxic masculinity and polygamy as the glue? www.utahinvestigative.org/how-a-former...
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Jahongir unsuccessfully tried to run for president in 2021 and was told, in no uncertain terms, to keep his mouth shut and stick to music.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you haven't listened to Jahongir Otajonov, you're seriously missing out. He's by far my favorite contemporary Uzbek pop star, who manages to combine pop, dancehall, synthwave and folk. This anti-corruption anthem is a good place to start www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nZO...
youtube.com
Jahongir Otajonov - Poram (Music Video) [2024]
YouTube video by Jahongir Otajonov
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"wait, there are Muslims in Ukraine?" "Russian settlers can take away your property?" We're five years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine and so many people are still missing the most basic of facts.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
it's quite exhausting to see the extent to which Ukraine has become a partisan issue instrumentalized by the worst actors. one of my dearest friends is Crimean Tatar and it's painful for me to witness how he's had to patiently explain his story to an absolutely clueless progressive audience
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We did experience a pretty intense earthquake while in Almaty but I can hardly blame Air Astana for that
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I got stranded in Almaty because of a snowstorm flying with Air Astana and I’m still friends with some of the passengers to this day—it was one hell of a bonding experience. Although Air Astana was waaaaaay more competent than BA. We got driven in a Tesla to a nice hotel with three meals a day.
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Animation Obsessive @ani-obsessive.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In the '80s, some of the world's most fascinating animation was made in Uzbekistan. It was a time of "absolute creative freedom with full funding." We're looking at the story behind the scene, and at the gems it produced: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/visions-in...
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Aigerim Turgunbaeva @aigiturgunbaeva.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
My next for @nytimes.com with Paul and Sergey It’s Boom Time in Kyrgyzstan, Courtesy in Part of the War in Ukraine www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/w...
nytimes.com
It’s Boom Time in Kyrgyzstan, Courtesy in Part of the War in Ukraine
The economy of the Central Asian nation grew by 11 percent last year, partly by becoming a key conduit for goods flowing into Russia.
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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
super piece on the changing, narrowing space for protest art and, really, any art in Russia, from @dariadergacheva.bsky.social for @globalvoices.org
globalvoices.org
Street art in Russia is dead and the country is full of monumental war art
At first, artists who emigrated still dealt with themes of war and their departure from Russia. Later, these broadened to include loss of home, identity, displacement and loneliness.
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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Merz finds a way to declare all Jewish Germans "foreigners" in the midst of trying to denounce left-wing antisemitism. Clearly a political talent the CDU cannot live without as it faces repeated electoral disaster.
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Dimi Reider @dimireider.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Got a piece in this weekend's New Statesman on some of the least helpful reactions to NAZA, such as:
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This has happened in Armenia, too www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/w...
nytimes.com
It’s Boom Time in Kyrgyzstan, Courtesy in Part of the War in Ukraine
The economy of the Central Asian nation grew by 11 percent last year, partly by becoming a key conduit for goods flowing into Russia.
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Meduza in English @meduza.io · 15/09/2026
Chechen activist Mansur Movlayev attempted to take his own life after a year and a half in a pretrial detention center in Almaty, his lawyer said. meduza.io/en/news/2026...
meduza.io
Chechen activist Mansur Movlayev attempts suicide in Kazakhstan jail. He faces extradition to Russia. — Meduza
Chechen activist Mansur Movlayev attempted to take his own life after a year and a half in a pretrial detention center in Almaty, his lawyer, Vadim Drozdov, told the independent Russian news outlet…
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The list of detained and raided here is all the LGBTQ movement groups I can think of at least, which despite everything have been working in Turkey for decades
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
wait, that's the price of entry??
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Great reporting on the corrupt schemes used to recruit Tajik fruit pickers in the UK dispatch-media.com/how-to-bribe...
dispatch-media.com
How to bribe your way on to a British farm
Britain's fruit farms depend on Tajik workers • Many pay huge bribes just to get an interview • Where does the money go?
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
And then I headed back to the city center where a bunch of locals were discussing their plans on planting new trees around the city. These communities seemed to live in completely parallel realities.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
He then told me their stadium was built "in the Hitler days, they knew how to build stuff back then." It was an obvious provocation, he placed such an exaggerated emphasis on the word Hitler. He finally lost patience with me, told me to leave the premises of the clubhouse and it felt like a threat
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It was next to impossible to get any AfD supporter to talk to me an American journalist (if I had told them I was Russian, things may have been smoother). But I hung out very briefly at a local football club and one of its members boasted that they didn't let "foreign kids" play on their teams.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I talked to Ukrainian and Kurdish residents, who lived in the same neighborhoods as the white supremacist Nazis. They told me that life was mostly quiet, but they could feel the seething anger directed at them.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In Pirna, I constantly felt like I was navigating between two worlds, only one of which I got access to. The cute and quaint city center was full of friendly people willing to talk and proud of their town, while the outer neighborhoods were less inviting with evidence of alcohol and substance abuse
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The town attracts a lot of tourists and an active civil society, but when its most recent municipal elections came around, the "silent" far-right electorate came out in full force and voted for an AfD mayor.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Heck, even the local Kegel club for retirees was conservative, but against the AfD. But walking through a supermarket on the outskirts of the town, I would see guys with SS t-shirts and very blatant Nazi paraphernalia strolling around with their kids as if it was completely normal.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Back in 2025, I did some reporting on the AfD in Pirna, a picturesque town in Saxony (not Saxony-Anhalt, but similar dynamics) that unfortunately got canned and the thing that jumped out at me was you had a broad anti-AfD coalition: tourism board, cultural workers, the Lutheran church, teachers.
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Incredible war crimes, Incredible assassinations.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
For more of my Central Asian music digging content feel free to follow me on Insta: www.instagram.com/yaxshiyan_?i...
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
With autumn on the doorstep, I remember this beautifully sad ballad by Uzbek singer-songwriter Akbarali Ochilov appropriately called Xazonrezgi (falling leaves). An incredibly talented poet and musician who fell onto hard times in the 1990s, but has since been rediscovered in Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I’ve started doing that at conferences too. Just have a slideshow of pictures from my fieldwork to set the mood, maybe a graph or chart here and there, but like you said: no text. And I think it works much better
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IPHR @iphr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The dismissal of Kyrgyzstan's powerful security chief earlier this year prompted hopes that pressure on government critics might ease. But our new update for the #CIVICUSMonitor shows that the pattern of repression persists: iphronline.org/articles/kyr... w/ @civicusalliance.bsky.social
iphronline.org
Kyrgyzstan: Hopes for a Thaw Recede Amid Renewed Persecution of Critical Voices - IPHR
This report provides an update on civic space and the protection of the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly in Kyrgyzstan from mid-March to mid-August 2026. It has been prepared ...
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
He tapped into a very deep-seated sense of inferiority in Kyrgyz society, which watched on as Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan produced their own glitzy versions of the Dubai dream. Now the new stadium and super expensive opening ceremony with world leaders in attendance gives them a sense of pride.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
President Japarov scores a major PR victory with his grand opening ceremony of the World Nomad Games at the newly built Bishkek Arena (51K capacity, now the largest football venue in Central Asia). It has completely overshadowed human rights abuses, curtailing of free speech.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
"Besides being deeply cynical, Chomsky’s supposed pragmatism has not stood the test of time...We may have manufactured consent once upon a time, but America has long since transitioned to a post-manufacturing economy." Very harsh but worthwhile read. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...
strangematters.coop
Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters
Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
New episode of my Central Asian musical hour is now available for streaming on Soundcloud. Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day seemed like a fitting occasion soundcloud.com/sphere_radio...
soundcloud.com
Orta #5 - Jashoo - yaxshiyan - 11.08.2026
Jashoo (life in Kyrgyz) is an episode that combines crackly Soviet-era vinyls from Bishkek’s flea markets with worn-out tape recordings from the bouncy 1990s. In between, you’ll get a glimpse of epic
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Kyiv Post @kyivpost.com · 29/08/2026
Over 113k Russians crossed into Georgia in a week amid draft fears, Politico reports. Armenia also stated it won't block those fleeing mobilization. www.kyivpost.com/post/83340
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