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Papers by Gwendolyn Sasse

Nationalities papers, Jul 1, 2023

How can and should we analyze mass mobilization and its outcomes in authoritarian (and potentiall... more How can and should we analyze mass mobilization and its outcomes in authoritarian (and potentially democratizing) states as social scientists? Are there any distinctive features to the study of mass mobilization and its outcomes in Eastern Europe? And how much should we focus on comparative analyses versus context and country specificities? The case of the 2020 mass mobilization in Belarus offers an opportunity to engage with and answer these questions in a reciprocal dialogue between scholars of protest and activism, politics of competitive authoritarian and democratizing contexts, and regional and country experts. This symposium brings together a diverse set of scholars and combines comparative and case-specific analyses and empirically driven and interpretive analyses that focus on different political, social, and cultural angles of this episode of mass mobilization and its aftermath.

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Mar 1, 1996

Crimea has been characterized as a flashpoint for future European security and is both part of Uk... more Crimea has been characterized as a flashpoint for future European security and is both part of Ukraine's state‐building process and a specific case in itself. Ownership of the Black Sea Fleet is but one issue: inter‐ethnic relations (including the sensitive question of the position of the Crimean Tatars), economic and social factors (such as the peninsula's heavy dependence on Ukraine for goods and materials and Ukraine's dependence on Russian energy), political organization (notably the constitutional position within Ukraine and the powers of the Crimean president and parliament), and international and strategic aspects (in particular the relative claims of Russian and Ukrainian nationalism in the region) all play their part in rendering this a complex issue. Various scenarios place the issue of Crimea at the heart of Ukrainian state‐building, and the prognosis for a peaceful resolution of the matter is not particularly encouraging.

Nations and Nationalism, Aug 11, 2011

Despite implicating ethnicity in everything from civil war to economic failure, researchers seldo... more Despite implicating ethnicity in everything from civil war to economic failure, researchers seldom consult psychological research when addressing the most basic question: What is ethnicity? The result is a radical scholarly divide generating contradictory recommendations for solving ethnic conflict. Research into how the human brain actually works demands a revision of existing schools of thought. At its foundation, ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. This insight leads to a new general theory of ethnic conflict and nationalism that can improve both understanding and practice. Supporting this claim is a wide-ranging discussion of patterns in secessionism, international integration, state collapse, race relations, and deadly ethnic violence found across the globe. Special attention is paid to an in-depth case study of national separatism in Eurasia, which produces a major reinterpretation of nationalism's role in the USSR's breakup and interstate relations in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Minority rights and EU enlargement: normative overstretch or effective conditionality. Sasse, Gwe... more Minority rights and EU enlargement: normative overstretch or effective conditionality. Sasse, Gwendolyn (2004) Minority rights and EU enlargement: normative overstretch or effective conditionality. In: Toggenburg, Gabriel N, (ed ...

Scholars failed to predict many key developments in late Soviet and post-Soviet politics, includi... more Scholars failed to predict many key developments in late Soviet and post-Soviet politics, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Still worse, having failed to predict the dissolution, many observers professionalized in doomsday predictions, often premised on state collapse owing to ethnic strife. Crimea is a region of Ukraine that was considered prone to ethnic conflict and incorporation into Russia. Such prediction did not come true, and this absence of conflict is what The Crimean Question tries to explain. Four factors underlie the potential for instability in the Crimea: geography, multiethnicity, institutional legacies, and external actors. "The argument developed in this book is that the political process of negotiation of central and regional elite bargaining, rather than the institutional outcome per se was the critically important factor for conflict prevention" (p. 8). Four key background conditions created a good environment for a constitutional, nonviolent resolution of Crimea's problems: Multiethnicity prevented a bipolar politicization of clear-cut ethnic cleavages, whereas ethnic Russian mobilization (the one that had the potential of separating Crimea from Ukraine and annexing it to Russia) failed because of a blurred Soviet-Russian identity and the ethnic Russian movement's inability to provide a solution for the region's economic woes. In addition, regional elites focused on cultural and linguistic autonomy instead of radical ethnic separatist demands, and neither Russia nor Turkey actively supported ethnic mobilization of their kin-the ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars, respectively. The first five chapters provide the conceptual and historical framework for the examination of the post-Soviet period, which is undertaken in the last five chapters. The first chapter is a literature review of nationalism studies with reference to the post-Soviet region, from which two overarching themes are derived: First, Sasse is in favor of "bringing the region back in" (p. 26) to the study of state building. Second, ethnic diversity does not automatically translate into conflict, despite many arguments by mainstream scholarship in this direction. In arguing the latter point, Sasse claims that "studies of Ukraine tended to reinforce the perception of clear-cut ethnolinguistic cleavages in the country and assume that they made for an inherent conflict potential" (p. 30). While making such a claim about studies of Ukraine in general, she does not provide a list of works representative of the orientation that she criticizes. To avoid attacking a straw man, she would need to provide a list of works whose authors see inherent conflict potential in Ukraine's ethnolinguistic divisions. Noting that "conflicts tend to be framed by rival claims to historically evolved identities rooted in territory, ethnicity, and experience" (p. 36), Sasse reviews the

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Apr 6, 2005

Human and minority rights map an area in which the EU's external relations have pushed for a (par... more Human and minority rights map an area in which the EU's external relations have pushed for a (partial) rethinking of the EU's internal values, objectives and policies. While minority issues have been at the forefront of the enlargement rhetoric and are often singled out as a prime example of the EU's positive stabilising impact in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the EU has in fact promoted norms which lack a basis in EU law and do not directly translate into the acquis communautaire. The analysis of EU conditionality presented in this paper will proceed in two steps. Firstly, the EU's minority criterion will be 'unpacked' both in terms of its inherent dilemmas and the way in which the EU translated it into an institutional process. Secondly, this paper locates the EU's minority criterion in the domestic political context of three accession countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania) in order to establish the balance between internal and external incentives for policy change and the effectiveness of EU conditionality. The empirical evidence suggests that, on balance, international actors and a vaguely defined European norm framed the debates and perceptions and affected the timing and nature of specific pieces of legislation, while the domestic political constellations and pressures ultimately had a more significant effect on the institutional and policy outcomes.

Introduction The Logic of Enlargement Conditionality and Europeanization Communist Legacies and R... more Introduction The Logic of Enlargement Conditionality and Europeanization Communist Legacies and Regionalization The Commission, Conditionality and Regional Policy Monitoring Conditionality and Compliance Transition, Enlargement and Regionalization: A Comparison of Hungary and Poland Elites and the Capacity for Europeanization Conclusion Bibliography Statistical Appendix

Routledge eBooks, Sep 25, 2014

ABSTRACT This comparative study of post-Soviet conflicts stresses the role of political-instituti... more ABSTRACT This comparative study of post-Soviet conflicts stresses the role of political-institutional changes and adjustments to Soviet legacies made during transition in the causation, prolongation and accommodation of ethnic and regional conflicts. The main theoretical assumptions of the diverse literatures on transition, ethnic conflict and regionalism, are evaluated to highlight both their shortcomings and their potential usefulness for understanding post-Soviet conflicts. Four main questions are investigated: the causes and distinctive features of post-Soviet conflicts, the distinction between ethnic and regional conflicts, the impact of the conflicts on broader processes of transition, in particular institutional engineering, and the interaction between domestic and external factors as a formative dynamic of the conflicts.

How deep is the wider Europ

Europe-Asia Studies

Political attitudes are generally analysed within the context of a given nation-state, even if th... more Political attitudes are generally analysed within the context of a given nation-state, even if they reflect responses to regional or global developments. Little attention has been paid to the potentially moderating role of personal transnational experiences (travel, migration, remittances) on individual attitudes. Based on two cross-sectional online surveys conducted in 15 cities across Russia in 2018 and 2019, this essay assesses the extent to which personal transnational experiences play a role in the domestic and foreign policy preferences of young Russians. Our analysis finds a consistent relationship between transnational experiences and the attitudes of young Russians.

Mass Politics in Tough Times, 2014

Routledge eBooks, Sep 25, 2014

Introduction: comparing regional and ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet transition States, James Hug... more Introduction: comparing regional and ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet transition States, James Hughes and Gwendolyn Sasse managing secession potential in the Russian Federation, James Hughes the "New" Ukraine - a State of regions, Gwendolyn Sasse regionalism in Moldova - the case of Transnistria and Gagauzia, Steven Roperv multinationality, regions and state-building - the failed transition in Georgia, Monica Duffy Toft the irony of Nagorno-Karabakh, Razmik Panosian patterns of centre-regional relations in Central Asia - the cases of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan, Neil J. Melvin the OSCE and regional conflicts in the former Soviet Union, Natalie Mychajlyszyn conflict and accommodation in the former Soviet Union - the role of institutions and regimes, James Hughes and Gwendolyn Sasse.

Der Krieg gegen die Ukraine

Aufgabe des Konsortiums ist es, die Kooperation zwischen den Länder-Analysen zu koordinieren und ... more Aufgabe des Konsortiums ist es, die Kooperation zwischen den Länder-Analysen zu koordinieren und zu stärken. Zugleich soll so die Herausgabe der Länder-Analysen institutionell, finanziell und personell auf eine nach haltige Grundlage gestellt werden. Die Verantwortung für die Ukraine-Analysen bleibt bei der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universität Bremen. Zu unserem großen Bedauern beendet allerdings Dr. Katerina Bosko ihre Tätigkeit als wissenschaftliche Redakteurin. Die Ukraine-Analysen sind ihr für ihren langjährigen kompetenten und engagierten Einsatz mehr als dankbar! In einer Übergangsphase werden ab Februar Katharina Hinz und Heiko Pleines die Redaktion der Ukraine-Analysen übernehmen. Unterstützt werden die Ukraine-Analysen seit Jahresbeginn durch einen wissenschaftlichen Beirat bestehend aus:

Social Sciences Division, 1970

Europe-Asia Studies, 2020

Based on original survey data, this essay analyses the political attitudes of individuals displac... more Based on original survey data, this essay analyses the political attitudes of individuals displaced by the war in eastern Ukraine. We systematically compare attitudinal differences and similarities along three axes: the displaced relative to the resident population; the displaced in Ukraine relative to the displaced in Russia; and the displaced from the (non-)government-controlled areas relative to the resident population in the (non-)government-controlled areas of Donbas. This fine-grained comparative analysis highlights the variety of attitudes held by the displaced, similarities in attitudes across displacement locations, and the effect of war casualties on attitudes and self-declared political interest. WAR AND DISPLACEMENT FUNDAMENTALLY DISRUPT PEOPLE'S everyday lives. These disruptions are likely to shape attitudes and behaviour, but social scientists tend to lack the data to study the attitudes of those who are most directly affected by war. Beyond a focus on the needs, health and rights of the displaced, or their views on issues directly related to the war-for example, their self-reported identities and perspectives on inter-group relations or proposals for peace-we lack a good understanding of the views of these individuals on a wider range of political issues. What do people experiencing war and displacement think of democracy or the direction their country is headed in, and how interested are they in politics in general? Including these issues in the discussion prevents us from reducing the people exposed to war and displacement to these experiences. Painting a fuller picture of their attitudes also provides us with an insight into some of the more long-term political challenges linked to war and displacement.

Europeanization and Regionalization in the EU’s Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, 2005

Despite the importance of conditionality during the current EU enlargement, there are few theoret... more Despite the importance of conditionality during the current EU enlargement, there are few theoretical or empirical studies of the concept. The study of EU enlargement conditionality is characterized by a concentration on the analysis of its correlation with macro-level democratization and marketization, rather than empirically tracking clear causal relationships in policies and institution-building. Most studies tend to focus on two cumulative levels of conditionality. Firstly, they attach great salience to the broad ‘principled’ or normative conditionality established by the Copenhagen European Council in December 1993, the so-called ‘Copenhagen criteria’, which was subsequently elaborated in the Accession Partnerships for individual candidate countries from 1997. Secondly, they emphasize the ‘technical’ preconditions for the CEECs to accelerate the adoption of and adaptation to the acquis in order to fulfil all the responsibilities of membership. The speedy adoption of the acquis was the benchmark for measuring CEEC progress on accession — a condition that only Austria, Finland and Sweden, all advanced industrial countries, had previously met prior to membership. There is a wide spectrum of opinions as to whether EU conditionality has had positive or negative effects on the CEECs.

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2002

Ukraine&#x27;s post‐Soviet state‐building has been characterized by two simultaneous, yet... more Ukraine&#x27;s post‐Soviet state‐building has been characterized by two simultaneous, yet contradictory trends: the strengthening of the political institutions of the central state and a process of selective autonomization in Crimea. The Crimean issue with its different ethnic, historical, regional and international dimensions posed a considerable challenge to the ‘new’ Ukraine. Ethno‐regional conflict was widely expected to erupt in Crimea during

Nationalities papers, Jul 1, 2023

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Mar 1, 1996

Nations and Nationalism, Aug 11, 2011

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Apr 6, 2005

Routledge eBooks, Sep 25, 2014

How deep is the wider Europ

Europe-Asia Studies

Mass Politics in Tough Times, 2014

Routledge eBooks, Sep 25, 2014

Der Krieg gegen die Ukraine

Social Sciences Division, 1970

Europe-Asia Studies, 2020

Europeanization and Regionalization in the EU’s Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, 2005

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2002

Europe-Asia-Studies, 2020

Ideology and Politics, 2019

In spite of development of international and global institutions, the modern state remains a powe... more In spite of development of international and global institutions, the modern state remains a powerful construct as the legitimate means of political organization and the exclusive location of political authority. Contemporary states went through a long process of institutionalization marked by the milestones like the Westphalian peace, age of the world imperial system, The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, decolonization, Helsinki treaty, and globalization. Despite this long history, the modern state system does not fully deliver on its promise of order and security, and often leads to contestation of territorial integrity and alternative claims to sovereignty. Such claims occur within existing recognized states from groups which feel themselves excluded and prefer to aspire to their own statehood and international status. By implication, competing claims to statehood can turn into seemingly 'frozen conflicts', as local authorities embark upon their state-building projects in the absence of international recognition, while still participating in peace talks. Contemporary Europe has evolved into a complex and contradictory set of states within an international order at risk. In the last three decades, the political geography of the European continent has been shaped by two simultaneous, yet contradictory processes. On the one hand, West European countries have undergone a deep, peaceful and comprehensive integration, which has resulted in the creation of a political centre in the form of the European Union (EU) and a more balanced redistribution of power between the Union and national and local governments. (As Brexit, Scotland's referendum attempts, and/or Catalonian separatism show, EU did not solve all center-periphery issues, however it created legal and political frameworks for peaceful resolution of any secession attempt). On the other hand, Eastern European countries have witnessed the disintegration of complex state and regional unions, such as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In the former Eastern Bloc, the collapse of the old political institutions has

Ideology and Politics, 2019

This paper contributes to the study of the effects of war on societies and states. Tilly's famous... more This paper contributes to the study of the effects of war on societies and states. Tilly's famous dictum about the close link between war-making and state-making refers to the effects of war on central state capacity and the monopoly over violence. However, wars also shape the attitudes and identities of people experiencing challenges to the territorial integrity of their state. Based on original survey data from 2017-18, this paper traces these dynamics amidst the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine. It identifies a significant shift towards a civic identity centered on the Ukrainian polity in this time period. Thus, contrary to the official state rhetoric presenting an increasingly narrow ethno-linguistic definition of the Ukrainian nation-state at the time, Ukrainian society put forward a more inclusive state identity from below. This discrepancy between society and the governing elites was reflected in the 2019 presidential elections.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2019

This article explores how ‘ordinary’ German migrants in the United States reflected upon their lo... more This article explores how ‘ordinary’ German migrants in the United
States reflected upon their local integration and transnational
belonging with reference to their language practice in the period
1820–1970. The analysis is based on approximately 8,000 letters
sent by around 700 German-speaking migrants who wrote, over
varying time periods, to family members and friends still living in
their places of origin. These letters provide insights into the
migrants’ transnational communication networks over an
extended time and from across the United States. Until the
emergence of a fully centralised bureaucracy during the interwar
period, most legislation affecting the living conditions of migrants
varied significantly between US states. This raises the question
whether the practices and narratives of belonging captured in the
personal letters vary accordingly across locations, especially with
regard to the balance between local and transnational belonging.
Tracing this variation in sub-national destination characteristics,
we argue that feelings of transnational belonging are not directly
responsive to shifts in political conditions and resulting policies
but rather pragmatic adaptations tailored to a particular local
context. The maintenance of the German language or German
community ties expressed in the letters also conveys an everyday
practice of resistance or adaptation to local language policies in
the US and remits concrete ideas about what it means to uphold
a German identity.

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2018

This article offers the first large-scale analysis of the interlinked dynamics of integration and... more This article offers the first large-scale analysis of the interlinked dynamics of integration and belonging based on perceptions of “ordinary” German-speaking migrants in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Our analysis draws on a corpus of over a thousand letters from the North American Letter Collection held at the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha in Germany. Through computer-assisted text analysis, framed by research on transnationalism and immigrant integration, we explore patterns in integration and identities over time. We show how the migrants continuously redefine their identities vis-à-vis their homeland and the host society, and their letters thereby shape the image of the United States and the homeland for their recipients. Our analysis establishes more comprehensively than have previous historical and social science studies that integration into a host society is a non-linear process. Immigrant identities are influenced less by the time they have spent in the receiving country than by critical political events that affect both the country of origin and that of destination. Such events can reactivate migrant’s identifications with their homeland. Immigrant networks filter this dual process in that they can facilitate migrants’ integration while also reminding them of people and places left behind.

Migration Studies, 2018

Analyzing the long-term dynamics of migrant integration is a significant challenge for researcher... more Analyzing the long-term dynamics of migrant integration is a significant challenge for researchers. This paper traces how ‘ordinary’ German-speaking migrants in the USA expressed their sense of participation and belonging throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries in the letters they wrote to their families ‘back home.’ We study a large collection of migrant letters written by German-speaking immigrants in the USA between 1830 and 1970 and analyze this new data with methods of computerized text analysis. The investigation shows how migrants continuously make and re-make identities within and across their heterogeneous migrant ‘groups.’ Our paper highlights the strong incentives for social and cultural integration in the absence of restrictive host state policies. We also show that political events and crises affecting both the country of origin and the destination country act as a catalyst in redefining, at least temporarily, parts of the migrant identities in relation to both the sending and host states.

The study of identities struggles to capture the moments and dynamics of identity change. A crisi... more The study of identities struggles to capture the moments and dynamics of identity change. A crisis moment provides a rare insight into such processes. This paper traces the political identities of the inhabitants of a region at war -the Donbas -on the basis of original survey data that cover the four parts of the population that once made up this region: the population of the Kyivcontrolled Donbas, the population of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic, " the internally displaced, and those who fled to the Russian Federation. The survey data map the parallel processes of a self-reported polarization of identities and the preservation or strengthening of civic identities. Language categories matter for current self-identification, but they are not cast in narrow ethnolinguistic terms, and feeling "more Ukrainian" and Ukrainian citizenship include mono-and bilingual conceptions of native language (i.e. Ukrainian and Russian).

Zeitschrift für vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 2018

Basierend auf einer Sammlung von 1000 Briefen deutscher Auswanderer in den USA analysiert dieser ... more Basierend auf einer Sammlung von 1000 Briefen deutscher Auswanderer in den USA analysiert dieser Aufsatz die Entwicklung und Bedeutung transatlantischer und deutsch-amerikanischer migrantischer Netzwerke über einen Zeitraum von 150 Jahren. Wir unterscheiden zwischen „starken“ und „schwachen“ Beziehungen, die diesen Netzwerken zugrunde liegen, und untersuchen die politischen Faktoren, die die verschiedenen Formen von Netzwerken prägen. Unsere Studie konzentriert sich auf die Schnittstellen zwischen den transatlantischen und deutsch-amerikanischen migrantischen Netzwerken. Sie kontrastiert dabei Elemente des 19. Jahrhunderts, ein Zeitalter dichter migrantischer Netzwerke, die sich weitestgehend ohne staatliche Einwirkung entfalteten, mit der schrittweisen Auflösung und geringeren Verbindlichkeit deutsch-amerikanischer und transatlantischer Netzwerke im 20. Jahrhundert. Die Bandbreite der bisher nur punktuell erforschten Auswandererbriefe veranschaulicht sowohl die Diversität von Integrationserfahrungen als auch die Gleichzeitigkeit von kultureller Anbindung ans Heimatland und wirtschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Integration in den USA über einen langen Zeitraum hinweg.

ZOiS Report, 2017

-The attitudes of the population of the DNR / LNR are more differentiated than might be expected,... more -The attitudes of the population of the DNR / LNR are more differentiated than might be expected, thereby defying the notion of a region set in its views and 'lost' by Kyiv.

ZOiS Report, 2018

Russian youth remains a group that is not sufficiently understood in current analyses of Russian ... more Russian youth remains a group that is not sufficiently understood in current analyses of Russian politics and society. It is a part of society that has been very visible in recent political protests across the country, but there is also evidence that the younger generation is either disengaged from politics, or conservative and loyal to President Putin. The ZOiS survey among youth across fifteen regional capitals in the Russian Federation (April 2018) provides insights into these seemingly contradictory trends.

ZOiS Report, 2024

While estimates vary, Russia’s full-scale of invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted approx... more While estimates vary, Russia’s full-scale of invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted approximately 800,000 to 900,000 Russian citizens to leave their country. Two distinct waves of migration from Russia have been identified: the first in the spring and summer of 2022, the second after the announcement of a partial mobilisation in September 2022. A significant number of Russian migrants have since returned to Russia, and it is estimated that 650,000 remain abroad. This report focuses on five of the most important destination countries for new Russian migration: Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. We conducted face-to-face interviews with around 4,300 Russian citizens across the five countries in the summer of 2023. The aim was to get a clearer sense of their political attitudes and determine whether different countries were popular with particular categories of migrants. For each of the five countries, we can demonstrate a correlation between the migrants’ socio-demographic profile and their political views, in particular their position on Russia’s war against Ukraine. These are our main findings:

Migrants who left Russia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 represent a highly heterogeneous group within and across the host countries. They differ strongly in their views on Russian politics and Russia’s war against Ukraine and in their political behaviour and social values. Given this diversity, it seems unlikely that the migrants will unite around a new overarching idea of Russians abroad. A shared sense of identity may, however, emerge linked to specific locations and experiences.

Different countries seem to attract specific socio-economic segments, with marked differences in the migrants’ age, level of education, employment sector, and previous place of residence in Russia. Our samples in Armenia and Georgia pick up a younger, highly educated, urban segment with a large number of employees from the IT sector. The samples in Kyrgyzstan and Turkey are much more diverse, and the sample in Kazakhstan includes migrants with lower levels of education and a large share of people working in the construction and trade sectors.

Across the five countries, the new Russian migrants cannot be thought of as an opposition-in-exile in the making. Armenia and Georgia emerge as the countries in our sample where a significant share of Russian migrants reports oppositional views and previous experience of political mobilisation in Russia. However, the societal and political context in Georgia, where Russians are viewed with suspicion, limits their scope for local or transnational political action. For the time being, this atmosphere seems to be having a demobilising effect. By contrast, Armenia currently appears to be a more conducive setting for political actions directed at Russia.

Sizeable shares of the migrant population in Turkey and Kazakhstan are broadly aligned with the political ideas propagated by the Kremlin, whereas the data from Kyrgyzstan suggest significant diversity and the potential for criticism of Russian politics. – Russian migrants are a key target of the Kremlin’s propaganda and many are still immersed in the Russian media environment. Under these circumstances it would be wise to invest more in alternative Russian-language media and support efforts to forge connections between migrants in different countries.