2020
Acknowledgements - Nations in Transit 2020
Donors
Nations in Transit 2020 was made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The positions of this publication do not represent the positions of USAID.
Research and Editorial Team
Zselyke Csaky is Research Director for Europe and Eurasia. Research analyst Mike Smeltzer and research associate Noah Buyon contributed to this report.
Authors
Albania: Gjergji Vurmo, Programme Director and Senior Researcher on governance and EU integration at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) in Tirana.
Armenia: Ani Mejlumyan, Investigative journalist and correspondent for OCCRP and Eurasianet.
Azerbaijan: Robert Denis, editor, translator, and contributor at Baku Research Institute.
Belarus: Artyom Shraibman, Belarusian political analyst, founder of a Sense Analytics consultancy.
Bosnia: Aleksandar Brezar is Southeast Europe/Western Balkans Network Lead for The Democratic Society, a UK/Brussels-based non-profit organisation working for greater participation and dialogue in democracy in Europe and elsewhere.
Bulgaria: Emilia Zankina, Associate Professor in Political Science and Provost of the American University in Bulgaria; and Boris Gurov researcher and assistant professor at the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
Croatia: Tena Prelec, Research Associate for South Eastern Europe at the LSEE European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Czech Republic: Vladimír Bartovic, director of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy.
Estonia: Liisa Talving, Research Fellow in Comparative Politics at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia
Hungary: Gábor Filippov, political scientist and historian currently enrolled as a PhD candidate in the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations of the Central European University.
Kazakhstan: Malika Tukmadiyeva, independent researcher with several years of work experience in the civil society and research sectors.
Kosovo: GLPS, Group for Legal and Political Studies, an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit public policy organization based in Pristina.
Latvia: Maija Spurina, Sociologist and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a former Research Fellow at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for international and Area Studies at Yale University.
Lithuania: Dr. Ieva Petronytė-Urbonavičienė, Assistant professor and Researcher at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science.
Macedonia: Jovan Bliznakovski, PhD Fellow at the University of Milan, Italy, and Associate Researcher in the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” (IDSCS) in Skopje, Macedonia.
Moldova: Victor Gotisan, Media and politics researcher focusing on such issues as public media, media ownership, digitalization, media funding, and media law.
Montenegro: Ana Nenezić, executive director of the think tank Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Montenegro. Vuk Maras, Executive Director of the Media Association of South-East Europe, based in Podgorica, Montenegro
Poland: Anna Wójcik, coordinator at the Wiktor Osiatyński Archive, a rule-of-law monitoring initiative, and is cofounder of an English-language resource on rule of law in Poland (ruleoflaw.pl). Miłosz Wiatrowski, PhD candidate in contemporary Polish history at Yale University and a researcher working at Polityka Insight.
Romania: Laura Ștefan, anticorruption expert, former director in the Romanian Ministry of Justice, and international expert on rule of law; and Sorin Ioniță, expert in public administration reform and development and an associate lecturer at Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj); and Septimius Pârvu, expert in good governance and electoral process; and Ana Otilia Nuțu, expert on energy and infrastructure, state-owned companies, regulators.
Russia: Nicholas Trickett, political risk and energy analyst focusing on post-Soviet political economy, institutions in transition economies, and the intersection of global markets and geopolitics and local and regional politics in Eurasia.
Serbia: Miloš Damnjanović, Political analyst, Belgrade, Serbia.
Slovakia: Peter Učeň, Political scientist and former democracy assistance worker, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Slovenia: Marko Lovec, Research Fellow at the Centre for International Relations in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana.
Tajikistan: Dr. Edward Lemon, Assistant Professor at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School in Washington, D.C.
Ukraine: Yulia Yesmukhanova, Deputy Chief of Party of Global Communities, an NGO that implements the USAID-funded DOBRE project in Ukraine.
The authors of the Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan reports have chosen to remain anonymous.
Advisers
Samuel Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King`s College London and a reader in Russian politics
Thomas de Waal, senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region
Otilia Dhand, managing director with Teneo Risk Advisory specializing in Central and Eastern Europe
Kristie D. Evenson, researcher focusing on the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Split
Noah Tucker, senior editor with Radio Ozodlik, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Uzbek service