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‘Who will guard the guardians?’ Whether it is contact tracing to limit Covid transmission or facial recognition to identify protestors, governments around the world are increasingly using new surveillance technologies. Law professor Frédéric Bernard at the University of Geneva explains how digital surveillance is incompatible with democracy.

Moscow rally 24 December 2011, Sakharov Avenue (Credit: Bogomolov.PL/Wikipedia Creative Commons)

'Russia's opposition needs to put aside their quarrels and unite against the war'. History is repeating itself. Whenever there is an opportunity for Russia's opposition groups to unite to bring about change in the country, these efforts end in disunity – a flaw which contributed to today's war, writes former Novaya Gazeta journalist Ivan Zhilin, citing examples from recent political events. “The Russian opposition, alas, instead of rallying all its supporters under anti-war slogans, instead of brushing aside differences in the face of war, has engaged in writing each other off as enemies.”

Ukraine Stories #Week11: Siberian encounters, cyber victories, and grocery shopping in Kyiv. Kozacha Lopan, an urban commune in the Kharkiv region, and Tsupivka village nearby became one of the first “victories” of the Russian invasion in that area and has been occupied almost since the beginning of the war. In recent days, the situation has begun to change in the northern suburbs of Kharkiv: some villages are now in the neutral zone after being temporarily abandoned by Russians, while several others have come back under the control of the Armed Forces. Local journalist Stanislav Kybalnyk reports, alongside other stories brought to you from Ukraine and Russia in the second week of our blog.

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