In this episode, our host Joshua Coe speaks with journalist Mark Temnycky, who wrote for New Eastern Europe about the recent re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Nicknamed “Europe’s last dictator”, Lukashenko won another term in office last month with a proclaimed 87% of the vote. But election observers say there has not been a free and fair election in the country since he came to power in 1994.

Temnycky tells us about Lukashenko, his close ties to Russia, and the Belarusian opposition — both inside and outside the country.

Read “Thirty years of Lukashenka” and “The 2025 Belarusian presidential election” by Mark Temnycky, published by New Eastern Europe.

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on X.

In this episode, our host Joshua Coe speaks with journalist Isabelle de Pommereau about her story "Humanitarian Warriors" written for Transitions magazine. In Kosovo, De Pommereau met Ukrainian women learning to clear the mines and unexploded ordnance littered across their country amid its ongoing war with Russia.

More recently, De Pommereau was in Ukraine for the week of Donald Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. While the newly sworn in president promised a swift end to Russia's war with Ukraine, the fighting has only intensified in recent weeks. Whether or not the end of the conflict is in sight, the task of cleaning up the remnants of war is ongoing. The removal of unexploded ordnance is one such effort. Across Ukraine, the removal of unexploded shells, missiles and mines is underway and expected to take years.

Read "Humanitarian Warriors" by Isabelle de Pommereau on Transitions.

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In this episode, our host Joshua Coe speaks with Szabolcs Panyi, an investigative journalist with Direkt36 and VSquare, about his recent cross-border investigation shedding light on how Hungary reportedly surveilled EU anti-fraud investigators probing the company of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law.

His findings indicate that Hungary’s foreign intelligence services even created an entire department to spy on EU institutions.

https://x.com/direkt36/status/1865028521816658259

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

In this episode we're looking into the biggest topic of the past month, the president-elect of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Central and Eastern Europe have been a major focus of the current US administration, following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Trump has repeatedly said that he could quickly end this war. The region is also home to key US allies at Russia's doorstep, like Poland, a fellow member of NATO.

To understand what the region is saying about the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Host Joshua Coe speaks to two journalists, UkraineWorld’s deputy editor-in-chief, Anastasiia Herasymchuk and Notes from Poland’s editor-in-chief, Daniel Tilles.

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

In this episode, Agnieszka Wądołowska, deputy editor-in-chief at Notes from Poland, speaks with the outlet's senior editor, Alicja Ptak, about her newly published report on how Poland's position as Europe's leading producer of lithium-ion batteries is being threatened by proposed new EU emissions rules.

In this episode, Anastasiia Herasymchuk, deputy editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, interviews Jakub Kalensky, deputy director of the hybrid influence team at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.

They discuss how the Russian propaganda machine has attempted to influence recent regional and global events, such as elections to the European Parliament and the Ukraine Peace Summit.

They also speak about the strategic narratives employed by Russian propaganda, the tools used to make these narratives effective, and the dangers posed by this powerful Kremlin weapon.

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers.

In this episode of the VoiCEE podcast, Nicholas Watson, editor of Reporting Democracy, part of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, discusses BIRN’s latest “Trends Report” with Claudia Ciobanu, BIRN’s Warsaw correspondent; Edit Inotai, its Budapest correspondent; Jules Eisenchteter, its Prague correspondent; and Gyula Csak, its editor for investigative international projects.

Titled Life in the Time of "Polycrisis", this year’s report looks at the interplay of various crises, such as the climate emergency, migration, global economic turmoil, conflict in Europe and the Middle East and the lingering effects of the pandemic. It identifies and examines five trends in the region that BIRN believes will play out during the rest of this year:

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

In this episode, Transitions' editor-in-chief Jeremy Druker interviews Ondřej Kundra, a leading Czech investigative journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of Respekt, about his latest reporting on Belarus, the Czech Republic's special relationship with the country, and whether Central European countries should be doing more to help those facing repression.

They also speak about Kundra's interview with Belarusian president in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, which highlighted the disappearance of her husband in the country's prison system, as well as other political prisoners.

In this podcast series, we look at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.

To not miss any news and insight from our network, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter.

In this episode, Kafkadesk contributor Adrien Beauduin interviews political scientist Jiří Koubek of Charles University in Prague about the roots of nationwide social discontent in the Czech Republic.

They also speak about the successes and failures of the government; the reasons for the high popularity of ANO, the party of the former prime minister and billionaire Andrej Babiš; and the prospects for the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2025.

Midway into the Czech Republic's five-party government's mandate, things are not looking bright for the prime minister, Petr Fiala, with record-breaking distrust among the population.

After a series of crises in the first two years in office - the war in Ukraine, the influx of refugees, the energy crisis, and soaring inflation - the current ruling parties have plummeted to an all-time low in opinion polls, while the former prime minister and his ANO party are back on top.

Our experts analyse the situation and attempt to determine if there will be a return of the populists in the Czech Republic, or if there is a chance for the government to regain citizens' confidence.

In this episode, Adam Reichardt, Giorgi Beroshvili and Soso Chachanidze of New Eastern Europe magazine discuss the European Commission's recent recommendation to officially grant EU membership candidate status to Georgia as well as the EU's latest recommendations for the country.

They assess the chances of Georgia catching up with countries like Moldova and Ukraine - which are already at the stage of the EU accession negotiations - and look back at a year of rough relations between Tbilisi and Brussels as well as Georgia's ties with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

For more on Georgia's EU candidacy, see New Eastern Europe's latest analysis here.

In this podcast series, we are looking at the region from different angles and perspectives, attempting to capture its diversity and understand emerging trends. Above all, we want to give a voice to a region that is often talked to rather than listened to.

The VoiCEE is brought to you by a network of independent English-language media in Central and Eastern Europe: Reporting Democracy, VSquare, New Eastern Europe, Notes from Poland, Kafkadesk, Insight Hungary, Internews Ukraine, Transitions, Ukraine World.