@snitsova
British Academy International Fellow, Politics Department, University of Manchester | Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis | UNC PhD | political economy, oligarchs, political connections, political networks, Ukraine, Eurasia | snitsova.com
With APSA decisions out, we extended the deadline for submissions to the 4th Political Economy of Europe APSA Pre-Conference. If you are travelling to Boston in September, send us your work by March 20th!
(CC @mariacarreri.bsky.social @awiedemann.bsky.social @gemmadipoppa.bsky.social)
📌Finding 3: Loyalists also oppose such reforms more consistently than legislators incorporated into oligarchic networks through alternative influence strategies, such as post-election cooptation through media.
📌Finding 2: Legislators embedded in oligarchic networks through pre-existing personal ties (loyalists) are more likely than non-loyalists to vote against reform bills that create a level-playing field for all market actors, consistent with oligarchs’ economic interests.
The networks of pre-existing ties between oligarchs and legislators are structurally distinctive from other networks, including networks representing alternative oligarchic influence strategies like post-election cooptation through media.
📌Finding 1: Oligarchs promote as legislators individuals with whom they have pre-existing personal ties.
These ties take the form of a fragmented, loosely connected, and decentralized network with distinct clusters, in which oligarchs take central positions.
🚨New version of paper🚨
osf.io/preprints/os...
How do oligarchs shape policy outcomes in developing democracies?
I argue they do so through informal networks of legislators personally linked to them.
Using unique quantitative & qualitative evidence from Ukraine, I show that:
🚨📆 Deadline extension!📆 🚨
If you're interested in presenting your work (at any stage!) submit @ the link below by Fri March 13 at 11:59 PM PST.
A big thanks to those who submitted proposals already-- we look forward to reading your submissions & to another great set of workshops✨
*Academics of Bluesky:* Do you know a great UG/PG student with excellent quants skills?
@nspmartin.bsky.social and I are advertising a great fully-funded PhD on MRP and minority voting with our friends at Ipsos, so send them our way! ✌️
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Details and application form available here: sites.google.com/view/confpol...
📣 Paper and poster submissions for the 19th Political Networks Conference are now open! If you do research on political networks, fancy making connections with scholars from North America, Europe, and the UK and want to enjoy a beautiful city in August w/o evaporating from heat, consider applying!
This will be the 3rd edition. If you study pol. behaviour and work on #CEE, this is the right place to present your research. Dates: June 25-26. Discussants include @simonhix.bsky.social & @eliasdinas.bsky.social. Highlight: roundtable on dem. erosion with H. Kriesi, M. Svolik & N. Wunsch.
🇺🇦🦊 For the record, my amazing shiba inu work buddy is an ardent Ukraine supporter as well!
🇺🇦📈🎤 @oonuch.bsky.social is giving a special UoM Politics Pankhurst Series Lecture “Four Years of Russia’s War of Aggression Against Ukraine: Democratic Resistance and Resilience (?) in Wartime Ukraine (What does the data actually say?)” tomorrow.
🇺🇦📈 One of our PhD students, Cressida Arkwright, is presenting her work on youth understandings of the state, citizenship, and participation in contemporary Ukraine at UoM Politics Democracy & Elections Seminar tomorow.
🇺🇦🥐 The UoM Ukrainian Student Society is holding a bake sale fundraiser today.
Ukraine is central to many events at @manchester.ac.uk this week.
🇺🇦📈 I am especially glad I got the chance to present my research on oligarchic networks in Ukraine at UoM Social Statistics Research Seminar today. Special thanks to @leifeld.bsky.social for the invite.
Four years of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Standing with Ukrainians. Supporting them in their fight for freedom and just peace. Bringing Ukraine to rooms and places that matter, big and small. That’s the least we can do.
The APSA Political Networks Section is now accepting nominations for its 2026 section awards, including the John Sprague Award, Best Conference Paper Award, and Political Ties Award!
Nominations (including self-nominations) are due April 4, 2026.
Submit here: forms.gle/cDC8Z3pdS6bm...
This is a fantastic workshop. Apply!
Tom Hardy would be a great pick for Andriy Yermak if there were a movie with his character in it.
Applications for the 2027 Rotary Peace Fellowships are now open. They offer so much, including the opportunity to obtain a Master’s degree or a professional certificate from a world-class university, to outstanding candidates from around the world working in the field of peace & conflict resolution.
Use these in my own research and cannot underscore their utility strongly enough.
Timely and interesting papers.
Canadian PM Carney’s speech at Davos is the world leader speech that has impacted me the most since Ukrainian President Zelensky’s address hours before Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion. Worth your time. Worth giving it thought.
Glad to see UoM making such a move. “65,000 colleagues and students will receive full Microsoft 365 Copilot access and training, making Manchester the world’s first university to deploy equitable access across its entire community”
Title + abstract of the preprint
Excited to present a new preprint with @nkgarg.bsky.social: presenting usage statistics and observational findings from Paper Skygest in the first six months of deployment! 🎉📜
arxiv.org/abs/2601.04253
As a BA International Fellow, I cannot recommend this opportunity strongly enough. Apply!
Genuinely surprised by how many UK and European university department websites make it difficult to find basic information about their research staff.
New preprint is out!
Focusing on Russia, this paper asks what happens when disinformation awareness itself becomes a tool of authoritarian rule. We often assume that learning about disinformation increases resistance to propaganda. But what if the regime weaponises it? 1/7