“Over 50% of the GDP of Tajikistan and 31% of Kyrgyzstan’s comes from remittances, wages earned abroad that are sent back to a worker’s home country. Nearly half of Tajikistan’s able-bodied labor force is employed abroad, mainly in Russia. One third of the legal immigrants to Russia are from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan alone. Given such numbers, O’Brien asserted, it is in many ways impossible to speak of contemporary cultural, economic, or political issues in Central Asia without addressing the migration issue.”

As a National Resource Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, the Ellison Center offers master teacher workshops for local community educators. In cooperation with the Center for West European Studies, the Ellison Center was pleased to host a two part workshop for social studies teachers at the Jackson School on “Europe’s Transformative 20th Century: From a Continent of War and Division to a Continent of Peace.”

On Thursday, April 10, 2014, the Ellison Center produced a panel discussion on Ukraine and Russia in light of events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. In case you missed the event, or if you want to refer back to some of the points, the individual panelists’ discussions are below.  

By Indra Ekmanis As a panel of scholars analyzed Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests Tuesday night at UW, 5,000 miles away in Kyiv, events turned deadly. At least two protestors were killed by gunshots as pro-European/anti-government forces clashed with riot police. These are the first reported fatalities of Euromaidan. The protests began Nov. 21, 2013, when Ukrainian

A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest erupted in Ukraine in November 2013 when the Ukrainian government suddenly suspended preparations for signing an Association Agreement with the European Union. The protest quickly transformed into a social movement called “Euromaidan” calling for stronger democratic institutions, rule of law and independence from Russian dominance. Crowds have reached

by Volodymyr Lysenko Nine years ago, when the pro-democratic Orange Revolution in Ukraine was victorious, Ukrainians had high hopes for positive change in all areas of their lives and brighter futures for their children. But, unfortunately, the new leaders of the country were unable to effectively coordinate their liberal efforts and failed to fulfill the

By Scott Radnitz Welcome to the launch of the new Ellison Center blog for the REECAS community. We hope this new addition to our online presence will contribute to increased engagement, discussion and awareness of our rich community. Our return to campus this fall comes after a summer in which our region dominated the headlines,