COVID-19

Amid Russia\'s growing military build-up along Ukraine\'s borders, the Slovak pro-Kremlin media are increasingly turning to aggressive rhetoric directed against NATO and Ukraine.

‘To serve or to rule?’ – this is a dilemma we face as we reflect on the fundamental principles of “the scope of powers [of the state] shall be limited by the Constitution” and “state institutions shall serve the people” on the occasion of the Constitution Day.

Disinformation narratives concerning the energy crisis took a back seat; the go-to topics for disinformation actors over the past two weeks were NATO and Russia, Polexit, “traditional values”, and the ever-present COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has brought the peacefully sleeping world back from its slumber, disrupting its long-term welfare plans and forcing it to look for answers to a multitude of uncomfortable questions. COVID-19 reminded our civilization of mortality of a man.

Throughout the last year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed weaknesses in healthcare, education, digitalization, and data collection, just to name a few. The shortages of essential goods experienced by many countries during the pandemic has inspired some to turn inwards.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the strength and fragility of international trade links. Like other countries, Ukraine has appeared at the crossroad of two trends. On the one hand, in response to panic, Ukraine had imposed several protective measures.

The COVID-19 outbreak caused a global public health crisis, but unfortunately, its impacts go far beyond the health dimension. Since the beginning of the crisis, disinformation actors have played a key role in spreading disinformation and hoaxes.

The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by unprecedented state interventions – from restrictions on basic individual freedoms to significant increases in public spending, among others, to compensate companies for the effects of the shutdown.

As the world remembers the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, conspiracy theories about what \"really\" happened are resurfacing and continue to roam the Internet twenty years after the event, although most have been disproven and none confirmed by experts.

“More free market or more government? How to strengthen post-pandemic recovery?”. It was the title of a panel hosted by the FOR during the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland, the largest conference of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. The panel was supported by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Agata Stremecka, President of FOR, moderated the discussion.