Elzbieta Korolzcuk will speak on gender aspect of the crisis associated with the Covid19 pandemic and how it deepens social inequalities of all kinds, affecting women, as well as other disadvantaged groups. There are attempts to exploit the pandemic for short-term political goals directly targeting women's rights: examples include attempts to put a blanket ban on abortion in Poland and restricting the right to abortion in the U.S. under the pretense that it is "unessential medical procedure". This presentation will focus on how conservative right uses pandemic as political opportunity and how these efforts can be opposed.

Ondrej Slačálek will talk about the causes, success and specifics of Czech populism. His talk will briefly discuss the similarities to and differences from other Central European populisms, above all the absence of a nationalist conservative program and the technocratic and Protean character of this populism. He will also discuss the role of oligarchic capital in Czech politics and its populist transformation. His talk will focus on the possibilities provided by the Covid-19 pandemic to the Czech government, composed of populists and social democrats, and what strategies have been thus far employed.

Ilja Viktorov will speak about political and economic consequences of Covid19 in Russia. The actual implementation of lockdown called in Russia as a “regime of self-isolation” will be discussed, alongside with economic effects the lockdown entailed and increased political struggle between informal power networks in Russian politics. The differences between Russian regions and how these handle the crisis will also be considered.

Tora Lane, Research Associate, CBEES, Södertörn University