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Emily Couch

I am a freelance writer specialising in Eastern Europe and Eurasia with bylines in publications such as Foreign Policy, The Moscow Times, and the Index on Censorship magazine. An alumnus of UCL’s School of Slavonic & East European Studies, I am an advocate for anti-racism and inclusion in the field and have spoken on the topic at multiple conferences and on podcasts. Based in Washington, D.C., I currently work in the field of civil society development and human rights. In addition to being a native English speaker, I also speak French, Russian, and Spanish.


Foreign Policy •

Migrants in Russia Are Terrified as Racism Grows After Deadly Attack

In the days since the March 22 terrorist attack on a concert at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, there has been a growing wave of threats, physical abuse, and harassment from law enforcement and ordinary citizens against Central Asian diasporas across Russia.

In the days since the March 22 terrorist attack on a concert at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, there has been a growing wave of threats, physical abuse, and harassment from law enforcement and ordinary citizens against Central Asian di
The Moscow Times •

Authors Oxana Shevel and Maria Popova Write the History of Ukraine-Russia Relations

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago, scholars and journalists have rushed to make their contribution to the growing number of titles seeking to shed light on this devastating conflict. “Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States” by Maria Popova, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University, and Oxana Shevel, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University, is the first study to attempt an analysis of both sid
The Moscow Times •

The Play 'My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion' Opens to Raves in Washington

The one-act play by Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion” opened in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11 at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. Directed by Yury Urnov and translated by Misha Kachman (who also served as set director), the largely autobiographical play is inspired by Denisova’s 82-year-old mother — Olga Ivanovna — who chose to remain in Kyiv after the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The play’s character of Sasha represents Denisova as both the narrato
The Moscow Times •

'Patriots' in London, or How Not to Put on a Play in Wartime

On the day I went to see “Patriots,” a play about the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a Russian missile struck the Chernihiv Drama Theater, killing seven and injuring 156 more. The attack could not help but inform my perception of “Patriots” that day, but on any day Russia’s war against Ukraine has been the elephant in the theater hall throughout its run. What does it mean to stage a play in the West about Russia when it is waging a genocidal war in Ukraine? The signs hanging from the marquee
Foreign Policy •

Ukraine’s Appeals to Europe Can Alienate Others

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian pleas for military aid, financial support, and eventual membership in the European Union and NATO have often used the language of Europe and of European civilization. In a June 2022 interview with the New York Times , Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized the importance of joining the EU and said he saw the EU as building a “liberal empire” in comparison to Putin’s Russia. In his address to the European Parliament
The Moscow Times •

Olga Onuch and Henry E. Hale Investigate 'The Zelensky Effect'

The authors’ central contention is that Zelensky “embodies civic Ukrainian national identity” and that it is his status as a “Ukrainian everyperson” that has allowed him to rally the country in its darkest of hours. Tracing Zelensky’s personal and political trajectory through the lens of key moments in modern Ukrainian history — from the student-led Revolution on Granite of 1990 to the Euromaidan of 2013-14 — the story told by Onuch and Hale is one of continuity. Through extensive discourse anal
The Moscow Times •

Serhii Plokhy Chronicles the Russo-Ukrainian War

Over a year into Russia’s grotesque full-scale invasion of Ukraine, disinformation and misconceptions of the conflict — fuelled both by the Kremlin and by political actors abroad — continue to permeate public debate. "The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History" by Serhii Plokhy takes aim at many of these myths, demonstrating how Russia’s centuries-long imperial obsession with Ukraine created the conditions for Europe’s largest land war since 1945.

In Chapter One, Plokhy lays out his central
The Moscow Times •

Author Ian Garner Paints a Disturbing Portrait of Russia's 'Generation Z'

Type “Is Russia fascist?” into a search engine and you will find no shortage of op-eds and articles seeking to enlighten you. RFE/RL, Al Jazeera, Politico, and The New York Times are just some of the major outlets that have published articles weighing up divided expert opinion on the issue. The title of “Z Generation: Into the Heart of Russia’s Fascist Youth” leaves us in no doubt on which side of the debate its author falls. In Chapter One, “God is With Our Boys,” historian and author Ian Garne

Ukraine's Media Battleground

In a time of war, all bets are off. Society exists in a protracted state of exception and political norms often seem to go out the window. Ukraine - now entering the twelfth month of its fight for survival against Russia - is no exception. Nonetheless, to borrow Clausewitz’s oft-quoted maxim, war - while apparently exceptional - is the continuation of politics by other means. If politics continues as bombs fall, so too must society’s attention to the democratic norms and respect for human rights that define its political system.
The Moscow Times •

‘The Horde’ Sheds New Light on the History of the Mongols – and Russia

Sometime in the early thirteenth century, a great king divided his vast kingdom among his four sons. That king’s name was Temüjin, but he went down in history is Chinggis (“Mighty”) Khan. Anyone who has seen or read “King Lear” might think this an inauspicious start to the story of a ruling house. But in “The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World,” French historian Marie Favereau takes readers on a journey spanning over three centuries, showing that Chinggis’s distribution of his territories
Foreign Policy •

Is the Ukraine War an Anti-Colonial Struggle?

In January, an eye-catching yurt providing free electricity, food, and tea appeared in Bucha, Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces discovered horrific Russian war crimes when they retook the town last April. It was the first of a set of “yurts of invincibility,” funded by private Kazakh companies and erected by members of the Kazakh diaspora, which are being touted as manifestations of postcolonial and anti-imperial solidarity between Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Initiatives supporting Ukrainians in the s
Foreign Policy •

Russia’s Minorities Don’t Want to Be Putin’s Foot Soldiers

On Sept. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “ partial mobilization ” to replenish the country’s faltering ranks in Ukraine. The order has brought the exploitation of Russia’s ethnic minorities into harrowing focus. Despite the lack of reliable statistical evidence , numerous reports on Twitter and Telegram from the country’s ethnic republics—so-called because they nominally represent Indigenous ethnic groups—such as Buryatia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Bashkortostan, paint a
Foreign Policy •

Why Russian Liberalism Has to Change

The Higher School of Economics (HSE) is one of Russia’s most prestigious universities. While a state-funded institution, it had been known since its founding in 1992 as an island of political liberalism in an increasingly authoritarian country. Since Feb. 24 and the invasion of Ukraine, it has been rapidly squandering this reputation. In March, HSE rector Nikita Anisimov signed an open letter alongside more than 300 fellow university leaders that argued universities should support the Russian st
The Moscow Times •

'Stalin’s Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow'

Anyone who has strolled along the banks of the Moscow River in the center of Russia’s capital will likely be familiar with the stolid and rather intimidating Soviet edifice sitting on the western tip of Bolotny island across a stretch of river from the Kremlin. This is the House on the Embankment — Dom na Naberezhnoi — one-time home, or rather fortress, of the Soviet elite. What is likely to be less familiar is the life of the man who created it: Boris Mikhailovich Iofan. It is his story that De
Sage Journals •

Beware the ‘civilisation’ battle - Emily Couch, 2022

WHEN RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western governments were quick to rally behind Kyiv and cast Russia as being definitively on the wrong side of history. This is all to be expected in a war where there is a clear aggressor and a clear victim. There is, however, a troubling strand to such rhetoric: the attribution of Russia’s aggression to its “Asian-ness”.

First, some examples. Canadian political analyst Michael MacKay tweeted in April: “Russia’s i
The Moscow Times •

'On The Edge: Life Along the Russia-China Border'

These are the Russia and China of international headlines. Both anti-Western, both powers (and problems) to be reckoned with. "On the Edge: Life Along the Russia-China Border" by Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey drills down beneath these surface-level representations, offering the first comprehensive analysis of how the lived experiences of the inhabitants of these peripheries intersect with the grand national and geopolitical visions emanating from the political centers of Moscow and Beijing.
Foreign Policy •

How Western Media Framed Kazakhstan’s Protests

Harrowing images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have shocked the public—but also raised tough questions about whose lives matter in the West. Critics have focused on the telling contrast in coverage between the welcome given to Ukrainian refugees and the cold shoulder given to those from countries like Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan as well as the lack of assistance provided to African and South Asian students trying to leave Ukraine. Before the Russian invasion, however, another country in Euras

We Walk a Very Thin Line When We Report on "Us" and "Them"

WHEN PROTESTERS FILLED the streets of Kazakhstan in January, I tweeted about the Western media’s failure to adequately engage local experts and accurately represent the complex dynamics of the unrest. The tweet envisaged a conversation between Western media and experts on the country, in which the former try to understand the events there but fail to because they can’t move beyond an assumption of the country as both “mysterious” and “exotic”.
Pushkin House •

‎Pushkin House Podcast: Emily Couch and Vijay Menon in conversation on

Frankie Shalom speaks to Emily Couch, who lived in Russia as an ethnically Chinese British student, and Vijay Menon, who travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway and wrote the book A Brown Man in Russia about his experiences. They discuss the trials and joys of travelling in Russia, and talk about their experiences of Russians’ reactions to their presence.

This episode was presented and recorded for Pushkin House by Frankie Shalom. The editor and series producer was Rafy Hay. Our thanks to Em
Wilson Center •

Kennan Cable No. 49: Engines of Change: The Politicization of the Private Sphere and the Rise of Women’s Political Activism in Russia

Nearly nine months have passed since thousands took to the streets to protest the exclusion of independent candidates from the Moscow City Duma elections.[1] During this summer of discontent, one particular face pervaded the media coverage: blonde, bespectacled, and ready to go on a hunger strike for the cause.[2] The face was that of Lyubov Sobol, the longest-serving aide of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Sobol’s voice was a rare exception in a political sphere dominated by men. Her prominen
Wilson Center •

Russia’s Chinese Dream in the Era of COVID-19

As the world scrambles to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, tectonic shifts are taking place in the global political landscape on both strategic and human levels. As the United States has failed to take center stage in handling a new global crisis, it is important for us to turn our attention to how its geopolitical rivals are responding. Russia and China are, of course, the vanguard of the anti-Western bloc, so does the pandemic herald a newly strengthened Sino-Russian partnership? The answer i
Wilson Center •

Why We Should Stop Portraying African Americans as Victims in the Soviet Propaganda Game

In recent years, the rather clumsy term “ has made a comeback in international political rhetoric. With U.S. political and moral authority in decline, the country’s disapproval of human rights violations in other states is regularly met with retorts about the violations happening in its own backyard. Whataboutism, however, has a long history that traces back to the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union traded barbs regarding the other’s crimes. The essence of this dynamic is neat
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