As fighting across Ukraine escalates and the world reacts, how will the sanctions affect Russia and can we expect them to be effective? Maria Perrotta Berlin, Assistant Professor at Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), shares her insights and discusses the potential effects of sanctions against Russia.

On this year's International Women's Day we would like to draw attention to the women impacted by the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Evidence from other armed conflicts suggests that women are particularly vulnerable both at the site of the war and in displacement, and that gender-based violence heightens in conflict and post-conflict societies. With this in mind, the international community should pay particular attention to protection, support and well-being of affected women in this tragic time.

The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE Network) stands for peace, security and democracy and condemns Russia’s invasion of the independent and democratic nation of Ukraine and violation of international law.

Given the current situation, Swedish financial support to Russia has been put into question. This was recently discussed in the major Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, in an article in which Anders Olofsgård, Deputy Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), was interviewed among others.

In the latest episode of Ekonomibyrån "The stock market in times of crisis" Torbjörn Becker, Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), discusses the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. What are the potential economic consequences and what are the long-term effects?

In a recently published op-ed in Dagens Industri (in Swedish), Torbjörn Becker shares his insights on Russia's real threat from the West, which is economic and not military.

How much a country is talked about in the media can determine its place in the public debate. In this brief, SITE researchers Maiting Zhuang and Svante Strömberg study the amount of news coverage devoted to European countries in the Swedish press. They document a systematic difference between Western and Eastern Europe and explore underlying factors that could be important in explaining this East-West divide.

There are claims that development aid is ineffective and does not yield results. What does research say about the effects of development aid? SITE Deputy Director and researcher Anders Olofsgård provides his insights in the latest episode of "Biståndskvarten - Om forskning och fakta" by ForumCiV.

The Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the FREE Network invite academic contributions focusing on economic and social context of domestic violence. Both applied and theoretical contributions are welcome. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2022.

In recent years, there have been several high-profile leaks of documents related to the offshore financial industry, such as the Pandora Papers released last year. Some of the data contained in the leaked documents have now been made public. In this brief, SITE researchers Jonathan Lehne and Maiting Zhuang discuss the advantages and pitfalls of using these data for economic analysis. They show that despite some caveats, there are patterns in these data that can shed light on a secretive industry.