Podcast De Facto with researcher Zachary Kramer

What is political economy?  Are post-soviet countries dependent on Russia? And can Ukraine fully reorient itself to Europe without economic losses?

New episode of podcast De Facto - this time with Zachary Kramer, a PhD candidate in International Relations at Charles University's Faculty of Social Sciences, whose general research interest is the political economy of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.

"Generally speaking, independence has not been as kind to countries in the former Soviet Union as to countries in central Europe like the Czech Republic or Slovakia. We have not seen the consolidation of strong democracy in many of these countries, we have not seen robust economic growth, we see a kind of continued sphere of influence from Russia in many or even most of these countries that most of the people from the west feel uncomfortable with to say at least. And this is not simply due to some fundamental essential difference, some inherent backwardness in this region.I think it is due to this combination of political and economic factors that interact with each other that are inherited from the Soviet legacy and they continue to shape and limit this region," says Zach Kramer. 

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De Facto is a podcast of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. It is about the real world of scientists and graduates of social sciences. Teachers, researchers and graduates talk engagingly about their daily lives, work and experiences.

This episode´s interview is done by Philip Katz, a third year doctoral student at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism.