Online Talk on Eurasian Media – the collaborative initiative of TaRC and the Russian Media Lab (University of Helsinki) – returns in October with a special session: we will have not one speaker as usual, but a whopping four!
We will hear presentations from a recent special issue “Communicating the Environment from the Periphery: Actors, Practices, and Agency” in the journal Russian Politics (2026, no. 3).
Studying environmental communication in fossil fuel-dependent authoritarian contexts such as Russia, where political and institutional conditions significantly shape how environmental issues are articulated and circulated, is highly important. Addressing a gap in existing scholarship, the issue shifts attention away from mainstream channels such as mass media and toward a broader range of actors and channels involved in the production and dissemination of information about environmental and climate issues in contemporary Russia.
The collection advances understanding of how environmental knowledge is produced and disseminated in non-democratic settings. The multidisciplinary contributions examine environmental and climate communication from the perspectives of climate scientists, extractive industries, higher education institutions, civil society organizations, Indigenous communities, and film.
In this session, guest editors Olga Dovbysh from the University of Helsinki and Mika Perkiömäki from Tampere University will tell us about the special issue. Also, two contributors, Olga Ustyuzhantseva (University of Johannesburg, South Africa) and Eeva Kuikka (University of Turku), will join the talk to present their articles.
Olga Ustyuzhantseva’s research examines how ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reporting shapes environmental governance through specific forms of visibility: how sustainability is represented through metrics, targets, roadmaps and visual narratives of control while conflict, inequality, local dissent and uneven environmental harm remain marginal or absent.
Eeva Kuikka will present her article exploring the framework through which Russian indigenous and decolonial activists engage in environmental issues, the concerns they raise, and the audiences they seek to reach.
Speakers’ bios:
Mika Perkiömäki is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tampere University, Institute for Advanced Study. His work lies at the intersection of environmental humanities and climate social sciences, with a particular focus on Russian culture and media. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Idäntutkimus, the Finnish review of Russian and East European studies, and his latest publication is the Finnish-language edited volume on the intellectual history of Russia, Aatteiden Venäjä: Ideoiden ja aktivismin historiaa (ed. S. Turoma, V. Oittinen & M. Perkiömäki; Gaudeamus, 2026).
Olga Ustyuzhantseva is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg and Head of the TechFront/Digital Governance Programme at OLAM Africa Research Institute. Her research focuses on technology governance, sustainability, innovation and the political economy of development, with particular attention to Russia, India, South Africa and the wider Global South.
Eeva Kuikka is a postdoctoral researcher of Russian language and cultural studies specialized in Indigenous cultures and decolonial activism in the context of Russia. Currently, Kuikka works in the project Revealing Official and Alternative Gender Discourses: Women’s (Self) Representations in Russia’s Wars, 1914–2024 funded by the Kone Foundation where she explores the intersections of gender and ethnicity in contemporary Russian-language literature, art, and digital media.
Olga Dovbysh is a researcher at the Centre for Consumer Society Research of the University of Helsinki, and founder of Online Talks on Eurasian Media.
Event information:
This Online Talk will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 13 October 2026, 12.00–13.30 Finnish time. Discussion will be moderated by Dr Katja Lehtisaari (Tampere University).
Participation in the event requires registration. Please register via this link before Sunday 11 October 2026 at 23.59 Finnish time.