News at SITE

Authoritarian elections are often described as largely symbolic exercises: the outcome feels decided, yet leaders still spend huge effort staging voting day. A new policy brief analysis by Anastasiia Arbuzova, Postdoctoral Researcher at SITE, highlights that a single indicator - reported turnout - can meaningfully shape how legitimate people think an autocratic government is.

Sweden has pledged SEK 114 billion in support to Ukraine – its largest commitment to another country in modern times. At a seminar hosted by the European Parliament in Stockholm, Torbjörn Becker, Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), warned that Russia’s war economy is under mounting pressure and argued that sustained Western support can ultimately determine the outcome.

How costly is it for a democracy to ignore antagonistic information threats? That question brought together Ukrainian and international researchers, policymakers, and security experts at the Stockholm School of Economics on February 12, 2026, for a high-level discussion examining the economic, political, and societal consequences of disinformation and hybrid information aggression.

Maria Perrotta Berlin, Assistant Professor at SITE, contributed to the Sorbonne Alliance research initiative “Europe and the War in Ukraine” - a joint project led by ESCP Business School, INALCO, and Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle examining the war’s consequences for Europe in geopolitical, geoeconomic, and business terms.

Why do carbon and fuel taxes trigger political backlash? In a new policy brief, Julius Andersson (researcher at SITE) points to income polarization. As the middle class’s income share shrinks, the tax burden shifts toward middle-income groups – helping explain backlash such as the Yellow Vests protests and fuel-tax rollbacks.

What shapes social cohesion under extreme pressure - and what sustains resilience during war? On January 19, 2026, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) hosted Ukrainian sociologist Tymofii Brik (Kyiv School of Economics), who drew on nearly three decades of survey evidence to trace how trust, identity, and political attitudes in Ukraine have evolved before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion.