Paper short abstract:

Russia's launched full-scale war on Ukraine has spread fear, insecurity and uncertainty in the whole wider region of Eastern Europe. Building on ethnographic material from Latvia and Georgia, this paper focuses on symbolic acts of sovereignty performed by different actors.

Paper long abstract:

Russia's launched full-scale war on Ukraine has spread fear and uncertainty far beyond the regions immediately affected by the war. Insecurity, uncertainty and fears about the future have become a part of the everyday life of people across the whole wider region of Eastern Europe given the context of an ongoing war initiated by the region´s big-neighbor. As questions of independence, freedom and sovereignty are being raised both states and people have started to engage in specific activities that can be perceived as an intense vernacular political commentary on the ongoing war and individual acts of sovereign agency, to use the term of Rebecca Bryant and Madeleine Reeves. The fear and the feeling of violated sovereignty as well the necessity to perform and demonstrate sovereignty have induced a range of different processes that are re-shaping the social and the political fabric of the societies in question.

Building on the literature of events, sovereignty and uncertainty and on ethnographic material from Latvia and Georgia, this paper explores such political commentaries that can be perceived as acts of sovereign agency and attempts to look at their potential impact on the contemporary societies.