Maria K

HER Artificial Voice, His Real Aggression? Can AI Girlfriends Bring a New Wave of Women's Objectification? The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to e...

So, OpenAI is allowing users to engage in explicit sexual dialogues now. I wrote this spring for @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social why this is a bad idea and can provoke a wave of women’s objectification (and gender-based violence in real life): www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

I think Americans should learn a great Russian phrase “grandpa forgot to take his meds again” that perfectly describes gerontocracy and how stupid a leader’s behavior becomes with time

Department of the Special Military Operation

Nationalization isn't about state-run capitalism. It's an underestimated sign of authoritarianism. I look with fascination how this year both United States & Russia have embarked on the journey of mass property redistribution.

This year US & Russia are on the journey of property redistribution. Trump is making deals, nationalizing (partially) US Steel & Intel. Media are looking at this as primarily economic transformation. Reality is more complicated (sorry, Bernie): insideauthoritarianism.substack.com/p/nationaliz...

Taylor Swift Understood the Assignment. Democrats Still Don't. When Taylor Swift announced her new album "The Life of a Showgirl" on the "New Heights" podcast, many dismissed it as cheeky and unserious: the world's biggest superstar announcing her 12th album...

There appears to be a duality btw women's rights & men's ability to show masculinity. In times when politicians dehumanize opponents, Swift was humanizing. On her podcast initiation into the manosphere that takes issue with her — and liberated women more broadly:
open.substack.com/pub/insideau...

Taylor Swift Understood the Assignment. Democrats Still Don't. When Taylor Swift announced her new album "The Life of a Showgirl" on the "New Heights" podcast, many dismissed it as cheeky and unserious: the world's biggest superstar announcing her 12th album...

Launching my Substack, Insider’s Guide to Authoritarianism. First post is about Taylor Swift’s first podcast appearance — how she crossed into a male-dominated space under attack, while Democrats still don’t understand how to bridge that divide.
insideauthoritarianism.substack.com/p/taylor-swi...

Why the press conference of the California governor looks like any opposition event in Moscow I was at 🤡 The speed of democratic backsliding is insane. By any logic such intimidation should not be happening this early, especially to a governor

Look at the headlines. There is no single one that is about their violence against civilians. And it is the next day after NYT published an investigation on that, for example. Yahoo + DHS headlines do not impartial / official to me at all. Yes, ACLU is a top hit — backsliding is a process

How long ago did Google main page became so propagandistic? I never use search and I was shocked now when I did, I am having authoritarian flashbacks

Russsia just declared Yale University an “undesirable organization.” It means anyone affiliated with Yale (with any citizenship) — or even who has used Yale logo in a post — can get up to 6 years of prison.
Official reason: the university hosts a “training center for protest activity leaders.”

Are we sure that TikTok is selling its US segment finally (per recent reports)? They are hiring too many policy people, inc. on state level, for a company that is supposedly leaving the market

Now Americans will have to confront an uncomfortable question: can someone be a real patriot while opposing the state? Or has opposing the state become the only way to be truly patriotic, truly American?

Yes, one can be against the current administration — but one cannot fundamentally be against how America operates, as the state and the national idea are inseparable.

On 4th of July. What I was thinking about lately. In America, there is not even an idea of being against the American state. Unlike nations built around shared ethnicity or culture, America was founded as an ideological project — the American dream itself is supposed to be non-partisan.

My Harvard school is basically opening a second campus in Canada this fall. Wild times.

Got a spread at Sunday’s edition of New York Times! You can read for free using the gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...

Opinion | Here’s What’s Happening in America, in Six (Mostly) Russian Terms To help Americans name their new reality, we wrote a phrase book of authoritarianism.

“Our American friends often struggle to describe what exactly is happening. That’s because, in part, they simply don’t have the language for it,” write Maria Kuznetsova and Dan Storyev, two human rights experts who fled Russia. “We do.”

Opinion | Here’s What’s Happening in America, in Six (Mostly) Russian Terms

My essay for New York Times on how authoritarianism is coming to America. I see American struggle to describe the new reality — so, I translated some Russian terms that do. Trump, Putin, Elon — and how police and armed forces are becoming political instruments: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...

A poster saying “Educatuon not deportation” and two graduating Harvard students holding it

Times so weird that our Harvard graduation ceremony is at the same time that Harvard has a court hearing on cancelling all of our visas. We will probably know the decision while still at the ceremony. Insane.

Palestinian flag?)

It will be funny if in a few years people start to get arrested for wearing Harvard symbols. I wish I was joking but I have half of a suitcase with symbols that were perfectly normal in late 2010s and are now extremist / terrorist / undesirable and probably most samples are destroyed.

Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go

Me in New York Times saying I am looking for a job (because where else I should announce it?), while simultaneously comparing American democratic backsliding to what I saw in Russia

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

My piece on 100 days of Trump on how the end of USAID will provoke global instability: 1) much of the autocratic world will go into darkness; 2) predicting international security crises will be difficult; 3) Russia & China will fill the vacuum with disinformation.
www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

Authoritarian data pollution for big LLMs is real — and I do not think American Big Tech is ready to counter that. If you ask ChatGPT about Putin, it already gives quite a favorable article.

HER Artificial Voice, His Real Aggression? Can AI Girlfriends Bring a New Wave of Women's Objectification? The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to e...

I wrote a piece on AI girlfriends & boyfriends and how designing a “perfect” digital parter can harm women in real life — who once again are seen as objects, who always has to be agreeable, available, submissive. Just like AI.
Happy March 8th.
www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

New week, new authoritarian term to learn. Telephone law — a Soviet / Russian custom where court or parliamentary decisions aren’t based on justice or legal principles but on a phone call from “above” (authorities).

For those, who left X, I am bringing you gold from Michael McFaul

Well, I don’t know about Portland, but I cannot find eggs anywhere in Boston for the last two week. What is this, Soviet Union? I want them back, thank you very much

The speed of change in public discourse in the US (and what is even allowed to say) is staggering. I don’t remember anything like that even with Russian invasion of Ukraine. Am I reading too much into what is said by Trump vs done — or others also do not remember such fast-passed backsliding?

I am pretty sure that the death of political social media in America is not a good thing — when you break a feedback loop in society, radicalization follows.