Analysing Subjectio Google Maps

3 min readMay 27, 2025

Subjectio on Google Maps has emerged as the most compelling element of the broader Subjectio project. Since February 2020, I have been building and regularly updating this map, which visualizes the competing influences of the West and Russia across Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Using Google Alerts, I’ve filtered thousands of media reports and analytical pieces to curate key events that reflect various forms of influence, ranging from historical narratives and military actions to economic strategies, diplomacy, disinformation, democratic processes, multilateral engagement, religion, judiciary developments, and cultural expressions in the regions listed above. Different forms of influence can coexist within a single event, but I determine which is the dominant form.

Since 2014, I’ve also documented the region photographically, returning repeatedly to these countries and territories. The images I’ve made over the years illustrate many of the curated events, sometimes revealing the tensions or precedents that led up to them. Rather than asserting absolute fact, these photographs shape a perception, offering visual context that can sharpen divisions or expose latent antagonisms.

At the heart of the project is my own perspective as a Western European photojournalist and documentary photographer, working extensively across Eastern Europe since 2014. My curatorial decisions are shaped by a progressive worldview, and the classification of events into specific influence groups reflects my editorial judgment.

For example, under the “History” category, Soviet-era commemorations marked by nostalgic conservatism are grouped under Russian influence, while events commemorated in the post-Soviet period may be tagged as Western-leaning. But the distinctions are not always clear-cut: does Ukraine’s Independence Day fall under Western influence, given the country’s later efforts to align with Europe and distance itself from Russia? Or should it be viewed outside this binary altogether, as a sovereign moment that also played a decisive role in the collapse of the Soviet Union?

Each entry is the result of consideration, as I weigh which geopolitical force exerts greater influence on the event. The result is a curated, living archive of geopolitical tension, refracted through my lens, both photographic and analytical.

Over time, this process of selection and classification has revealed something larger than the sum of its parts, a landscape shaped by recurring patterns of power and pressure. What began as individual entries has grown into a broader portrait of influence across the region, where numbers begin to tell their own story.

Across all regions, the dominant influence category is military (21.57%), followed by economy (16.26%) and multilateralism (11.64%).

Multilateralism primarily reflects actions by the European Union, especially in sanctioning Russia, and is also seen through the activity of international organizations such as the UN, OSCE, CIS, EAEU, BRICS, and CSTO, though not all are represented in the curated events.