Compared to the worldwide admiration for Volodymyr Zelensky, authorities in Moscow have systematically tried to demean the Ukrainian leader. Yet even among Russians, that strategy appears to be backfiring.
Tag: russia
As Russia mourns the victims of the worst terrorist attack in the Moscow area in more than two decades, differing narratives about the attack are spreading, as well as questions about why Putin addressed citizens just once in three days and did not acknowledge ISIS as the perpetrators.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic cooperates closely with Russia, including on security and arms issues. Now he is threatening to invade Kosovo, which Serbia does not recognize as an independent country. If Donald Trump were to win, and NATO to weaken, Vucic may be ready to move.
March 25 – March 31, 2024
Celebrating his reelection and the 10th anniversary of the annexation of Crimea on Monday, Vladimir Putin showed that he is not backing down. And he signaled that he will redouble his efforts in the invasion of Ukraine as well as his psychological war with the West.
Recent changes in Syria’s security apparatus are yet another step in President Bashar al-Assad’s years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, more than two decades after his death.
The “pearl of the Black Sea” was the scene of the single Ukrainian military victory in 2023, when the country broke the maritime blockade imposed by Moscow. But, as a third year under the bombs begins, the first cracks appear among the port city’s residents, who are torn between weariness, anger toward Ukraine’s leaders and an insatiable passion to live a full life.
The Swedish island of Gotland is the last bastion between Russia and the entire Baltic region. Now that Sweden has officially joined NATO, the country plans to accelerate its fortification of the island and make it a priority to repel a rapidly militarizing Russia. Life for locals makes it clear that something has changed.
Despite Western sanctions against doing business in Russia, and Renishaw’s promises that it has closed its business there, Russian defense plants continue to receive both measuring equipment and software from the British engineering company.
Since the war began, an estimated 2,500 children have been transferred from Ukraine to Russia, where local authorities are training potential foster parents on how to raise these “children from the combat zone” and “work with their national identity.”
With private military companies (PMCs) multiplying in Russia, on the model of the Wagner Group, the billionaire Rotenberg brothers, friends of Putin, are creating their own private army of football fans.
Beyond the embarrassment for the German military, and Moscow’s exploitation for propaganda purposes, the deeper significance of the intercepted conversations is in how far European unity remains on the war in Ukraine.
Updated March 4, 2024 at 12:20 p.m. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as president of Russia on this day in 2012. Why was Putin’s re-election in 2012 controversial? Putin’s re-election in 2012 was controversial due to allegations of election fraud and voter intimidation. The opposition also claimed that the government used its control over the media […]
An elephant in the street in India, otters on the beach in Cape Town, wild boars in Rome, big cats in Colombia cities, polar bears in Russian towns: a series of factors, including climate change and urbanization, is creating unlikely encounters between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.
Three days after Emmanuel Macron’s statement on deploying troops to Ukraine, Putin warned that such a move could provoke nuclear war. It’s a serious threat that has regularly resurfaced over the past two years. So far, we’re all still here.
The authorities of the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldava have asked for “protection” from Russia, which has been quick to respond. It is a blatantly “engineered-from-scratch” crisis in a region bordering Ukraine. This tiny territory may be the next place on the world map to watch.
The French president’s suggestion that Western troops could be sent to Ukraine, took Western allies by surprise. Yet Macron wanted to send a double message at a key moment — to ally and adversary alike.
Donald Trump is not creating the U.S. malaise any more than Putin is creating the Russian malaise or Netanyahu the Israeli identity crisis. But all three illustrate the inescapable risk if a “me-first” attitude is taken to an extreme degree by individuals who’ve accumulated power.
French researchers have recovered a pair of viruses that were long frozen below the Siberian tundra. In this case, the microorganisms are harmless, but others may not be.
Russian authorities have said they will need two weeks before releasing the body of Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on Friday. His widow says this is enough time for traces of lethal nerve agents to dissipate. In an interview with Agenstvo, one of the Soviet creators of the Novichok poison weighs in.
“If heroes were to ask themselves each time about the risks they face, then they would never accomplish their feats…”
Longtime Putin critic Alexei Navalny has died in prison at the age of 47, sparking outrage inside and outside of Russia. While widely esteemed for his courage challenging the Kremlin, the Russian politician’s views on Ukraine were more ambiguous. Here’s a commentary by a Ukrainian writer after a documentary last year about his struggle won an Academy Award.
With Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suddenly appearing on Moscow’s wanted list, both the past and present offer plenty of evidence that the small Baltic nation — with 40% Russian speakers — could be the next neighbor after Ukraine in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.
With Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas put on Russia’s Most Wanted list, Tallinn is drawing up clear plans on how it intends to secure its border with Russia — an idea it shares with Latvia and Lithuania. But the three small countries don’t have the territorial or strategic depth to absorb an attack the way Ukraine did, which is why they ultimately rely on NATO.
A video is fueling speculation about Ukrainian military activities in Africa that appears to show the capture of Wagner mercenaries in Sudan. Kyiv is cooperating with the army in the African nation in the fight against the RSF militia supported by Wagner — in a sort of proxy war far from home.
Donald Trump’s recent campaign remarks have escalated concerns in Europe as he questioned the credibility of NATO’s collective defense and went as far as encouraging Russia to act freely.
Look back over the past two decades, and you’ll see Vladimir Putin has always been the man revealed by the Ukraine invasion, an evil and sinister dictator. The Russian leader just manages to mask it well.
Bolivia believes lithium is the new “white gold,” for its role in fueling new technologies. Distrusting Western investments and technology, it’s counting on collaborations with Russia and China. But there will be problems at home that could block it all.
With U.S. elections slated for November, support to Ukraine is becoming a divisive electoral issue. Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate over Ukraine aid will be telling, but it won’t end there.
Even as questions swirl about whether Zelensky will replace Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, the bigger question is Ukraine’s strategy. Rather than liberating occupied territories, Ukrainian forces should be focused on destroying the Russian army. Or put another way: “It is not the big that eat the small, but the fast that eat the slow.”
There have been increasing incidents at the regional level that indicate the Kremlin is developing a system, with elements from Chinese and Iranian censorship, to restrict internet access to build a new higher level of control over information.
Vladimir Putin is not campaigning for the March 17 presidential election, but his message is on display at the vast “Rossia” exhibition in Moscow, which aims “to show Russians their modern Russia, a country they can be proud of.”
Updated Jan. 31, 2024 at 12:45 p.m. Emerging from decades of communism and the Cold War with the United States, on this day in 1990, more than 5,000 people showed up at the opening of Moscow’s first McDonald’s. Why did Moscow introduce the first McDonald’s to its people? The entry of the iconic American chain […]
Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and co. always claim that they will help Ukraine as much as possible. Yet they only ever supply exactly enough weapons to ensure that Russia is not defeated. There is a cynical calculation behind it that is based on an unjustified fear of Putin’s escalation.
A former journalist and city councilor, Yekaterina Duntsova, 40, has suddenly gained surprising popularity among Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin and its offensive in Ukraine. She explains why barring her from the March presidential election won’t stop her campaign.
Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the Russian military plane crash. It will be hard to get at the truth of the accident, as either party is unlikely to release information, which is another weapon in their war.
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Magazine #68 — Zelensky At Risk
January 29 – February 4, 2024
Putin has threatened Ukraine with a long war in the hope that Western support will wane and that his troops will eventually outnumber Ukraine’s. But his army has had a few difficult months and arms production can’t keep up. Meanwhile, Western support for Kyiv is holding steady.
Updated Jan. 21, 2024 at 12:15 p.m. It was 100 years ago on this day that Vladimir Lenin died at the age of 53. Who was Vladimir Lenin? Lenin was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He was the founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet […]
The leaders of key EU countries have been on the phone with Vladimir Putin since the war in Ukraine began. Weighing the costs, benefits…and morals…of leaving the door open to a man who brutally invaded a sovereign nation — and taking Munich 1938 as a starting point.