Yes, the Russian system is repressive. But imagining that Putin is behind every headline is an unhelpful distortion of how the system works.

The idea of a little girl living without adults, bossing around a bear and other talking animals, proved too much for this Russian political scientist...

There are no longer any political guardrails on the country’s powerful security agencies, and the number of arrests of officials will only grow.

Russia's budget is impossible to balance. The regulator just made a significant concession to Putin and the increasingly powerful Finance Ministry.

Using the Burevestnik missile would not help Russia win an actual war. But its testing is supposed to warn the West that Russia will fight back.

The main audience for all these proposals from the Russian elite is not in fact Trump, but Putin, who still seeks an agreement with Washington.

Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev thinks a tunnel will boost trade and bring peace. It isn't a new idea — and has never been built for good reasons...

A proposed law to grant Putin powers over Russians' foreign currency transactions would suffocate personal freedom and the economy.

The "foreign agents" law was never fair. But in recent years, it has been turned into a more effective tool to stifle Russian society.

Putin's recent boasts about Russia's supposed progress show how out of touch he is with the reality on the ground.

The Kremlin only cares about the planet when it sees an opportunity to keep the elites and ordinary people in line.

The FSB has branded the Anti-War Committee a terrorist group.The real threat they pose? Having a conscience.

The EU’s own rules and lethargy make it hard to investigate wrongdoing.

In 2022, the Kremlin was counting on Ukraine to prove weak and futile. Now it is counting on NATO to be weak, divided and indecisive.

The headline that Russia withdrew from a plutonium disposal agreement with the U.S. sounds very serious, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

The region no longer needs to distance itself from Russia or commit to democratic reforms to court American investment.

Desperate to fund the war as the economy flags, the Kremlin is piling pressure on entrepreneurs. Here's the story of one man pondering his future.

Kyiv’s strike campaign against oil refineries has inflicted serious — but likely not critical — damage to the country’s fuel production.