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Opinion

Tatiana Stanovaya

Putin’s Tactic of Inaction Could Backfire at Home

The day may come when Putin finds himself dependent on a group of once politically irrelevant ultra-patriots.
Arshak Makichyan

I Called for Greenpeace to Close in Russia. Putin Did It For Them.

"Green peace" is impossible during a war.
4 Min read

Opposition Activist Mikhail Krieger's Final Statement to Russian Court

"This war is, in my view, the rare conflict in which the truth is one hundred percent on one side. And that is the Ukrainian side."
7 Min read
Galiya Ibragimova

How Russia Torpedoed Its Own Influence in Moldova

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is helping to consolidate Moldovan society in favor of EU integration.
6 Min read
Alexandra Prokopenko

How Sanctions Have Changed Russian Economic Policy

Russia's economic policy is increasingly built around the toxic combination of trade in raw materials and a bloated military-industrial complex.
5 Min read
Andrey Pertsev

For Ambitious Russian Officials, the War Has Failed to Become a Career Elevator

Career advancement off the back of Russia's war in Ukraine has proved to be elusive in the increasingly fragile Russian political system.
4 Min read
Jade McGlynn

The Great Patriotic Special Military Operation

According to the Kremlin's narrative, Russia is fighting for the legacy of World War II by defeating fascism in Ukraine once more.
4 Min read
Alexander Atasuntsev

Is Georgia’s Ruling Party Really Pro-Russian?

Georgia’s ruling party may use the very real threat Moscow poses to the country as a pretext to solve its problems and fight its rivals.
5 Min read
Matthew Sussex

Ukraine’s Fate Rests on Its Imminent Counteroffensive

At stake for Ukraine in its looming counteroffensive is nothing less than its national survival.
4 Min read
Leonid Gozman

The Tragedy of Designating Russia's Free University 'Undesirable'

How a unique experiment in free education drew the ire of the Russian government.
4 Min read
Aleksandr Smirnov

A Future Allied to China and India Is Wishful Thinking on the Kremlin's Part

Moscow’s current economic reliance on Asia is little more than a temporary solution to Western sanctions on Russia.
4 Min read
Luca Anceschi

How Russia Might Benefit From Central Asia's Authoritarian Regeneration

Russia’s support may prove decisive for Central Asia's regimes as they further strengthen their hold on power.
3 Min read
Konstantin Sonin

Stop Victim-Blaming Russian Refugees

Telling Russian refugees they are not victims is like telling a woman who has been beaten up by her husband: “It’s OK, he didn’t kill you.”
4 Min read
Maxim Tovkaylo

Gazprom: A Weapon of the Kremlin, in Metaphor and Reality

The existence of private armies means that the struggle within the Russian elite to appoint Putin's successor could very quickly turn bloody.
4 Min read
Alexey Gusev

Why Russia Won’t Disintegrate Along Its Regional Borders

Even amid the tensions unleashed by mobilization, there is simply no national question on the table and no talk of regional federalism.
6 Min read
Nigel Gould-Davies

Russia's Updated Foreign Policy Strategy is Revealingly Delusional

As Russia’s first systematic foreign policy statement since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the concept is significant.
4 Min read
Tatiana Stanovaya

Russia’s New Conscription Law Brings the Digital Gulag Much, Much Closer

The war in Ukraine has taken the state’s need for digital control to a whole new level.
5 Min read
Ksenia Mironova

My Partner Is a Journalist Jailed For his Work in Russia – Just Like Evan Gershkovich

I don’t believe that things will improve by being optimistic, but I do believe that we must continue to work and support one another.
4 Min read
Vladimir Kara-Murza

My Only Regret Is Failing to Convince People of the Danger Putin Posed

Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza has given a defiant closing speech at his trial for treason.
3 Min read
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