Support The Moscow Times!
Contribute today

Opinion

opinion
Leonid Bershidsky

Playing Dumb: The Kremlin's Denials on the Downing of MH17

The first charges in the case of the jetliner shot down over Ukraine highlight the vast body of evidence against Russia.
Vladimir Frolov

Russia-U.S.-Israel Meeting in Jerusalem Next Monday Is Doomed to Fail. Here Is Why

Moscow would not mind helping Trump out, but it cannot serve as a provider of free geopolitical services to Washington.
Andrei Kolesnikov

How Igor Sechin Was Interrupted Midflight

Reuters was right to publish information showing that Rosneft head Igor Sechin repeatedly used corporate aircraft for personal purposes.
Michele A. Berdy

Russian Sense and Sensibility

The earth-shaking discovery of a new Russian conjunction got me thinking about sense in every sense of the word.
Leonid Bershidsky

Are Putin and Xi Going Soft on Protest?

The Russian and Chinese regimes are doing something new: Not escalating in the face of protest.
Filipp Sterkin

Putin’s Economy Does Not Grow by Decree

The International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg was not held in vain — it demonstrated clearly why the Russian economy is not developing. It boiled...
Alexey Eremenko

The Golunov Case Exposes Russia's 'Submerged State'

Businesses and foreign investors would do well to remember that even Putin’s brightest plans can be derailed by a single official far down the chain...
Tatyana Stanovaya

Why Jailed U.S. Investor Calvey Is the Least of Putin’s Concerns

While the authorities used the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to blame the U.S. for Russia’s problems, the forum’s unofficial topic were...
Michele A. Berdy

Happy Russia Day

On this day celebrating Russia, I decided to look into the origins of the name. Big mistake.
Leonid Bershidsky

Moldova Is the One Thing Russia and the West Agree On

Europe has its own Venezuela now: Its poorest or second poorest nation, depending on how you count, has two governments.
Leonid Bershidsky

Russia's Power Grid Is an Easy Target for U.S. Hacking

The real message U.S. officials are sending to Moscow is that Russia can be attacked without White House authorization.
Mark Galeotti

Golunov Freed; Putin, Not so Much

The spectacular case showed that Putin is at once invulnerable and impotent.
Leonid Bershidsky

A Framed Reporter Suddenly Matters to Putin

Ivan Golunov is an unlikely central figure for such a potentially momentous story.
Evgeniy Roizman

Russia’s Interior Ministry Has Dug Itself Into a Deep Hole

Whoever planted the drugs in Golunov’s arrest should face the consequences.
Maria Zheleznova and Pavel Aptekar

Why the Arrest of an Investigative Journalist Should Worry Everyone

It should be obvious to even those with no interest in journalism that the ease with which the authorities break the law makes each of us a potential victim...
Bruno Maçães

Is Russia Having Second Thoughts About Integration With China?

Beijing has been successful in managing Russia, but president Putin poured some cold water on the cooperation recently.
Maria Zheleznova and Vladimir Ruvinsky

Why Reading the Kremlin’s Code Language Has Become so Difficult

Constant infighting between different factions is resulting in confusing signals being sent out — as in the case of investor Michael Calvey.
Leonid Bershidsky

What Russia After Vladimir Putin Might Look Like

The country's future might not be so dull as its present, according to the Free Russia Foundation.
Ilya Shepelin

Putin’s Media Struggle to Deal With HBO’s Chernobyl

The fact that an American, not a Russian, TV channel told the story about our own heroes is a source of shame for pro-Kremlin media.
View more articles