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opinion Konstantin Skorkin

What Next for Ukraine’s Formerly Pro-Russian Regions?

Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions means that a large chunk of the country’s Russian-speaking southeast...

Artyom Shraibman

Will the Death of a Chief Diplomat Change Anything in Belarus?

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, whose death from an apparent heart attack was reported last weekend, was the country’s most prominent...

How the Pope's Racist Comments Parrot Russian Propaganda

In an interview with America Magazine published on Monday, Pope Francis off-handedly disparaged Russia's Buryat and Chechen ethnic minorities, characterizing...

Oleksiy Yakubin

Is Russia Slowly Embracing Realpolitik in Ukraine?

Dmitry Peskov, the man charged with sharing President Vladimir Putin's views with the rest of the world, last week denied that the Kremlin was attempting...

Andrei Kolesnikov

Scientific Putinism: Shaping Official Ideology in Russia

There is a belief that the Russian elite under President Vladimir Putin has only ever been interested in money. Yet Putin’s militant, anti-liberal...

Lord of the Masses: How Russia’s Fringe Elements Went Mainstream

Russian President Vladimir Putin has one message that he likes to convey in his public speeches: that he is very much a man of the people, with the blood...

How Exactly Could the Putin Regime Collapse?

Everyone, except perhaps Putin himself, understands that his regime is nearing its end. At the very least, discussions about the country’s future...

Arshak Makichyan

Russia's Cynical Approach to COP27 Only Confirms its Global Pariah Status

Russian delegations to climate conferences have never been burdened with particularly high expectations, though even by that standard, the Russian showing...

How (Not) to Interpret Russian Political Talk Shows

The forensic dissection of Russian political talk shows by analysts hoping to gain insight into the Kremlin’s inner workings has skyrocketed since...

How Russia’s War in Ukraine Has Impacted its Christian Image

Over the past decade, the Russian government has taken pains to present itself as a bastion of Christianity and traditional values. The Kremlin has used...

Eight Months of War: A View From Russia's Second City

St. Petersburg, famously one of the world's most beautiful cities, appears at first sight not to have obviously changed since the war in Ukraine began...

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan

How the Kremlin Quietly Built Russia's Surveillance State

While Russia's mobilization of reservists to bolster its manpower on the frontline of the war with Ukraine has dominated news coverage of Russia in recent...

Alexandra Prokopenko

They Talk the Talk, But Do Russia’s Hawks Have Any Real Influence?

The longer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the more prominent the party of war becomes at home. Hardly a day goes by without a headline-making...

Nigel Gould-Davies

After Mobilization, the Kremlin Is Turning to 'Dirty Bomb' Diplomacy

Russia has ramped up the claim, internationally and domestically, that Ukraine is preparing to use a ‘dirty bomb’. This is a major escalation...

Comrades-in-Sanctions: Can Iran Help Russia Weather the Economic Storm?

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, relations between Russia and Iran have flourished. Having been hit by a new raft of tough Western sanctions over...

Victor Davidoff

Are Western Brands as Serious About Withdrawing From Russia as They Appear?

Last week, Mercedes-Benz became the latest Western company to announce that it had sold off its assets in Russia – including its factory outside...

Farida Rustamova and Maxim Tovkaylo

Amid Ukraine War, Putin is Changing How Russia is Governed

When declaring martial law in Russian-occupied Ukraine last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin also handed special powers to regional authorities...

Andrei Kolesnikov

Is It Possible to Plan for Life After Putin?

Discussions of how a post-Putin Russia might look have been on the rise for some time, even if such a concept remains wishful thinking for the time being...

This War Has Further Divided Russia's Fragmented Society

How has the invasion of Ukraine changed Russian society? The truth is, the war has served to further accelerate the fracturing of Russian identity, which...

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