As attested by Vladimir Putin’s carefully calibrated photo ops, he knows the value of spectacle. One such spectacle took place last week in the Kremlin, as the despot held a pompous ceremony to supposedly formalize the annexation of Ukrainian territories following illegal referendums in ...
by Daniel DePetris From the moment Russian forces began their widespread missile barrage against Ukrainian targets in February, the United States and Europe have sought to rally the world on Ukraine’s behalf. The narrative of the collective West has been simple, and it appeals to our ...
by Martin Schram This was not the way Russia’s Vladimir Putin wanted to look, for all the world to see last Thursday, when he walked into the massive and bizarrely flowered and leafy conference room in Uzbekistan for his much-needed meeting with a deep-pocketed counterpart, China’s ...
by Leonid Bershidsky Mikhail Gorbachev failed at everything he tried as the Soviet Union’s last leader. The state he led could only change the world for the better by failing — and it did. But, alas, not for long. I will never forget the moment in August 1991 when — at 19 ...
by Trudy Rubin Aug. 24 marked six months since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. It was also Ukraine’s Independence Day. Yet instead of celebrating, Kyiv canceled all holiday observances across the country as major cities braced for vicious Russian missile attacks. “We ...
by Trudy Rubin Ukrainians refer to Vladimir Putin as “Putler,” an amalgamation of Putin and Adolf Hitler. The label is more than a jab at Putin’s obscene lie that Russia invaded Ukraine to fight Nazis — or a reaction to Russia’s relentless bombing of civilian targets. ...