Vladimir and Nicholas: Putinism enters a new historic phase
Vladimir is not Nicholas, and the 2010s are not the 1850s. Nonetheless, if Putinism is entering its “Nicolaevian” phase, it raises some worrying implications for the future.
Mark Galeotti
What the Olympic doping scandal says about the decline of Putin’s Russia
Drug taking in sport can be seen as a metaphor for the country’s ills: denial, bluster and blame providing a recipe for isolation and stagnation
Trump wants America to stop being the world’s policeman — and start being its rent-a-cop
Trump’s businessman’s approach to foreign policy promises stability to no one
European security concerns bring Russian mafia back onto agenda
For Moscow, Russian-based criminal networks provide an unconventional asset in the geopolitical struggle with the West
Why the departure of Putin’s chief bodyguard actually matters
Today’s news risks making this system even more dysfunctional, politicised, untethered from reality, consumed by factionalism – and thus more dangerous for both Putin and Europe
Spain versus Russia’s kleptocracy
Let policy not simply be driven by individual judges and magistrates, a case here and a country there – let it be something debated at a national and European Union level and adopted on a broader basis
The Panama Papers show how corruption really works in Russia
Whereas in many countries corruption is the means by which elites turn their power into money, in Russia it is the other way around
Ramzan Kadyrov: the Kremlin’s Public Frenemy Number One
The Chechen leader’s gaudy proclamations of loyalty mask the way he is forcing the Kremlin’s hand