Zurab Kurtsikidze / EPA
Georgia is backsliding toward Russia’s sphere of influence.
EPA/VASILY PRUDNIKOV
After five years of operating mostly in western Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Islamist terror groups are again growing in strength in the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks set to extend his leadership.
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While Putin is all but guaranteed to win, war fatigue, electoral engineering and extreme risk-aversion suggest that the Kremlin is anxious to get these elections over and done with.
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan loom over the people of Bishkek.
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Recent laws and pro-Putin sentiment by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov have sparked concern that the Central Asian country is backsliding on democracy.
Not all smooth sailing for the Russian economy, but far from choppy waters.
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The US has imposed another round of sanctions following the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. But will it work?
The legacy of Alexei Navalny lives on.
Ian Langsdon/AFP via Getty Images
Alexei Navalny, a persistent thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on Feb. 16, 2024, in prison, authorities said.
Vladimir Putin lays flowers at a monument to Peter the Great in Baltiisk, western Russia.
AP/Alamy
The forthcoming March election in Russia is likely to mean another victory for Vladimir Putin, who remains popular, for now.
Vigil lanterns at the Bitter Memory of Childhood monument commemorating the Ukrainian famine.
Kirill Chubotin / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Putin’s worldview echoes Russian phrase, ‘Who is not with us, is against us.’
Andrey Vladimirovich Menshikov, mostly known by his stage name ‘Legalize’, but also for his membership in D.O.B and Bad Balance, is used to grating the Kremlin.
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Vladimir Putin and his KGB men have steadily extinguished the artistic freedom the genre enjoyed in the 1990s, with Ukraine’s invasion adding yet another nail in the coffin.
Valery Sharifulin/Kremlin Pool/EPA/AAP
Putin has progressively sickened Russian society, creating a toxic culture that celebrates xenophobia, nativism, and violence.
Face masks depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and owner of private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin.
AP Photo
Russian authorities have given no legitimate justification for dropping criminal cases against rebel troops – undermining both President Vladimir Putin and the legal system.
People in Brussels attend a memorial for the Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia.
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Russia’s systematic manipulation of children dates back long before the war in Ukraine, to when the Soviet Union first made false promises to its large population of orphans.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping during happier times?
Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
China has provided Russia with economic support during the war in Ukraine. But Beijing may be concerned over recent events in Moscow.
Open defiance in Rostov-on-Don.
Feodor Larin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Signs of discontent among Russian nationalists and Wagner had been growing before a column of paramilitaries began an aborted march on Moscow.
The Kremlin.
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China’s partnership with Russia has been unbalanced in recent years, as Beijing grew more powerful.
Brazilian president Lula meets China’s president Xi on an official visit to Beijing in 2023.
AP/Alamy
Alliances around the Ukraine war have highlighted fragmenting support for the west.
The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich faces up to 20 years behind bars on espionage charges.
Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A scholar of Russia’s legal code explains the case against the Wall Street Journal reporter accused of espionage.
A Russian peacekeeper guards the Lachin corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Tofik Babayev/AFP via Getty Images
Renewed fighting in the South Caucasus has some wondering, “Where are the great powers?”
While communists make up the bulk of portrait carriers in Russia, officials are also increasingly putting in a good word for Joseph Staline.
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Stalin, who died on March 5, 1953, was partially rehabilitated in the decades that followed. These days, he is in some respects a source of inspiration for Vladimir Putin.
Pavlovsky as dissident at a rally to commemorate the murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
Alexander Miridonov/Kommersant/Sipa USA
Pavlovsky became the ultimate insider – until he fell out with the boss he had helped make all-powerful.