Europe has few options if Russia decides to attack the Baltics.
Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
US President Donald Trump’s attacks on allies and conciliatory actions toward Russia have made European leaders feel more vulnerable than ever.
Olivier Douliery/EPA
US intelligence assessments have concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to some degree. Trump prefers the Russian version of events.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announcing the indictments.
AP/Evan Vucci
Will 12 Russians indicted for hacking the 2016 US election ever come to trial? They may not, but the indictments themselves are an important step in the effort to determine the truth of what happened.
EPA/Sean Dempsey
After a week spent trampling the international order, Trump capped his performance by giving Vladimir Putin the benefit of the doubt.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
In the hands of a legitimate president, the recent indictments against Russian nationals for interfering in the 2016 presidential election would have been a powerful tool at a summit. Not Donald Trump.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is all smiles with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic before Sunday’s World Cup final in Moscow.
Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/EPA
Most Western leaders have little faith the Russian president will pursue better relations after the final football whistle has blown.
Well played.
EPA/Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva Hando
Vladimir Putin is a masterful politician. The US president he’s dealing with is not.
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump will be the focus of much global attention this week.
AAP/Jorge Silva/pool
The interest and theatre around the Helsinki meeting may be high, but meaningful negotiation is seriously restricted for many reasons.
Russian-government backed show Comedy Club’s Trump and Putin impersonators.
RUTube
Donald Trump’s coziness with Vladimir Putin and his antagonism toward Europe is making the Russian leader look good to his countrymen and former adversaries across Europe. And Trump is looking bad.
Putin and Trump bond in November 2017.
AP Photo/Hau Dinh
Is the pen that signs the peace treaty more powerful than the sword in the realm of public opinion?
Take off time.
Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire
The changing aesthetics of protest allow many more voices to be heard.
Is Donald Trump a pawn of Russia? A mini-blimp floating during anti-Trump protests in London depicts the president as a giant baby – just as he prepares to meet with Vladimir Putin.
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
As Donald Trump prepares to meet with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, here’s a detailed explanation of how one goes about subverting democracy via a stooge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev watch the action during the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia that opened the 2018 World Cup.
Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
The Russian leader seems to understand the ability of sport to foment feelings of national pride and enhance his popularity at home.
French riot police move in to arrest Russian fans after violence broke out between supporters ahead of the England vs Russia match in Marseille, France in 2016.
Niall Carson/PA Archive/PA Images
The Russian people need to show the world a different side to the scandal-struck country when the World Cup kicks off.
Citizens protesting at the Volokolamsk town hall, after noxious fumes from a local landfill sent 50 children to the hospital.
Radio Free Europe
Massive noxious garbage dumps piling up around Moscow have sparked citizen protests. And those protests are turning into criticism of the political system, which could threaten the Putin regime.
EPA-EFE/Valentyn Ogirenko
Whatever the reason for faking Arkady Babchenko’s death, this episode will not make journalists any safer.
The Russian bear still stalks the world.
EPA/Anatoly Maltsev
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is as much an imperial power as its Soviet and Tsarist predecessors were.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a Cabinet meeting in Moscow’s Kremlin.
AP/Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik
Vladimir Putin’s recent re-election was bad news for democracy in Russia. And it’s a major loss in the struggle for liberalism, as anti-democratic leaders are assuming power across the globe.
EPA/Alexei Druzhinin
At first, the 2010s seemed full of hope for democracy. The picture today is rather more complicated.
Russian nationalists are winning the battle to influence Putin.
EPA/Maxim Shipenkov
Russian politics depends on a competition between different power networks. And hardline nationalists are winning at the expense of reformers.