Alexei Navalny’s successors — not western leaders — are best placed to carry on the fight for Russia’s future. But they’ll only succeed if Navalny’s cause isn’t seen as anchored to western ideals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 19, 2023.
(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukraine can still emerge victorious in its war with Russia despite a failed summer counteroffensive. But what’s required now is a realistic assessment of Ukraine’s position and what is achievable.
While Russian public opinion polls show continued support for the war, there are questions about the polls’ reliability and indications that public approval of Putin is declining.
Land grab: Vladimir Putin formally announces the annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
EPA-EFE/GAVRIIL GRIGOROVSPUTNIK/KREMLIN
Russia has annexed four Ukrainian regions, saying they have always been part of the ‘motherland’. But Moscow’s territorial claim is as flimsy as the excuse it used to start the war
A woman votes in the controversial referendum in Donetsk, Ukraine on Sept. 27, 2022.
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
While some parts of eastern Ukraine have been under partial Russian control since 2014, other sections continue to fight back. Most residents overall have said they don’t want to be part of Russia.
The people have spoken – apparently.
EPA-EFE/stringer
Putin simultaneously seeks to control Ukraine, to dominate Russia’s region, and to hasten the fall of the West. And is an internal struggle on the horizon?
Zhanna Dynaeva and Serhiy Dynaev stand with a cat inside their house, which was destroyed by Russian bombardment, in the village of Novoselivka, Ukraine, Aug. 13, 2022.
AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Russia’s military machine is finding the terrain in the Donbas region extremely challenging.
Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner with Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who were captured after the siege of the the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
Image taken from footage of the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic
Both sides are now bracing for a long and bloody war of attrition.
A Russian military intercontinental ballistic missile launcher rolls by during the 2019 Victory Day military parade celebrating the end of the Second World War in Red Square in Moscow in May 2019.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The sort of scenarios that might lead to the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war would require a significant deterioration in Russian fortunes — and greater western involvement in the conflict.
Associate Professor of Instruction in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies, University of South Florida