Among the many issues that Joe Biden has to deal with, what place does he reserve for the alliance of democracies project that he mentioned during his presidential campaign?
Chip Somodevilla/AFP
The new US administration has talked about setting up an alliance of democracies. For the time being, the project seems vague. Yet such an alliance is necessary.
Russian police officers beat people protesting the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Jan. 23, 2021 in Moscow.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
And there’s not too much the rest of the world can do to stop them.
Wary friendship: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi after talks in March 2021.
EPA-EFE/Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry
Both Russia and China are signalling they will only deal with the West where and when it suits them. They are also increasingly comfortable working together as close partners.
Crude is key to inflation. Here’s why has it been going up so much.
At the Rose Monday carnival in Düsseldorf, Germany, on February 15, Vladimir Putin was portrayed in an unfortunate posture in front of Alexei Navalny.
Ina Fassbender/AFP
Can the arrival of a new administration in Washington and the demonstrations in Moscow demanding the release of Alexei Navalny destabilize the strongman of Moscow?
Inspiration for a mob of angry white men?
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Long overlooked in the West, the Byzantine Empire has recently picked up interest among far-right and conspiracist circles. A historian of medieval culture explains what white supremacists get wrong.
In exile or prison: Belarus opposition figures Svetlana Tikhanovsksaya, Veronika Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova.
Natalia Fedosenko/TASS/Alamy Live News
Opposition protests continue and there are signs they are beginning to have an effect both inside and outside Belarus.
Women form a human chain on Feb. 14 in central Moscow to support jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia Navalnaya and other political prisoners.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has proved himself to be a master at summoning citizens to protest government abuses. The very words he chooses to use are part of his power.
Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
If the new U.S. administration can show that it’s taking action to address widespread grievances, it should be able to move forward from this period of sustained mass protest.
Military units like the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade shown here are just one component of U.S. national cyber defense.
Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office/Flickr
Sophisticated fake social media personas created by North Korean hackers offered to collaborate with cybersecurity researchers. Several US researchers fell for it.
Navalny’s jailing could galvanise Russians who want a government no longer characterised by post-imperial nostalgia and a paranoid, siege mentality that constantly fears the West.
‘Putin is a thief’: protesters taking part in one of the many rallies against the arrest of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, January 2021.
SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News
A new generation of investigative journalists is revealing the depth of corruption in Russian public life.
A news host reports on former President Donald Trump during a broadcast on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a state-funded TV network.
Misha Friedman/Getty Images
He knew he would be arrested on arrival in Russia, but it’s unclear what the dissident politician ‘s next move will be.
Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia before passing the border control at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, where he was subsequently arrested.
EPA-EFE/Kira Yarmysch
The opposition leader’s return from poisoning will put pressure on the Russian president in a crucial election year.
Ilya Glazunov’s painting Eternal Russia (Glazunov Museum, Moscow) expresses ideas dear to contemporary propagators of cosmism, notably the alliance of Soviet modernity and the traditional values of the Russian empire.
Wikipédia
Cosmism, a theory that blends faith in science with religious traditionalism, serves as a source of inspiration for conservative Russian ideologues in search of a national idea.
Federal government agencies, from the Treasury Department to the National Nuclear Security Administration, have been compromised by the attack.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images