Russia may not be a foreign policy priority for the incoming Biden administration. But its promise to foreground democracy will put the Kremlin on edge.
Not in Russia: An election observer takes notes as Gwinnett County workers process ballots in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Nov. 6.
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Charges by President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was rigged are challenged by experts in Russian elections, where rigging the outcome is an established way of life.
Alexei Navalny remains in hospital in Germany after he was poisoned in Siberia.
Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
Michael S Goodman, King's College London; David Frey, United States Military Academy West Point, and David Gioe, United States Military Academy West Point
Vladimir Putin is a standard-bearer, rather than a pioneer in the history of Soviet and Russian political assassination.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
SERGEI ILNITSKY/EPA
We’ve heard anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned with something called a ‘cholinesterase inhibitor’. Here’s what that means.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (L) poses for a photo at a Moscow rally in support of political prisoners on September 29, 2019.
Dmitri Chirciu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, gravely ill from a suspected poisoning, brought a new type of opposition to Russia in tune with popular concerns and aimed at finding common ground.
Alexei Navalny at a recent rally commemorating the 2015 murder of opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov.
Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Navalny has long been targeted by the authorities for his work exposing corruption among Russian officials. But making him a martyr does not seem to help the Kremlin at this point.
A young man wearing a face mask reading “Against” in Pushkin Square in Moscow to protest the constitutional amendments that extended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tenure to 2036.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A plebiscite to amend the Russian constitution was a way for Vladimir Putin to extend his presidency to 2036. But many questions about the vote could mean trouble for the Russian leader.
Putin: smiles to and from the polling station.
Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/KRE/EPA
Is Vladimir Putin angling to stay in power after his latest term expires in 2024? There are three possible reasons to explain his move to back a constitutional amendment to reset his term limits.
An opposition activist holds the Russian Constitution during a protest in Moscow, Aug. 17, 2019 against the exclusion of some candidates from Moscow’s upcoming election.
AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko
The Moscow elections of September 2019 were a referendum on President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party. And the opposition’s success suggests a looming political crisis for Putin and his regime.
Many opposition candidates were banned from elections to Moscow’s Duma.
Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
If you think Americans are suckers for conspiracies theories, you ought to hear some of the theories that are popular in Putin’s Russia.
In this file photo taken on on Oct. 4, 1987, a Soviet army officer presents ammunition rigged with chemical agents during a visit by Western diplomats and journalists to a chemical weapons research facility in Shikhany, Saratov region, Russia. The facility in Shikhany led the efforts to develop Soviet chemical weapons, including Novichok-class nerve agents.
John Thor Dahlburg/ AP Photo
The result of Russia’s upcoming election is already known: President Vladimir Putin will be re-elected. Will he be content to be a lame duck, or will he undermine democracy to suit his ambition?
Stepping back from the current crisis in US-Russia relations, a Soviet expert asks: what’s in store for Russia in the long term, and is a peaceful transition possible when Putin’s gig is up?