Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to seek commitments from his US counterpart, pledging support in his country’s ongoing battle with the Russian Federation.
A man walks past a makeshift memorial for medical workers who died from COVID-19 in Saint Petersburg on May 11, 2020.
Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images
Another wave of COVID-19 in Russia is undermining public health and threatens economic recovery. But widespread mistrust of institutions will stymie the country’s efforts to move past the pandemic.
A man reacts as he gets a shot of the one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine at a mobile vaccination station in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva)
Coverage of Russian vaccination rollout has focused largely on concerns about ethics of development and inconsistent messaging. But Russian-language research complicates this picture.
President Vladimir Putin addresses his United Russia party at its June 2021 convention, where members convened to choose candidates and draft a strategy for the country’s upcoming election.
Grigory Sysoyev\TASS via Getty Images
Despite a 27% approval rating, Putin’s United Russia party can maintain its legislative majority in September through manipulation and fraud, says an expert on Russian elections.
A road sign directs traffic to the entrance of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, north-east Germany.
Odd Anderson/AFP
Sophie Marineau, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
By waiving sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia and Germany, the United States is paving the way for the controversial project to go ahead.
Nothing suggests that HMS Defender’s passage was anything but continuous and expeditious. But the UK should avoid relying on Ukrainian “permission” as a justification.
Pipes for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are loaded onto a ship at a German port, June 1, 2021.
Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images
Nord Stream 2 is a pipeline that will deliver Russian gas to Western Europe – and, by extension, increase Putin’s influence across the continent. That makes Ukraine and some other countries nervous.
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin meeting in 2011, during the Obama presidency.
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE
When announcing financial penalties on Russia earlier this year, Biden hinted at the prospect of ‘further’ sanctions. An energy scholar explains what Biden may have meant.
Biden is expected to confront Russian leader Vladimir Putin (center) over his stalwart backing of Europe’s last dictator, Alexander Lukashenko (left).
From left to right: Sergei Ilyin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images and Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Some tension was inevitable at the June 16 US-Russia summit. But Vladimir Putin’s defiant support for Belarus’s rogue regime now pits him harder against the West.
EPA-EFE/ALEXEI DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN / POOL