Vladimir Putin appears larger than life on screen as he addresses an audience at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in March 2022.
(Vladimir Astapkovich/Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)
There’s no question the Russian population is subject to a Russian media largely loyal to the Kremlin. But that doesn’t mean Vladimir Putin lacks genuine supporters.
Biden wants to find a way to seize oligarch-owned yachts.
AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla
The US has frozen tens of billions of dollars worth of assets belonging to Russians and their government. A legal scholar explains why confiscating them is a bit trickier.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting in Moscow on March 21, 2022.
(Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
An elite palace coup is possible in Moscow to remove Vladimir Putin or persuade him to step down due to the war in Ukraine. But it would take time.
Ukrainian wheat is vital to global food chains. But fighting near farmland like around Mykolayiv may prevent seeds from being planted.
Mykola Sosiukin/EyeEm via Getty Images
The British courts will now have longer to investigate and can target companies that own properties in questionable arrangements. But key issues remain unresolved.
Bravery: Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova stages a protest live on Russian TV.
EPA-EFE/DSK
The live protest on one of Russia’s main state-owned TV news bulletins is a blow to Putin because of his near total control of broadcasting in the country.
The yacht Amore Vero is docked in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat, France. French authorities have seized the yacht linked to Igor Sechin, a Vladimir Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, as part of EU sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(AP Photo/Bishr Eltoni)
The targeting of elite interests has been at the centre of recent sanctions policies, including sanctions on Russia. We look at the effectiveness of targeting in Iran in the 2010s.
Putin has kept most oligarchs at a distance – literally and figuratively.
Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Marc Tassé, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Highly compensated ‘enablers’ such as financial experts, lawyers, accountants, notaries, estate agents and company service providers are assisting oligarchs, dictators and criminals around the world.
Vladimir Putin announced a populist tax hike for the rich just before the June constitutional referendum.
Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/EPA
Vladimir Putin position in the Kremlin looks more secure than ever, and he has shut down almost all the avenues for a genuine challenge.
A sign remembering murdered Russian democracy activist Boris Nemtsov sums up the mood: it reads “Boris”; but with the last letter added it means “fight”.
AAP/EPA/Sergei Ilnitsky