Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shake hands with Chinese Presiden Xi Jinping.
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Following deteriorating relations with the West, Russia has shifted focus to Asia, and hold China to help expand its influence.
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The NATO summit in Vilnius has kicked the prospects of Ukraine’s membership into the long grass. Kyiv, however, has other security tricks up its sleeve.
Delegates at the Russia-Africa Economic Forum in Sochi, 2019.
Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
African leaders at the second Africa-Russia summit need to speak with one voice.
Seeking divine help? Neither Moscow nor Minsk wants Wagner Group mercenaries stationed in Belarus to get out of control.
EPA-EFE/Alexander Demyanchuk/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Wagner Group mercenaries in Belarus remain a worrying wild card with possible consequences for the conflict and the wider region.
SB 266 aims to stop college professors from teaching about systemic racism.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Tactics used to censor the teaching of American history in Florida schools bear much in common with those seen in the illiberal democracies of Israel, Turkey, Russia and Poland.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019 in Sochi, Russia.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
The Russia-Africa summit has obvious benefits for Moscow: it conveys a perception of normalcy and the tacit approval of African elites.
Fuel tanks burn after a shelling Russian officials said was conducted by Ukrainian forces at a fuel depot in Makiivka in Russian-controlled Donetsk region on July 5, 2023.
(AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Claiming the moral high ground in any war isn’t just about justifying a war effort — it’s also about how a war is fought. Both Ukraine and Russia, sadly, have plenty of civilian blood on their hands.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares to fire a Russian TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flame-thrower rocket launcher, captured by a Ukrainian army battalion, towards Russian positions on the frontline near Kreminna, Luhansk region, in July 2023.
(AP Photo/Libkos)
The slow pace of the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia doesn’t suggest military success for Ukraine is impossible.
Traffic was stopped on the bridge, linking Crimea with Russia, on July 17 after a suspected drone attack.
Sipa/Alamy
Crimea has historic symbolism to Russians, so attacks there are considered highly damaging.
Members of the Wagner Group on a tank in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, during the lightning march on Moscow on June 24 2023.
AP/Alamy
Machinations over the march on Moscow are continuing.
Face masks depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and owner of private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin.
AP Photo
Russian authorities have given no legitimate justification for dropping criminal cases against rebel troops – undermining both President Vladimir Putin and the legal system.
What made Yevgeny Prigozhin turn his troops back on the road to Moscow?
Pool Photo/Wagner Group/Alamy Live News
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.
People in Brussels attend a memorial for the Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia.
hierry Monasse/Getty Images
Russia’s systematic manipulation of children dates back long before the war in Ukraine, to when the Soviet Union first made false promises to its large population of orphans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 29, less than a week after the rebellion by the mercenary Wagner Group.
Contributor/Getty Images
The revolt by Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops put the US in an unusual situation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping during happier times?
Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
China has provided Russia with economic support during the war in Ukraine. But Beijing may be concerned over recent events in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers on a Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicle at their positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 25.
(Roman Chop via AP)
Euphoria in the West about the short-lived revolt by the Wagner Group hasn’t yet resulted in military gains for Ukraine.
Members of the Wagner Group sit atop a tank in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023.
Roman Romokhov/AFP via Getty Images
A historian explains how Russian President Vladimir Putin, weakened by a short-lived mutiny, might find a path to peace with Ukraine.
EPA-EFE/Gavril Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin poolAVRIIL GRIGOROVSPUTNIK/KREMLIN
For the past few years Alexander Lukashenko has had to depend on Moscow’s help to keep him in power. Now he appears to have returned the favour.
Prigozhin Press Service/AP
Putin has ignored his own role in the transformation of Prigozhin from a convicted criminal into a formidable political force.
Open defiance in Rostov-on-Don.
Feodor Larin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Signs of discontent among Russian nationalists and Wagner had been growing before a column of paramilitaries began an aborted march on Moscow.