Riddle Russia

Vladimir Putin delivered his speech at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The event has long ago morphed into his personal victory lap, even though the Russian president rarely drops any bombshells there. This year the sheer scale of the country’s economic headaches was impossible to ignore: the budget is deep in deficit, big busin...

When Sadyr Japarov took power in Kyrgyzstan in 2020, he was a young, energetic nationalist president

This year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) opened with an ominous symbol of the state of things: a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal and other infrastructure. It was a fitting image for what followed....

Alexander Kharichev, head of the Presidential Administration’s Directorate for Social Analysis and a senior Kremlin ideologue, has given marching orders to pro-government electi...

Markets are now locked into a tit-for-tat barrage of leaks and occasional airstrikes between the US and Iran as talks continue. Coupled with the current strategic momentum Ukrainian forces possess from the success of medium-range strikes on logistics—an advantage that may not prove enduring—the mounting headlines about elite frustration are evidence of inertia. The political ...