ROGUE RUSSIA

It was the day Moscow’s dreams of empire ended up costing European lives. It was the day the Kremlin lost its last vestiges of credibility. And it was the day when it became impossible to continue even pretending that Vladimir Putin’s regime was anything close to respectable. Continue reading

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

After centuries of neutrality, Sweden this year became the 32nd member of NATO, a decision triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In addition to adding a highly capable military force to the transatlantic alliance, the move fundamentally changes the security equation in the Baltic Sea region and northern Europe.

It also adds a new member state that has been a leading force in supporting Ukraine’s defense, resisting Russian aggression, and assisting democratic forces in Belarus.

So how does the West’s standoff with Russia look from Stockholm as Sweden becomes NATO’s newest member? Continue reading

PUTIN’S POLITICAL PRISONERS

When the Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week, one in particular stood out.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian opposition figure and human rights activist was awarded the Pulitzer for commentary.

Vladimir is no ordinary Washington Post columnist. His columns for Post, each of them scathing critiques of Vladimir Putin’s autocratic regime, were all written from a Siberian prison cell. Continue reading

THE MYTHS OF WAR

Like all politics, war is based to a degree on myths. And Russia’s war against Ukraine is no exception. It is based on Russian myths about itself, myths about Ukraine, and myths about the West.

Likewise, the Western response to Moscow’s aggression has also been constrained and limited by a series of its own myths – about Ukraine, about Russia, about NATO, and about the post-Cold War order. Continue reading

PUTIN’S IMPERIAL GURUS

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s efforts to restore Moscow’s imperial might have their roots in a series of deep seated – and deeply flawed – myths about history. Proponents of these myths include early 20th century White Russian thinkers such as Ivan Ilyin and contemporary Eurasianists like Aleksandr Dugin. Continue reading

THE WAR GRINDS ON

Ukraine tries to hold off Russian gains on a stalemated front in the east amid manpower and artillery shortages. A defiant Ukraine continues to strike at energy infrastructure inside Russia despite U.S. objections. And a waiting game continues as a vital $60 billion in U.S. defense assistance to address Ukraine’s vital needs finally appears to be moving in the House of Representatives. Continue reading

TWO YEARS OF WAR

Two years ago, Vladimir Putin launched a war of aggression and a war of choice against Ukraine — and he expected it to be a cakewalk. It wasn’t. Rather than a quick shock-and-awe assault that would spark regime change in Kyiv, Ukraine instead fought Russia to a draw – driving its forces away from the capital and fighting them to a standstill in the Donbas. Continue reading

DEATH OF A DISSIDENT

Vladimir Putin has apparently eliminated another opponent.

Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, the opposition leader and anti-corruption activist who has battled the Putin regime for more than a decade, has suddenly and suspiciously died in a prison inside the Arctic Circle, after appearing healthy and jovial one day prior. Not since the November 2015 assassination of Boris Nemtsov has such a prominent opposition leader been killed. Continue reading

RUSSIA TOMORROW: FIVE SCENARIOS FOR RUSSIA’S FUTURE

What will Russia look like in 10 years, or 20? How much longer will Vladimir Putin’s two-decade-plus rule last? Who — and what — will come after him? Will Russia continue its expansionist and anti-Western course? Or will it seek rapprochement? Will Russia remain intact, or will it disintegrate like the Soviet Union before it? And how should the United States and its allies prepare for all of these contingencies? Continue reading

UNPACKING PUTIN’S GLOBAL STRATEGY

More than 20 months after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the dominant conventional wisdom is that Vladimir Putin’s autocratic and imperial regime has been isolated and ostracized. Moscow’s relations with the West have been all but severed. Putin’s travel is severely limited due to war crimes indictments. And the Russian economy is cut off from global financial markets due to sanctions. Continue reading

THE PUTINIST IDEOLOGY

What does Vladimir Putin believe? Is there a coherent ideology driving his regime, its autocracy, and its imperial ambitions? If so, where did this ideology come from? And what does it mean for Russian domestic and foreign policy going forward? Continue reading

THE WAR IN AUTUMN

Following Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the United States, and as Ukraine continues to make incremental gains in its counteroffensive in the east, reports are surfacing that Washington is finally ready to provide Kyiv with the long-range ATACMS missile systems it has been seeking. Continue reading

The Black Sea Front

It has become one of the critical fault lines in the geopolitical clash between Russia and the West. The Black Sea region — which encompasses NATO allies Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey; Western partners Ukraine and Georgia; and of course, an increasingly aggressive and revanchist Russia — was a tense and contested area even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since the invasion, this competition and the potential for conflict have only escalated. Continue reading

A YEAR OF WAR: PART ONE

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is nearing the one-year mark. In the first of two Power Vertical episodes marking the anniversary, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Volodymyr Dubovyk, an associate professor in the Faculty of International Relations at Mechnikov National University in Odesa and a visiting professor at Tufts University about the war’s major milestones, where it may be headed, and what European security might look like when it is over. Continue reading

Threats, Lies, and Dirty Bombs

As Ukrainian troops move on the strategically vital city of Kherson in the south, alarms are sounding that Russia may detonate a dirty bomb – and blame it on Kyiv as part of a false flag operation. Meanwhile, with midterm elections fast approaching in the United States, cracks are beginning to appear in the Congress about U.S. support for Ukraine. Continue reading