Russia Analysis

Michael Flynn has resigned, but the White House’s explanation of the incident answers few questions

The Russian and Ukrainian media are avidly investigating the claims made by Russia’s Federal Security Service regarding two alleged Crimean border clashes. The opinion is that war will escalate due to the Kremlin’s vow to respond to the clashes and other factors.

When a minivan with eight Russian and European journalists and human rights activists was attacked on March 9 by a band of professional thugs near the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya last week, the story was covered briefly in some world news outlets but didn’t attract much attention. Putin’s war in Syria has distracted from […]

A number of different scenarios for how opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on February 27, 2015 have been published in both the independent and pro-Kremlin Russian media this past year, notably by RosBalt, Novaya Gazeta, Moskovsky Komsomolets and REN-TV. The heads of the Investigative Committee, Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry were tasked by […]

The Kremlin’s English-language outlets are at it again: Just months after lobbying for Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the UK opposition, they are now backing the campaign to take the UK out of the European Union. Since UK Prime Minister David Cameron and European Council President Donald Tusk held talks on reforming the UK-EU […]

For a month now the Russian government has been engaged in a full-scale — and accelerating — crackdown against political dissent and the freedom of the press. TV stations have been raided, protesters sentenced to years of hard labor, and activists homes have been searched for crimes that were committed when they were little kids. […]

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics were supposed to highlight how Russia has become a 21st-century leader in the international community. In reality, they spotlighted how Putin’s rule had encouraged corruption and human rights violations to become the new-old norm. The Games also drew criticism for Russia’s new “anti-gay propaganda” law, widely seen as license for […]

A large pro-Russian conference in Germany last weekend was due to be addressed by an influential Russian Orthodox activist who has previously called Jews ‘personified demons.’ The 65 Euro-entry-charge Bewusst In Die Zukunft (Alertly Into The Future) conference took place at an up-market conference centre on Saturday, November 28, in Wartenberg, in the central German […]

This article was originally published by the Institute for the Study of War and has been republished with permission. Hugo Spaulding — President Vladimir Putin is actively misinforming his domestic audience and the international community about Russia’s first military intervention outside the former Soviet Union since Afghanistan. Putin has created a false narrative about the […]

Turkey has shot down a Russian jet in Syria, ISIS has conducted a massive attack in Europe, the world is debating how to solve the crisis in the Middle East, and Russia has once again made its way back into the headlines. This week Boston College Professor Matt Sienkiewicz and The Interpreter‘s managing editor James […]