A forgotten centenary.
Russia
“60 Minutes” investigates “mysterious Russian death syndrome”
Cecilia Vega asks: “Is Russia pursuing Putin foes abroad, going after critics and defectors on Western soil?”
If you need a non-political read this weekend: “The Novel and the Dictator”
Okay, it’s not entirely non-political, to be honest. Still, if you’d like to read about Russian politics and the effect on writers, my essay “The Novel and the Dictator” is out in the new issue of Ekstasis Magazine. A taste: […]
The Author’s Corner with Peter Kolchin
Peter Kolchin is Reed Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Delaware. This interview is based on his new book, Emancipation: The Abolition and Aftermath of American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Yale University Press, 2024). JF: What led you […]
What’s next for Russia?
All is not well in Russia. The unknown future, however, should worry us even more.
Alexi Navalny dies in a Russian prison. He was 47.
Here is NBC News: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country’s state media reported Friday, ending a yearslong fight against corruption and the Kremlin that saw him survive several poisoning attempts. He was 47. A prominent critic of […]
Review: In contemporary Russia, a culture of death predominates
Anna Starobinets’ tragic memoir makes it clear: in contemporary Russia, a culture of death predominates.
Historian: The 2nd Amendment was to make sure the U.S. would not have to deal with a Prigozhin-type invasion
Here is historian Noah Shusterman at The Washington Post: On Saturday, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, ordered his soldiers to withdraw from Ukraine and to instead set their sights on targets within Russia itself. First they took over Rostov, […]
Belarus, Ukraine, Russia: an eclectic reading list
The events of this past weekend had a number of Cold War and Russian history and politics experts excitedly feeling relevant. What exactly happened and what does it mean? I appreciated this analysis from Tom Nichols at The Atlantic. In […]
Pope Francis on Ukraine
The Pope wants peace in the Ukraine. He opposes Russian war crimes, but is not acting diplomatically on behalf of the West in the way John Paul II did during the Cold War. Over at The Atlantic, John Allen, the […]
18 members of the House of Representatives vote against Finland and Sweden joining NATO
Finland and Sweden want protection against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. As we have seen in Ukraine, Putin has expansion on his mind and both Scandinavian nations border Russia. When a NATO nation is invaded, all of the other NATO nations are […]
The GOP anti-Ukraine caucus
There members of the Congress who love Russia. Here is William Saletan at The Bulwark: After years of defending a pro-Putin American president and dismissing Russia’s interference in American elections, Republicans have returned to their old shtick: accusing Democrats of […]
Even the devil can quote scripture
Shakespeare was right in the “The Merchant of Venice.” In a Hitler-like rally in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the site of the 2018 World Cup final, Russian president Vladimir Putin told a gathered crowd of reportedly 200,000 (according to Moscow Police) […]
More books to help us understand the Russia-Ukraine war
Harvard University Press offers seven: Stanislav Aseyev, In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas Volodymyr Rafeyenko, Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love Serhii Plokhy, The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present Yuri Kostenko, Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History Karel C. […]
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to Congress
Watch:
Report: Russian government tells its media to puff Tucker Carlson
David Corn of the progressive magazine Mother Jones is reporting that the Russian government has urged media outlets in the country to feature clips of Tucker Carlson. Here is Corn: On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities […]
Christian leaders write an open letter to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill
The letter, was initiated by Jim Wallis of Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, asks the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to “use your voice and profound influence to call for an end to the hostilities and war […]
Andrew Sullivan on the post-liberal Right’s Putin problem
Earlier this week at Current I wrote about the conservative nationalists who love Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and (to a lesser extent to be sure) Russian president Vladimir Putin. These critics of American liberalism are in a tough spot these […]
What is happening these days on Russian TV?
A lot of pro-Putin propaganda. Olga Khazan is watching so we don’t have to. Here is a taste of her recent piece at The Atlantic: To get a sense of what Russians are told about the war, I fired up […]
What scares Putin the most?
Here is John Nichols at The Nation: A courageous anti-war movement has developed in Russia, filling the streets of cities across the country with demonstrations against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. OVD-Info, an independent media project on […]