THE LATEST ARTICLES
WASHINGTON
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March 21, 2023
Xi Jinping, Superstar
An ecstatic reception for the Chinese president in Moscow revealed the dearth of diplomatic and military options before Russia, and just how few friends Vladimir Putin has left.
WASHINGTON
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March 14, 2023
Putin’s Boy from Tallahassee
In the zero-sum world of rightward Republicanism, politicians are using a yearning to confront China as a veil to abandon Ukraine.
WASHINGTON
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March 7, 2023
Surviving Putin
A gripping conversation with Christo Grozev, lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat, about his role in the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Navalny,’ sleeper agents in Europe, and why he can’t go home again.
WASHINGTON
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February 28, 2023
Putin’s Oligarchs Fall in Line
The shock and disgust that many Russian elites felt at the beginning of the war—at the notion that Putin had just single-handedly made a disastrous decision that would destroy their own country—has abated. “The universal position is to trust their commander in chief.”
WASHINGTON
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February 21, 2023
Peace & Gossip in Munich
News and notes on the future of Putin, Ukraine, NATO, and trans-Atlantic unity, at least as determined by the international heavies at the Munich Security Conference—including the readout on what everyone really said at Trader Vic’s and Schumann’s Bar.
WASHINGTON
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February 14, 2023
Ukraine’s Four-Letter War
As the battle for Ukraine enters its second year, neither side seems willing to negotiate. A source familiar with the Russian posture described Moscow’s opening position as “go fuck yourself.” Another well-informed source said that’s Kyiv’s opener, too.
WASHINGTON
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February 7, 2023
Balloon Mind State
The D.C. foreign policy set responds to the ultimate meme-worthy, news cycle-driven international mini crisis of our times.
WASHINGTON
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January 31, 2023
Putin’s Plot Against America
There is a growing fear in Washington that Russia will resort to hybrid tactics to inflict pain on Western powers in ways that it can no longer achieve through conventional warfare alone.
WASHINGTON
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January 24, 2023
The Putin Super Power Myth
Putin destroyed in a year an energy business that took three generations to build. As it turns out, Russia needed Europe far more than Europe needed Russia.
WASHINGTON
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January 17, 2023
The Putin Poison Pill
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, pressure is building on all sides for the Biden administration to begin negotiations with the Russians, if only to prove what everyone inside the White House, State Department, and Pentagon already knows: the Russians have absolutely zero interest in negotiating.