Get the inside conversation in your inbox
Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Julia Ioffe, Marianna Sotomayor, John Heilemann, & Abby Livingston
•
Sunday through Thursday
Puck’s daily political newsletter from Washington—featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Marianna Sotomayor, Julia Ioffe, John Heilemann, and Abby Livingston—on what’s really happening in this town, from the White House to the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, K Street, the campaign trail, and beyond.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Julia Ioffe
•
September 18, 2024
The Madness of Ryan Routh
A close reading of the wannabe Trump assassin’s self-published memoir, documenting his time in Ukraine, reveals a mentally ill man grappling with the existential comedown from his delusions of grandeur.
Julia Ioffe
•
September 5, 2024
A Game of Telegram
Ever since his arrest in Paris, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has become an unlikely free speech martyr, somehow uniting both Navalny supporters and the Kremlin in their praise of him. And yet, the truth about Durov’s actions appears to be at odds with the legend.
Julia Ioffe
•
August 28, 2024
The Durov Delusion
The billionaire Telegram founder, now a cause célèbre among the Russian opposition following his arrest in France, is not quite the free speech hero he is made out to be.
Julia Ioffe
•
August 20, 2024
Our Man in Rappahannock
Dimitri Simes, the Kremlin TV host and Russian-American political analyst now living in Moscow, opens up about the mysterious F.B.I. raid on his Virginia home.
Julia Ioffe
•
August 20, 2024
Casting Kamala’s Fantasy Cabinet
Despite Harris’s lack of a national security platform, Democrats are entering a new phase of feverish speculation surrounding who might be tapped to create, and execute, her foreign policy agenda.
Julia Ioffe
•
August 14, 2024
Ukraine’s Guns of August
The surprise Kursk offensive caught Putin and the Russians off guard, but no one, not even the Ukrainians, seems to know what happens next. I spoke with military analyst Michael Kofman about Ukraine’s likely motives, the expected retaliation from Moscow, and where things go from here.
Julia Ioffe
•
August 7, 2024
Putin’s Hostage Games
While the Americans released by Russia in last week’s prisoner swap celebrated their emancipation, the Kremlin set about carefully spinning the exchange as confirmation of their captives’ guilt, while also celebrating a political coup of their own.
Julia Ioffe
•
July 30, 2024
Harris’s Full Nelson
Washington is racing to suss out the foreign policy agenda of Kamala Harris, whom national security types view as a “blank slate.” The selection of a new advisor to lead her campaign’s policy team may provide some clues.
Julia Ioffe
•
July 24, 2024
The Treaty of Harris
In the wake of Biden’s departure from the race, the foreign policy crowd is experiencing all the feels—jubilation, resentment, excitement, agony, and the sense that “the chessboard is empty” with Harris atop the ticket. Plus, the view from the Kremlin on the new Democratic nominee (and, for what it’s worth, J.D. Vance).
Julia Ioffe
•
July 17, 2024
Biden Group Therapy
Fresh reporting on the collective private mourning of top Democrats after the tragic “events”—as they are known in Washington-speak—of the weekend. Nevertheless, some cling to hope. “He also said he would drop if he saw data saying he can’t win,” said a campaign source. “He’s about to see a lot of it.”