Departments

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Vladimir Putin

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    5/9/2023

    This is Putin's Last War, and He's Losing

    by Timothy Snyder

    Predictions that Russia's nuclear arsenal would be a bulwark against strong Ukrainian resistance or western support have shown that Putin wields these weapons like a bully to threaten, but can't win the war he started. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    4/23/2023

    Putin Also Making War on Ukrainian Memory

    by Richard Ovenden

    Victory in war involves imposing one's own version of history on the next generation. Russian forces appear to be targeting Ukrainian archives where records of KGB surveillance and Soviet-era repression of Ukrainian civilians are held, part of an effort to delegitimize claims of independence. 

  • 1/22/2023

    What's Hiding in Putin's Family History?

    by Chris Monday

    The details of Vladimir Putin's personal and family life are surprisingly (and by design) difficult to pin down. A historian suggests that his grandfather was more powerful, and more influential on the future Russian leader's fortunes, than Putin's common man mythology suggests. 

  • SOURCE: Noema
    1/10/2023

    Why the Kremlin Made "Z" its Symbol of the Ukraine Invasion

    by Alexander Etkind

    Can Russia's aggression against Ukraine be explained by its leaders fetishizing the small differences in national life, and the divergent fortunes of the post-Soviet generation, in the two countries? Are those gaps so small that only an invented symbol could express them? 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    11/21/2022

    What Will Russia Look Like Without Putin?

    by Joy Neumayer

    A transformation of Russia after the end of Putin's leadership will require unwinding the countless institutions that have been molded and warped around his power for decades, so that another authoritarian can't step right in to use them. 

  • SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
    11/17/2022

    Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Won't Set Off a Nuclear Scramble

    by Eric Brewer, Nicholas L. Miller, and Tristan Volpe

    It seems that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may eventually help the cause of nuclear nonproliferation, if the United States approaches its allies with the right mix of defense assurances and aid to civilian nuclear power that may serve as a "hedge" to reassure other governments that they could develop weapons, even if they don't. 

  • SOURCE: National Interest
    10/26/2022

    Perspective: Using a Nuclear Weapon Would be Disastrous for Russia

    by Steve Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb

    Russia has retained much of the Soviet-era's top-down command structure, which removes decisionmakers from both the real-world context and consequences of big decisions. This presents a danger that those leaders will misundersand the catastrophic result of a nuclear bomb. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    10/24/2022

    Tim Snyder: Why Putin Wants the Republicans in Power

    Although the Republicans are split, it seems clear that Putin is working to boost the isolationist elements of the MAGA movement at a moment when Ukrainian forces are close to defeating Russia's invasion with international and American support. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    10/7/2022

    Look to Russia's Civil War to Explain Current Carnage in Ukraine

    by Adam Hochshild

    The brutality of the Russian war against Ukraine shows few of the linguistic, ethnic, or religious markers that have often accompanied human rights abuses by armies. Thinking of the conflict as a war to maintain empire explains the scope and nature of violence.

  • 8/7/2022

    On Putin's Vacant Moral Imagination

    by Walter G. Moss

    Russia's stances toward Ukraine and the west in general reflect its leaders' inability, perhaps nurtured by the Soviet system, to view world affairs through another's perspective.