As a friend and I sat on one of Moscow’s ubiquitous summer verandas one evening, quaint trams trundled by. For a moment, it almost felt like Prague.
Opinion
“Bromance”
The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Newsweek have all used “bromance” to describe the unlikeliest twist in the troubled US-Russian relationship.
In Putin’s Russia, No Difference Between Doping and Duping
Russia’s doping scandal is only the symptom of a much larger problem.
What Brexit Looks Like to the Rest of Europe
A colleague from Poland advised his British-born wife to get a Polish passport. It was high time to make some coffee.
How NATO Really Provoked Putin
From the Kremlin’s point of view, it’s infinitely worse to be ignored than to be considered a worthy rival.
“Hotspots”
The word choice was an unhappy mélange of the common meanings of hot spot, evoking a place that was dangerous, crowded, and high-tech all at the same time.
For Europe, the Party’s Over. It’s Not Clear What Comes Next.
The promise of Europe is over. Paradoxically, German hubris carries a good deal of the blame.
Being Cool Has Ruined Berlin
The Berlin I once knew was not the kind of place you raved about. There was no fine dining but plenty of heavy drinking. The beautiful people ran London and Munich and Milan. In Berlin, the punks were in charge.
A Dirty – Not Particularly Funny – Poem Just Turned Into an ‘International Crisis’
Just when Angela Merkel thought she had checked “Turkey” off her to-do list, a filth-laden poem read by a late-night comic is presenting her with a new dilemma.
Vladimir Putin Feels Your Pain
The Kremlin’s call-in program is like a surreal game show where an entire country asks one contestant questions — and his answers are always right.
