Moscow is always a surprising kind of place. I expected Putin’s us-against-them nationalism to be more strident than ever. But I find the city uncharacteristically subdued and anxious about the future.
Opinion
Students, Not Spooks, Effect Regime Change
You can bankroll a coup but you can’t buy a popular uprising.
What Obama Doesn’t Get about Russia
The Obama administration is being either naive or delusional in its belief that Russia will ever pull in the same direction over Syria. Putin will back al-Assad to the bitter end.
Don’t Tear Down This Wall
A quarter of a century after Ronald Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, a new generation of Berliners is taking to the streets to preserve it.
Bobos in Berlin
I paid for my first apartment with beer money, and my second pad didn’t cost more than $100. Since then the neighborhoods have been filled with the organic food shops and yoga studios that are the stamp of hipsterdom.
Barbarians at the Gate
There’s a refugee camp in the center of Berlin filled with people who have fled conflicts around the world. They sleep in tents and eat donated food. Almost all of them are breaking German law just by being here.
Germany and Drones
Military experience gained in the Balkans, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan has made Germany more, not less, assertive. One of the clearest signs is Angela Merkel’s pursuit of weaponized drones.
The Little Witch and a Big Problem
Germany’s most beloved witch has been making mischief for more than 50 years, but now she’s caused an uproar that goes to the heart of what it means to be German in the 21st century.
From Death Strip to Tech Campus
Although Berlin still lags behind other European tech hubs like London in terms of available capital or qualified developers, the German capital’s scruffy, anything-goes attitude is attracting talent.
At Peace With the Past
Seventy years ago, Soviet forces surrounded and crushed Hitler’s Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Now an exhibition in Dresden returns to that wintry hell on the Volga.
