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.
Russia
Dear Ramzan Kadyrov
How do you get an interview with the warlord of Chechnya? The best bet for catching Ramzan Kadyrov is just to show up on his own turf, announce your presence and hope for the best.
Age of Empires
Even though both his grandfathers died in Bolshevik captivity, Ilyas Kayayev can’t say Russian rule has been bad for Dagestan on the whole: “What’s the point of being independent and sitting in a cave?”
Welcome to Makhachkala
Government officials and policemen are the targets of attacks, though innocent bystanders also get caught in the crossfire. Strashno – it’s terrible, Arslan says, especially if you have children.
Aboard Dagestan Airlines Flight 372
Dagestan Airlines Flight 372 is a Tupolev-154 which hasn’t seen a redesign since the 1970s. I get a window seat in row 31, where I can put up my legs on a hump that covers the landing gear. The only advantage of my seat is that I’m next to an emergency exit.
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.
How Russia Fears Being Forgotten
Putin needs the U.S. as an enemy, because it builds him up as a brave leader and allows him to crack down on internal dissent. The regimes in Iran, Venezuela or North Korea are no different in their dependence on U.S. censure – the harsher, the better.
Time Is Catching Up with Putin
Vladimir Putin’s biggest enemy isn’t his opposition, but the simple passage of time.
Behind the Scenes of a Protest Blog
I’ll make a confession: the anti-government rallies that broke out in Moscow a year ago really annoyed me. Like Vladimir Putin, I had completely different plans than to worry about protesting middle-class Muscovites.
Cloaks and Daggers
In America, the CIA chief quits because of a sex scandal, though nobody believes that’s why he really had to go. In Russia, the defense minister resigns because of a corruption scandal, but everybody thinks an extramarital affair was the true reason.
Double standards or standard duplicity?
