A Tale of Haunted Love Captures Wartime Ukraine
Matt Gallagher’s new novel Daybreak, set amid the churning horror of Russia’s war against Ukraine, has been marketed as a love story. Yet it is...
Russia’s Bank Chief Is Running Her Own PR Campaign
Ukraine’s current stalemate with Russia has frustrated many people, including the former’s military chief. A largely stymied counteroffensive this year gained little ground, especially as...
‘Calling Ukraine’ Captures a World the War Destroyed
My native country of Ukraine is so awash in tragedy that it can be hard to remember just how funny the people are. Although he...
Putin’s Stability Was Always a Myth
During the pro-democracy protests that swept through Moscow in 2011-12, the Kremlin did its best to argue that Russians “shouldn’t rock the boat.” After all,...
Chinese Courts Want Abused Women to Shut Up
The fact that authoritarian societies are more brutal seems intuitive. Why shouldn’t a coercive state create coercive relationships between its citizens? Yet the mechanisms of...
Chechnya Brutalized Russian Society, and Ukraine Is Paying the Price
During Russia’s wars on Chechnya, videos of beheadings of Russian soldiers shocked and dismayed Russian society. But only for a while. Today, that kind of...
Get Out of Russia
Years ago, the late Russian writer Elena Gremina correctly predicted that her country was growing worse by the day. “I don’t want to live in...
Even Recorded Murders Won’t Turn Russia Against the War
The video is only a few seconds long. A Ukrainian soldier is standing in a small hole he likely dug himself, a cigarette dangling from...
Iraq’s Damage Created a Strain of Permanent American Defeatism
In recent decades, both the moral injury of the Iraq War and the turbulent state of public discourse has shaped an anti-American narrative strongly held...