When Ukrainians see another apartment building destroyed, another family killed, or another city attacked, the question feels unavoidable: How could 140 million Russians allow this to happen? Why did they not stop Putin? Why did they not fill the streets, sabotage the war, overthrow the government—or at least speak openly against it? And if they…
For most English-speaking viewers, the North Caucasus appears only as a handful of disconnected images. Perhaps you know Khabib Nurmagomedov, the undefeated UFC champion from Dagestan. Or Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruler of Chechnya, usually seen surrounded by armed men and declaring his loyalty to Vladimir Putin. You may remember the Beslan school siege, one of…
A Russian oligarch seems to have everything: private jets, enormous yachts, villas in several countries, companies worth billions, and access to the Kremlin. From the outside, he looks powerful enough to influence presidents. That is why many people in Russia and the West assumed that oligarchs were the true rulers of the country—that Putin depended…
You have probably seen them before: young Russian men in tracksuits squatting beside an apartment block, smoking, drinking cheap beer, and watching everyone who passes as if the courtyard belongs to them. These are Russian gopniks. They occupy the opposite end of the country’s cultural spectrum, far removed from ballet, classical music, and literature. In…
Russia looks like a country governed by law. It has a constitution. It has courts. It has prosecutors, investigators, ministries, regulations, permits, forms, stamps, signatures, inspections, and procedures for every imaginable part of life. But when real power enters the room, the law often quietly leaves. A poor person may be crushed by a missing…
If you are an aspiring dictator, one of your first problems is very practical: how do you persuade millions of people to give up freedom, property rights, and control over their own future? You cannot place a soldier with a rifle next to every teacher, factory worker, accountant, doctor, and pensioner. That would be expensive,…
Where are the Russians who oppose the war? Why don’t they protest? Why don’t they stop Putin? Why don’t they fill the streets and say, “Not in our name”? The answer is uncomfortable. Many of them are gone. Not all of them. Not enough to change the country from outside. But a very specific class…
One of the questions I hear most often from my Western viewers is: “How do you turn Russia into a normal country?” By normal, they mean a country that does not attack anyone, lives in peace, and builds its own prosperity instead of building an empire. The solutions most often suggested online usually sound like…
