We tend to focus on the big challenges facing Russia: war, sanctions, the struggle of authoritarianism vs the remnants of... more

So Bashar al-Assad's blood-drenched regime has fallen. Hurrah. But what now for Russia? Is this a terrible geopolitical defeat, or... more

President Zelensky's suggestion that military attempts to retake the occupied territories could be abandoned in return for rapid NATO membership... more

Schrödinger's Defence Minister, at once busy and visible yet strangely inconsequential and intangible, what can one make of Andrei Belousov,... more

'Strategic culture' means the underlying cultural assumptions about threats and options that informs a nation's specific strategic choices, and Russia's... more

It's impossible to avoid talking about the potential implications of Donald Trump's election, even as its difficult to know for... more

I use reviews of three books to consider the risks and limitations of personalistic explanations of power under Putin, and... more

(It seems to be obligatory to use a weak BRICS/bricks pun, so I felt I had to follow...)The BRICS summit... more

Released to Patrons yesterday, a bonus mini-pod on the claims that North Korean combat troops are heading to fight in... more

An all-spook episode, as I try to piece together the rise of FSB First Deputy Director Sergei Korolev, who seems... more