A prisoner swap that portrays Putin’s Russia
Never before has the Kremlin gone so far in publicly identifying itself with the figures who kill those perceived as dangerous enemies of the state
Ukraine defends its cultural heritage under Putin’s bombs and attempts to reframe history
After the Russian invasion, the most precious pieces were evacuated from Kyiv to secret locations on trains that ran along the front lines under missile fire
Vladimir Putin, the man who knows how to bide his time
The purge in the Russian Ministry of Defense would have satisfied the Kremlin’s two fiercest critics, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Peace, a word in decline in Russia
The nation’s leaders do not want an end to the conflict in Ukraine, understood as compromise, but rather a victory, understood as the imposition of their own agenda
‘Foreign agent,’ the brush with which the Kremlin tars its most critical opponents
The label was initially applied in 2012 to identify NGOs that received foreign funding and has become a catch-all tool against Russian dissidents
Russian Orthodox priests persecuted for opposing war
Archpriest Andrei Kordochkin, suspended from service in Madrid for his pacifist positions, officiated at a ceremony for the deceased opponent Alexei Navalny in Germany, from where he urges Russians to ‘study all forms of non-violent resistance’
Pro-Russian separatists in Transnistria, a possible new front for Moldova and Ukraine
A dissident politician believes a congress of deputies in the secessionist Moldovan region will request incorporation into the Russian Federation this week
Putin’s unachieved goals in Ukraine
The Russian president has not altered the principles he invoked to attack Kyiv, which involve the United States and NATO submitting to his will
Putin’s great Russian people
Unhappy soldiers and women waiting for their men to come home from war can have a much heavier social impact than opposition movements
Russian political leader opposing the war: ‘Russia and Ukraine urgently need to talk and stop the massacre’
Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the Yabloko party, told Putin in their October meeting that a ceasefire is ‘absolutely necessary’
Azerbaijan’s victory in Nagorno-Karabakh opens the door to new conflicts in the Caucasus
Yerevan fears that President Aliyev’s forces will continue their streak of victories and seize Armenian territory
The long agony of the Soviet Union: local identities, global conflicts
The implosion of the Soviet space, far from being a clean break with the past, has left cultural and political questions still unresolved
Russian students to be schooled in a version of history tailored to Vladimir Putin’s nationalism
A new textbook to be introduced as compulsory reading in high schools rewrites much of post-World War II history to meet the designs of the Kremlin
Prigozhin, a necessary collaborator in Putin’s Africa policy
The Russian leader is trying to seduce African countries at a summit held in Saint Petersburg where the Wagner Group’s boss made an appearance
The Wagner rebellion in Russia: Notes after a failed mutiny
Aleksandr Lukashenko has the best political instincts in Europe. The Belarusian leader is now in a position to mediate between the Kremlin and the mercenaries, and could perhaps play the role of arbitrator between Moscow and the West
Russia, between Putin’s ‘long night’ and the ‘fleeting phenomenon of civil war’
The main unknown in Wagner’s attempted rebellion is whether Prigozhin’s uprising is an isolated act of a defiant coup plotter, the figurehead of one (or several) Kremlin families, or both
Ukraine invasion deals blow to Russia’s experimental theater scene
Some of the most prestigious directors have emigrated, while the actors who publicly speak out against the war often pay for their words with their jobs. Many prefer to remain silent or work in the alternative scene
‘The alliance of Ukrainians and Russians fighting against Putin is forged in blood’
Denis Sokolov is in charge of recruiting volunteers from Russia willing to fight in Ukraine’s International Legion against the invading Kremlin forces
Putin places Russia’s religious art at the service of geopolitics
The Russian president has handed the most precious icon of Russian antiquity, ‘The Trinity,’ to the Orthodox Church against the advice of restorers and art experts
Defeat Russia, or seek peace in Ukraine
With no swift end in sight to the war in Ukraine, opinion is divided between Kyiv seeking definitive battlefield success or accepting territorial losses for a peace agreement
Ukraine reports looting of Kherson museums by Russian troops
Before leaving the liberated city, the occupiers loaded valuable works for relocation to Crimea, where 10,000 pieces are being kept for “protection” in Simferopol
Mikhail Gorbachev’s circles of solitude
For the last leader of the USSR, the final stage of life was marked by the death of his wife and the political isolation he suffered in his country
Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman: ‘I have to eat at home and I am practically under house arrest’
Blacklisted by the EU, the London-based businessman says that sanctions are counterproductive and will only push entrepreneurs back to Russia
Ukraine screams, the world shakes
The Russian invasion launched by a fanatical Vladimir Putin has created a terrifying present in Europe and an uncertain future at the global scale. Speaking from the heart of the conflict, Pilar Bonet, who has covered the USSR, Russia and post-Soviet space for 34 years for EL PAÍS, analyzes the situation
Putin is embarking on dangerous crusade
The Russian president is framing himself as a torchbearer in the fight against the West, which he describes as the ‘empire of lies’
Russian espionage chief accuses Spain of “repression” over Catalonia
During a conference speech, Sergei Naryshkin criticized the “brutal violence” used by Spanish authorities at the October 1 independence referendum
Russia uses Catalan referendum in fight against Brussels
State-funded media outlets use the crisis in Spain as proof of the failure of the European project