Author: Boris Bondarev / Eurasia Daily Monitor

On February 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin was interviewed on the Russian television program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.” During the interview, Putin declared, “If not for the position of the West … the war would have ended a year and a half ago. … But those in Kyiv did not want that. I do not know...

On December 28, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti conducted a comprehensive interview with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov (Ministry of International Affairs of the Russian Federa­tion, December 28). The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the broader context of global politics have brought the need for a thorough reevaluation of the West’s understanding and...

Until June, Russian President Vladimir Putin was apparently quite confident in his power and the lack of any true challenge to it. Anti-Putin activists were successfully squeezed out of the country, the most vociferous were imprisoned or killed. The more measured dissatisfied voices largely stayed silent. The Russian elites were seemingly willing to endure the...

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to North Korea on July 25 to celebrate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) self-proclaimed “victory” in the 1950-1953 Korean War has generated much speculation in the expert community (Lenta.ru, July 25). The DPRK has always been in the peri-phery of Moscow’s interests. North Korea has not been...

Repeated reports alleging the growing desire of the West to push Ukraine into peace talks with Russia provide an opportunity to consider how such talks would actually play out (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, November 24, 2022; Mk.ru, April 25). The main question here is the following: What is the desired outcome of the war for Western negotiators?...