Russia

Coherent US strategy seen key to effective sanctions

By David A. Wemer

“Sanctions can be a useful, precise, and effective tool of US foreign policy, so long as they are treated as a tool to implement a clear policy and a thought-out strategy,” David Mortlock said.

Policing terror finance in an era of great competition

By Michael B. Greenwald

The United States' sanctions strategy is increasingly burdened by the involvement of systemically important financial institutions and sovereign investors in global financial statecraft.

Reality check

By Bohdan Nahaylo

Ukraine’s presidential election was a veritable political earthquake. The fault line between the old and the new, the real and the illusory, and pseudo-nationalism and grassroots patriotism, has been dramatically exposed. The old political establishment was shaken to its very foundations, and the strong tremors and shockwaves continue to be felt. The shifting political tectonic […]

Putin’s ability to stash money in US banks and real estate is a ‘strategic danger,’ warns US Sen. Whitehouse

By David A. Wemer

The senator lamented the fact that the United States is “now number two in terms of the nations that support secret financing and funding and allow for the hiding of assets behind shell corporations."

The illusions of Putin’s Russia

By Anders Åslund

The best defense of the West against Putin’s authoritarian and kleptocratic regime is transparency, shining light on this anonymous wealth.

Ambassador Fried Testifies Before House Committee on Foreign Affairs on “Countering a Resurgent Russia”

Children as a tool: how Russia militarizes kids in the Donbas and Crimea

By Iryna Matviyishyn

With an eye to the future, officials in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine are waging a campaign of “patriotic education” aimed at reaching the hearts and minds of those most susceptible to ideological persuasion: children. Russia has always used the militarization of public life to indoctrinate local populations and continues that practice today. Currently, thousands […]

How the West can confront a resurgent Russia

By David A. Wemer

The United States, working with its allies and democratic partners, can push back against Russian aggression, which has been marked by interference in elections in the United States and Europe; the harassment, invasion, and annexation of neighbors; and the propping up of despots in places such as Syria and Venezuela.

Vladimir Putin does Shakespeare

By Stephen Blank

Vladimir Putin’s newest display of talent is his excelling in theatrics. He recently elected to play Macbeth or Richard III. Having nothing left to offer Russia as the indices of immiseration pile up, Putin’s recourse to imperial theatrics has dramatically accelerated. But ultimately this performance, like those of his predecessors on stage and in reality, […]