Proponents of the “Dugin the mastermind” argument need to substantiate their claims with evidence and ask themselves how effective, if at all, is Dugin at influencing Kremlin elites and Russian foreign policy.

Dmitry Adamsky’s outstanding Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy explains the religious imagination that has swept not only through the Russian nuclear arsenal since 1991, but also into all levels of the country’s nuclear tirade, military forces, and even Russian foreign policy more broadly.

Putin’s Russia still has numerous challenges today from corruption to slow economic growth, but Chris Miller argues in Putinomics that the federation should be compared to fellow petrostate Venezuela since both were similar in the late 1990s.

In the West, the church has often defined itself by defying the state. In the East, particularly Russia, the church…

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Ukraine to Russia: in addition to Greater Russia, there is Holy Rus. Now the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is independent, which has the potential to be a seminal event in the history of both countries.

What on the surface seems simply an esoteric argument over ecclesiastical jurisdiction is anything but. At the heart of the schism lie the ideological underpinnings for Putin’s new nationalism, and its violent manifestations in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Putin, like the czars and boyars of old Russia, is a kleptocrat and tyrant who torments his opponents, sometimes murders them, represses voices of dissent, exploits religion, shamelessly deploys propaganda, presides over a labyrinth of espionage and manipulation, and warily views the world as vicious and zero-sum.

Trump’s recent trip to Brussels, the UK, and Helsinki for the now infamous Putin summit has the president appearing in a different light

Russia and Iran are coordinating to prop up Assad in Syria but this could bring Iran one step closer to war with Israel.