The Russian World

In a divided and conflict-ridden world, universal unity is Moscow's new religion. It relies on destabilisation, propaganda, and the financing of "friendly" elites and oligarchs loyal to Moscow, along with the Churches as tools of power. After Ukraine, Kazakhstan is the country most at risk, with the longest land border and the largest Russian diaspora. The US, the EU, and international partners will have to strengthen economic and diplomatic relations with the territories targeted by Moscow.

In his new book, writer Mikhail Zygar retraces the last thirty years of the Soviet Union through a gallery of characters, helping us to understand Moscow's present based on the idea that no dictatorship is eternal and that the future always offers a chance for change.

The 2025 military campaign, the most violent and systematic, is nearing its conclusion before the winter freeze. For one expert, “the strategic context of the war is [. . .] shifting," while Russia’s economy slides towards stagnation. Trump is tempted to conclude a "mutual deal" with Putin. Neither Russia nor Ukraine are truly capable of changing the course and nature of the war.

The creation of a platform at the Council of Europe for dialogue with the democratic forces in Russia that oppose Vladimir Putin's regime is hampered by internal divisions between the various groups, including criticism of the Anti-Corruption Fund created by Alexei Navalny. Vladimir Kara-Murza's appeal: ‘Every political prisoner must be able to count on not being forgotten’.

Unlike the Gaza deal, the summer drama surrounding the meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska did not lead to a letup in military operations, but rather pushed both sides towards further escalation, in deeds and words. As in 1914, the "illusion of fate" is dangerously rising again, obliterating all possibilities for choice and diplomatic solutions.

By 31 December, another 135,000 young Russians will be called up for military service under increasingly stringent conditions to prevent loopholes. The aim is not primarily to expand the army, but to redefine the very fabric of society, making the entire population feel at the front, even if it is mainly Caucasians and Asians who are sent to be slaughtered.

Moldova, which is seemingly the closest target for Moscow's "hybrid war”, is headed to parliamentary elections tomorrow. Meanwhile, unidentified aircraft circling in the skies of Europe are like menacing totems, evoking the Siberian-rooted shamanism that, in today’s Russia, is one of the most radical expressions of its “defence of traditional values” against Western depravity.

There is an essential and original link between the Orthodox faith and power, as already shown in the 11th century by Metropolitan Hilarion's “Discourse on Law and Grace”, the “manifesto” of the Russian faith. Apart from Philip II of Moscow, who rebelled against the massacres of the first Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible at the end of the 16th century and was suffocated in his monastic cell as a result, there are no known cases of other ecclesiastical opponents of the monarchs' holy wars.

Novaya Gazeta documents how, since the 1990s and increasingly during Putin's quarter-century of rule, 213 new monuments have been erected to Stalin, along with hundreds of actions of various kinds to commemorate him. This tribute, instrumental to the cult of Victory, today allows Putin to crack down harshly on any form of dissent.

While in Ukraine the conflict is entirely internal to Orthodoxy, on the shores of the Baltic Sea it is the great Christian traditions of all Europe that are vying for a small piece of land and a small people, on which the destinies of all others are concentrated. Among the battlegrounds is the historic Pjukhtitskij convent, located just twe

In one of Russia’s most important cities, the local governor, Gleb Nikitin, made an unprecedented move by including the Catholic church among the historic buildings slated for restoration, and by returning it to the city’s small Catholic community of several hundred multiethnic believers. The goal is to show that in today's Russia, the "state religion," in addition to promote militant Orthodoxy, also aims to unite other confessions and religions.

Patriarch Kirill praises the “expression of goodwill” by the two leaders of "the most powerful countries on the planet." Meanwhile, Russian bloggers and propagandists praise the “magnificent achievement” of peace with America “while in Donbass we continue to advance”. And for Moscow, Zelensky can come to the Kremlin to acknowledge his defeat.