North Asia

Ever since the first mobilisation for the war, the Association of Russian Doctors and Gynaecologists had reported that the demand for the procedure of preserving one's own genetic material had greatly increased. Proekt Veter has collected the stories of the wives of soldiers killed at the front who nonetheless became pregnant with IVF after their death.

Clean' energy in Russia remains just over 30%, and entire sectors such as automotive and heating still run exclusively on fossil fuels. Mind you, with the invasion of Ukraine, hopes of seeing Moscow as a major contributor to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism have faded.

Proposals and ideas about ending the war are multiplying, but for Putin, any negotiations with Trump would only be an intermediate stage in an ongoing process. For Ukraine the situation is becoming increasingly grim, not only due to the uncertainties of Western aid but also to the decreasing participation of Ukrainians in the war effort.

In the separatist region of Georgia that has been under Moscow's control for 15 years, thousands of people rose up against the government's agreements with Russian oligarchs. Bžanija announced the step back ‘to preserve stability and constitutional order’. These are not unprecedented events for Sukhumi, which is nevertheless destined to remain firmly in the hands of the Kremlin.

Author Viktor Erofeev, from exile in Berlin since 2022, publishes a novel entitled Velikij Gopnik, illustrating how Putinism emerged from Russian subconscious and the backyards of Leningrad to reach levels of extremism towards its very soul, incapable of ‘accepting a normal life’.

Even the minorities of the former great empire who aspire to independence are questioning what the tycoon's approach to the Ukrainian issue will really be and what consequences this may have for their battles. Intellectual Kharun ar-Rusi: Washington has always been Russocentric even in its support for opposition to Putin

From aliens to fifth columns in the ‘Novaja Gazeta’ artist Petr Sarukhanov has tried to draw the whole picture of the ‘enemies of holy Russia’, composing a list that seems to be updated non-stop. As Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained, ‘the special military operation has recompacted our society, allowing us to purify it’.

It is not at all clear whether "homeland" means the same thing for Trump's followers or Putin's subjects, whether it indicates the nativism of "blood and soil" or rather the "spiritual" union of those who have a shared vision of state, region, or the whole world. For now, the newly elected president of the United States has promised a solution to the Ukraine war by 20 January, the day of his inauguration (coincidentally the Orthodox feast of the Baptism of the Lord).

Strong-arm tactics have become a systematic means of pressure, especially against Russian political prisoners. A Mediazona investigation tells the stories of those who have been subjected to violence in Russian prisons to extract forced confessions.

What are the repercussions in Asia of the deployment of Kim Jong-Un's troops in Ukraine? Prof Andrew Yeo told AsiaNews that geopolitical lines are being redrawn. Ukraine may be encouraging North Korean soldiers to desert, but support for Ukraine in South Korea is a divisive issue. For its part, China is trying to avoid being identified as part of the Russia-North Korea bloc.

Nostalgia for the Soviet simplification of the world, even shared by the opposition, is pervasive while ‘making America great again’ resonates in the Caucasus or Siberia as much as the infantilized world of Massachusetts.

Once again this year, despite bans and restrictions, the celebration of the “Restitution of Names” of Soviet-era victims was held in more than 100 cities in Russia and abroad, gathering at different places and times than usual to evade police controls. Meanwhile, Moscow authorities report that plans are afoot to remove the Lubyanka Stone for “renovation work” on the square.