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There’s a Better Way To Measure How Much Russians Support Putin

There’s a Better Way To Measure How Much Russians Support Putin

Every time new trust ratings for President Vladimir Putin are released. Some commentators point out that public support for Putin’s course of...

21.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

Alexander Shulga

Tear Down the Wall of Silence Around Negotiations To End Russia-Ukraine War

Tear Down the Wall of Silence Around Negotiations To End Russia-Ukraine War

Russia’s war against Ukraine is entering another dangerous phase with both sides relying heavily on long range strike systems, including Ukraine...

20.08.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Mikhail Troitskiy

Putin Revealed His True Intentions With Japan by Visiting Disputed Islands

Putin Revealed His True Intentions With Japan by Visiting Disputed Islands

President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the island of Iturup on August 13 was routine in some respects. As with his brief appearances in other Russian...

17.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

James D. J. Brown

Putin Revealed His True Intentions to Japan by Visiting Disputed Islands

Putin Revealed His True Intentions to Japan by Visiting Disputed Islands

President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the island of Iturup on August 13 was routine in some respects. As with his brief appearances in other Russian...

17.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

James D. J. Brown

What Did Russia’s Opposition Do When Yabloko Was Thrown Off the Ballot? Keep Fighting Itself.

Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where a person doubts their skills, talents, or whether they deserve their success. How, then, would one...

14.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

Kateryna Shenheliia

How Russia’s Obsession With Economic Stability Made It Weaker

This article was originally published on the author’s Substack “Sic Transition Gloria.” There’s little reward for being right when few care...

13.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

Nick Trickett

Soviet Dissidents Understood What Russia’s Exiled Opposition Has Forgotten

In a recent article for the Moscow Times, the prominent Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin claimed I argued that “the interests of Russia’s...

11.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

Nigel Gould-Davies

Russia's State Duma Elections Are for Show. But They're Still Worth Paying Attention To.

A reader might be tempted to dismiss this article out of hand. Elections? In Russia? Come on now! Everyone knows that Russia is not a democracy and...

10.08.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Dan Storyev

Russia’s Exiled Opposition Wants What’s Best for Europe. It’s a Better Future For Russia, Too.

A recent article in The Spectator by the British former diplomat Nigel Gould-Davies raises an important question about the relationship between the...

07.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

Ilya Yashin

Ukraine Can’t Bomb Russians Into Opposing Putin

For more than two weeks, Ukrainian forces have been carrying out near-daily attacks on warehouses operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest online...

06.08.2026 10

The Moscow Times

An Anonymous Writer In Russia

Tokayev’s Warning to Putin Was About More Than Ukraine

Why would one of Russia's closest allies publicly call on President Vladimir Putin to freeze the war in Ukraine, knowing the message would not be...

05.08.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Zarina Akhmatova

Spider-Man Shows the Folly of Ukraine’s Cultural Boycott

Last week, it emerged that the version of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” to be released in Ukrainian cinemas would be three seconds shorter than the...

04.08.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Andrey Sapozhnikov

Putin Can Learn 3 Big Lessons From World War I

It has become commonplace to compare the war in Ukraine to World War I, with its desolate blasted landscapes and grinding trench warfare. Beyond the...

03.08.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Konstantin Gaivoronsky

When Corporate Culture Works: In Memory of Derk Sauer

Exactly one year ago, Derk Sauer, the founder of The Moscow Times, passed away. His death was untimely and unexpected, the result of an accident. Derk...

31.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Alexander Gubsky

When U.S.-Russia Cooperation Worked – And Why Its Collapse Still Matters

This article was originally published by Real Clear Defense. In the late 1990s, I would take the Moscow metro to Lubyanka Square and walk into the...

30.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Dennis T. Cosgrove

Where Can Russia Find More Money for War?

The Central Bank again cut its key interest rate by a symbolic quarter of a percentage point, to 14%, but warned that high rates will continue longer...

29.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Tatyana Rybakova

Russian Propaganda Is Getting Worse as the War Drags On

In the first months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia took pride in the high quality of its propaganda. Even its enemies and various...

28.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Yan Levchenko

Washington’s War on the International Criminal Court Is a Gift to the Kremlin

On July 13, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration would seek to “dismantle” the International...

24.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Gleb Bogush

Moscow Shows Little Faith in the Potential of Russian Children

In 2024, the most recent year I could find data for, only 43% of Russian schoolchildren moved from ninth grade into 10th. For modern Russia, this is a...

23.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Valery Panyushkin

Is Clavicular Russia's Next Useful Idiot?

Every "redpilled” man who comes of age seems to experience an identical fantasy: to leave his liberal, feminist country for somewhere much...

21.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Kateryna Shenheliia

I Am Wanted by Russia. The Consequences Follow Me Everywhere.

A recent application I made for an administrative job in Britain asked whether I had any unspent criminal convictions. I ticked “yes.” In...

20.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Olga Borisova

Even If Ukraine Doesn't Recapture Crimea, Kyiv Has Damaged Russia's Credibility

This summer, none of our friends or relatives still in Russia will holiday in Crimea. Many continued doing so after Russia's full-scale invasion,...

16.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Jason Corcoran

Russia's Gas Industry Is Dying a Slow But Occasionally Explosive Death

Before 2022, Gazprom’s gas pipelines were an instrument of political influence over Europe, as well as one of the pillars of the federal budget. ...

15.07.2026 20

The Moscow Times

Igor Volubev

Russia’s Billionaires Face a Dilemma – Putin Threatens and Protects Their Wealth

Among the eight billionaires who taken off the Russian Forbes list in 2026, only four were removed because their businesses became less valuable....

14.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Ilya Matveev

The Unbearable Triviality of Canceling a Russian Cartoon

A specter is haunting the West: the specter of a cartoon bear and no-less-cartoon hyperactive little girl. You might be tempted to click away from a...

13.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Dan Storyev

The Unbearable Triviality of Cancelling a Russian Cartoon

A specter is haunting the West: the specter of a cartoon bear and no-less-cartoon hyperactive little girl. You might be tempted to click away from a...

10.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Dan Storyev

With Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia Holds a Poisoned Chalice

As Russian influence across the South Caucasus continues to erode, one of the Kremlin’s most senior officials, Sergei Kiriyenko, has been tasked...

08.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Olesya Vartanyan

How Did the Soviet Security State Outlive the U.S.S.R.? Look to Dzerzhinsky for Clues.

Recently, while scrolling through Central Asian circles on Facebook, I came across a slogan posted on someone’s profile: “The fact that you do not...

06.07.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Leila Nazgül Seiitbek

Russia's Stock Market Is the Best Measure of Russia's Problems. The Signs Aren't Good.

I love the stock market. I love it in a thoroughly mercenary way because it provides the most honest snapshot of public sentiment that no mass poll or...

01.07.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Tatyana Rybakova

How Russia’s Neighbors Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Mindaugas Sinkevičius, the incoming prime minister of Lithuania, said on June 30 that he supports removing from the country’s Constitution the ban...

30.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Vitold Jančis

The World Shouldn’t Be Confused When Russians Shrug Off a Crisis

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg does a superb job. If the reader doesn’t follow his work, they really should. He doesn’t just get Russia; he likes it,...

29.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

An Anonymous Writer In Russia

Russia Helps The Western Far-Right Feel at Home

Western coverage mocked the foreign guest list at the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, laughing at how low Russia had sunk, and moved...

27.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Inna Bondarenko

How Viktor Tsoi’s Songs Became Anthems of Protest and Propaganda in Putin’s Russia

Russian rock has always been a rather insular space where a narrow circle of artists who rose to fame a good 40 years ago still rule the roost. During...

25.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Andrey Sapozhnikov

Why Does Putin Fiddle While Russia Burns? That's How the System Works.

When Ukrainian drones struck targets in Moscow on June 16, 18 and 22, the attacks were notable not only because of the dramatic footage that they...

24.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Andras Toth-Czifra

Did the International Criminal Court Just Ease Restrictions on Putin?

At the G7 summit in Évian, France, the possibility of organizing a trilateral meeting between the presidents of the United States and Ukraine, Donald...

23.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Gleb Bogush

Europe Should Beat Russia at Its Own Nationalization Game

Europe is facing growing political and social pressure to move beyond sanctions and asset freezes toward something far more consequential in its...

22.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Jason Corcoran

‘You Attacked the Home of a Very High-Ranking Individual in Britain’: What the Starmer Fires Reveal About Russia’s International Sabotage Campaign

In July 2020, Keir Starmer stepped before the cameras for the first time as leader of the opposition Labour Party, standing beside his wife outside...

19.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Daniela Richterova

Russia’s Fuel Shortages Are Manageable. But the Kremlin’s Options Are Shrinking.

Reports showing fuel shortages in Crimea and rationing measures implemented in some regions are reminiscent of excitable reporting from last year that...

18.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Dmitry Nekrasov

Roman Abramovich Can Talk to Moscow and Kyiv. But He Can’t Change Putin’s Mind.

Earlier this month, a familiar name re-entered the ongoing push for a negotiated settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine: sanctioned Russian oligarch...

17.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Casey Michel

A Decades-Old Split in Russian Islam Risks Resurrecting Soviet-Style Religious Control

For most outside observers, Russian Islam looks like a single official structure that speaks in a loyal voice when the Kremlin needs it to. In...

17.06.2026 60

The Moscow Times

An Anonymous Writer In Russia

When Russia Puts On a Show, Some in the West Buy It

A key feature of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is that it once genuinely worked. It wasn’t set up to be yet another one of...

15.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Andrey Sapozhnikov

Some Georgians Think Russia Just Annexed Part of Their Country

As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, a quieter power grab in the South Caucasus has gone largely unnoticed beyond the region. Since the breakup of...

12.06.2026 30

The Moscow Times

Nicholas Castillo

SPIEF 2026 Was A Tragicomic Encapsulation of Russia's Economic Quagmire

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) began with an epic backdrop as clouds of black smoke from a Ukrainian drone strike on a local...

10.06.2026 50

The Moscow Times

Tatyana Rybakova

How a Few Thousand Votes Could Have Stopped Putin’s Rise to Power

The history of Russia, and of humanity, was set on its current course 30 years ago, when then-St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak’s unexpected...

09.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Sergei Shelin

Why Is the Russian Orthodox Church Encouraging People To Volunteer in Occupied Ukraine?

The Russian Orthodox Church has handed down yet another initiative to its dioceses. Called the “Patriarchal Humanitarian Mission: Together We Help...

08.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Fr. andrey mizyuk

Japan Must Stop Its Embarrassing Embrace of Kremlin Cultural Projects

On May 11, Mikhail Shvydkoy, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for international cultural cooperation, took to the stage at...

05.06.2026 50

The Moscow Times

James Brown

Putin Dishes Out Economic Warfare – But Can't Take It

Armenians go to the polls in a crucial election this Sunday, which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has positioned as a plebiscite on his agenda of...

04.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Maximilian Hess

Normalizing Relations With Belarus Would Be a Mistake

In recent months, some leading figures in the Belarusian opposition in exile have suggested that the West re-engage with the dictatorial regime of...

03.06.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Arkady Moshes

Reports of Russia's Collapse Are Greatly Exaggerated

Russia is waging a war against its neighbor. Its economy is overheated and dependent on the continuing conflict, while the country is rapidly growing...

02.06.2026 50

The Moscow Times

Dan Storyev

The Kremlin Fears Academics Because They're Antithetical to Autocracy

On May 19, Russian law enforcement arrived at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and interrogated several...

29.05.2026 40

The Moscow Times

Alexandra Borissova Saleh