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Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

The Hill

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Putin should look at Nepal and be afraid

Nepal looked stable, and few would have expected such an outburst.

16.09.2025 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

‘Russophobia’ is a joke, but how should we feel about ordinary Russians?

Russians, and only Russians, can solve this moral dilemma.

10.09.2025 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

5 reasons Putin will never end his war in Ukraine

If Trump truly wants a Nobel by bringing peace to Ukraine and Russia, he will have to address the primary “root cause” of the war: Putin.

26.08.2025 3

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Trump has the cards as Putin’s Russia is falling apart

Putin will not and cannot negotiate in good faith, whether in Alaska or elsewhere.

12.08.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Putin’s talk of soldiers’ feet puts the lie to Russian nationalist myths

Vladimir Putin recently admitted that Russia is an artificial construct created by violence.

07.07.2025 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Putin was one of the losers of the Israel-Iran war

Trump showed that Russia is a bit player with oversized delusions of grandeur.

26.06.2025 8

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Putin gifts Trump an authoritarian kitsch portrait

Putin, in gifting Safronov’s portrait, presumably knew that Trump would appreciate it.

20.06.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Live updates: Newsom reaffirms California will sue Trump over National Guard deployment

Immigration protests in California and President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to quell them have set up a clash between the president and...

09.06.2025 9

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Let Trump and Musk ‘fight for a while’

The longer and nastier their relations, the worse for both — and the better for America and the world.

09.06.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Time is not on Russia’s side in Ukraine

There’s more to the story than numbers of men, money and materiel. Leadership, morale, tactics, strategy, quality of weapons and other...

29.05.2025 7

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Who actually holds ‘the cards’ now in Ukraine? Zelensky.

Though neither a superpower nor a has-been superpower, Ukraine is the only country that can effectively end the war.

21.05.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

John Mearsheimer, the not-so-realistic 'realist,' embarrasses himself again on Russia

The editors of Switzerland’s leading newspaper knew they had a terrific headline when political scientist John Mearsheimer stated in an interview...

15.05.2025 2

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Russia tortured a Ukrainian journalist to death — yet Trump wants to negotiate

As tragic as Viktoria Roshchyna’s death is, it’s also profoundly political.

09.05.2025 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Why won’t Trump or Vance visit Ukraine?

Trump and Vance prefer comfort to hardship, dislike Ukraine and feel some guilt for the crimes they are abetting.

21.04.2025 7

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Grading Trump’s Ukraine War deal-making by ‘Art of the Deal’ standards

How does President Trump’s deal-making record with respect to the Russo-Ukrainian War stack up against that of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky?

16.04.2025 5

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Trump and Putin are making the same error about patriotism

Like it or not, the world is divided into nations, most of which aspire to independent statehood, and into countries, which always manage to elicit...

06.04.2025 5

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Would Ukraine be better off without Trump’s America?

If Trump’s America is a hostile, ignorant and incompetent broker, does it make sense for Ukraine to take part in the ongoing charade known as...

31.03.2025 5

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Expel Hungary from the European Union

Orbán’s semi-authoritarian regime openly flouts freedom, democracy, the rule of law, minority rights, pluralism, tolerance and justice.

24.03.2025 9

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

The real ‘root causes’ of the Ukraine war

Although political culture is never the immediate cause of aggression, it is a powerful facilitator thereof.

19.03.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s Ukraine policy makes Biden look like a genius

Two-and-a-half cheers for Biden’s Ukraine policy. Three loud boos for Trump’s.

07.03.2025 20

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s regime is fated to collapse

Despite its chest-beating rhetoric, the Trump regime is actually brittle and fated to ineffectiveness, collapse or both.

03.03.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Was 40-year-old Trump recruited by the KGB?

The former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, recently claimed in a Facebook post that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB...

26.02.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

3 possible explanations for Putin’s bravado

Does Russia’s president know that his “special military operation” against Ukraine has turned into disaster for Russia? Or does he really think...

22.01.2025 10

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Why Trump should abandon his imperial ambitions

Empires are costly and inefficient, and imperialism is costly and counterproductive, with both combining to generate the very forces that eventually...

14.01.2025 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Live updates: Trump heads to Capitol Hill after asking Supreme Court to stop NY sentencing

President-elect Trump kicked off Wednesday morning by asking the Supreme Court to halt the scheduled Friday sentencing in his New York hush money...

08.01.2025 9

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Doing the math on Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine

Yes, Russia is making incremental advances, but no, those gains don’t amount to a blitzkrieg.

08.01.2025 4

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Does Putin believe in God?

When recently asked at a press conference whether he believes Russia’s war with Ukraine will end in 2025, Vladimir Putin gave an odd answer. “I...

31.12.2024 30

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Putin’s press conference showed he is committed to depravity

Vladimir Putin’s recent end-of-the-year press conference was mostly a self-congratulatory snooze, but there were several moments that revealed the...

26.12.2024 5

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

The fall of Assad is an ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment for Putin

It took Assad’s regime to fall and Putin to accept it meekly for the West to appreciate that things weren’t all that rosy in Tsar Vladimir’s...

23.12.2024 4

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Look out, Putin — Assad’s fall shows autocrats aren’t as strong as we think

They can repress, oppress and suppress a will, but sooner or later their seemingly stable regimes will fall.

13.12.2024 6

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor

Russia's authoritarianism and imperialism block a just peace in Ukraine

The Russo-Ukrainian war cannot end until all sides want a stable and just peace, and the greatest obstacle to such an outcome is the Russian...

09.12.2024 8

The Hill

Alexander J. Motyl, Opinion Contributor