On August 6, 2024, Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border into Kursk province, marking the first invasion of foreign troops into Russian territory since World War II. In the days since, Russian television viewers and social media users have been confronted with images of burned-out houses and captured Russian soldiers. The attack caught the Russian armed […]

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US defense strategists warn that China may use the distraction of the war in Ukraine to launch military action against Taiwan. They believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is determined to gain control over the breakaway province – which has been beyond Beijing’s control since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 – […]

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The US and four dozen other countries have imposed punishing sanctions on Russia in reaction to its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The sanctions were unprecedented in their scope and severity for an economy of Russia’s size. The initial sanctions included the freezing of Russian assets abroad and a ban on the export […]

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Six weeks into the war with Ukraine, Russia’s economy seems to be holding up better than initially expected. Despite unprecedented sanctions and an exodus of Western companies, the Russian ruble – a widely followed indicator of the economy – has recovered all of its earlier losses. Meanwhile, billions of dollars continue to flow in from […]

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The daily life of ordinary Russians – not just the country’s political elite or super-rich oligarchs – is already being impacted by economic measures imposed by the international community in response to the invasion of Ukraine. As a scholar of Russia’s political economy, I was surprised by the speed and severity of the Western economic […]

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