MANPADS were used by Kurdish fighters to shoot down a Turkish helicopter in a serious escalation of the broader Syrian civil war. The Kremlin has plausible deniability on its side, but it could well have provided the rockets itself.

Russia talks a big game on the world stage. But at home, Putin’s kleptocratic system is stifling the great leader’s ambitions.

Back to the USSR? Not at all. This is just the Putin regime’s latest means of suppressing dissent.

A respected Russian media outlet, which was at the forefront of reporting on Panama Papers stories in the country, purged its top editorial talent today.

A Russian businessman, who is suing Gazprom and Lukoil, opens up about the Panama Papers, shady dealings in Putin’s Saint Petersburg of the 1990s, and the Russian President’s bluffing strategy.

The Russian President is said to be very unhappy with how an influential, privately-owned Russian business media outlet is covering the story. A crackdown is underway.

Vladimir Putin calls an economic reformer back in from the cold. Does Russia’s consummate acrobat of power have another somersault in mind?

A tense weekend opens up into an even tenser week in a Ukrainian city struggling to keep its demons in check.

There are two kinds of crisis: there’s the largely unexpected event that hits suddenly like an earthquake or the assassination of a leader. And then there is the kind of slow moving train wreck that we see in Puerto Rico.

How Western enablers facilitate kleptocracy.