They Made Putinism: Mikhail Lesin (1958-2015) from Russia Today to Hollywood
Dubbed by some as “the number one enemy of Russian independent media”, Mikhail Lessin was instrumental in reshaping the media landscape after Vladimir Putin became president. And he’s buried in Hollywood. The fifth part of the serial of the historian Cécile Vaissié.
A Feigned Innocence
Our cartoonist tackles the destruction of the Kakhovka dam by the Russians, while the Putin regime continues to claim, falsely, its innocence. Like so many times already…
They Made Putinism: Alfred Koch, the man of Privatizations and NTV
The historian Cécile Vaissié offers Desk Russie the fourth part of her soap opera. If Alfred Koch is quite universally hated in Russia, it is above all because he is associated with the privatizations of the 1990s. Less so because he, “like the shark of capitalism”, contributed to the suffocation of the media under Putin.
Wild Geese
Drones descend on the Kremlin, Russian rebels attack Belgorod, Russian positions are attacked in Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin and his entourage continue to show their faith in the final victory.
They Made Putinism: Gleb Pavlovsky, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the Green Jacket (Second and Last Part)
Cécile Vaissié offers a new part of her soap opera. Gleb Pavlovski, whose itinerary is dissected in this essay, notably worked to elect the little-known chekist that was Putin and to create a “vertical of power”.
NATO, the Only Real Guarantee of Security for a Free and Independent Ukraine
The lifting of the ban on the delivery of F-16 aircraft marks a new step in the strengthening of the Ukrainian army. It is brought up to standard with those of the main NATO member countries. Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier’s analysis.
The Bakhmut Apocalypse
From the capture of Bakhmout by the militiamen of Prigojine, Jean-François Bouthors examines the symbolic meaning of this Pyrrhic victory. For him, the Wagner militia embodies a nihilism comparable only to the ideology of Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The Toxic Spell of “Imperial Knowledge”
Ukrainian political scientist and thinker Mykola Ryabchuk explains how Russia’s imperial vision of Ukraine has penetrated deeply into Western society, how its most toxic myths and clichés have been uncritically accepted and normalized.
Yevgeny Prigojine’s Mania for Grandeur
This time, our cartoonist tackles the mania for grandeur of Putin’s “cook” who, according to rumours, was ready to divulge Russian military secrets to the Ukrainians in exchange for victory in Bakhmout.
They Made Putinism: Gleb Pavlovsky (1951-2023), the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the Green Jacket
After her portrait of Vladislav Sourkov, the Kremlin’s éminence grise, historian Cécile Vaissié offers Desk Russia the second part of her series “They made Putinism”.