ukraine

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.

12 min read

When we Keep Neutral Despite Everything

Our cartoonist attacks the so-called neutral position of the “Global South” which stubbornly refuses to recognize the criminal nature of the war…

~1 min read

The Best Christmas Gift

What is the best Christmas present for Ukrainians who are suffering in their flesh from the savage and violent war waged by Putin and his minions?

~1 min read

To Europe “po Blatu”

It seems that less-than-democratic regimes in the Balkans and the Caucasus are entertaining the feeling that Victor Orban’s Hungary represents…

5 min read

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

The strategy of barbarism

Desk Russie is continuing to publish the cartoons in which cartoonist Epo reacts to the realities…

~1 min read

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

The Power of Propaganda

Former Soviet political prisoner Russian journalist Aleksandr Podrabinek analyzes the power of Kremlin propaganda…

5 min read

Our Call: Free Vladimir Kara-Murza

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a close friend of Boris Nemtsov and one of the most prominent members of the liberal…

1 min read

National Guilt and Personal Responsibility

Today, a simple “man in the street” in Russia has only a very blurred notion of his fault in what is happening in Ukraine…

9 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read

Putin or the Passion for Evil

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was perceived as a thunderclap by the West, because it is always difficult to believe the worst.

4 min read

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read

Beware the Sirens of Minsk

The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash…

5 min read

Will There be a new War?

In the international community there is a growing talk of a new attack from Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.

2 min read

The Senator and the Fraud

On June 21, in the Senate, Senator Nathalie Goulet organized a “press briefing” with Vadim Rabinovich, a Ukrainian press magnate and leader of the pro-Russian party…

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

nato

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

Putin or the Passion for Evil

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was perceived as a thunderclap by the West, because it is always difficult to believe the worst.

4 min read

Beware the Sirens of Minsk

The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash…

5 min read

Will There be a new War?

In the international community there is a growing talk of a new attack from Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.

2 min read

Zemmour or the Fascination for Putin

For several weeks, Eric Zemmour has been at the forefront of the media scene. When it comes to East-West relations…

5 min read

A dr Strangelove in the Kremlin?

In his big election speech on March 1, 2018, to thunderous applause, Putin catalogs the new doomsday weapons Russia is working on.

14 min read
Back to Top ↑

putin

When Putin Looks Like…

In a recent publication, Desk Russie found that Putin’s speech resembled the times to that of Stalin and Hitler.

~1 min read

Putin or the Passion for Evil

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was perceived as a thunderclap by the West, because it is always difficult to believe the worst.

4 min read

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read

Kazakhstan: Voices of Russian Opponents

The Free Russia Forum was created in 2016 by a group of politicians, scholars, journalists, and cultural figures from the ex-USSR…

3 min read

Sowing Chaos

The Russian president is known for his professional habit of disguising the truth, but he is sometimes surprisingly frank.

3 min read

Will There be a new War?

In the international community there is a growing talk of a new attack from Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.

2 min read

Special Operation “Elections” in Russia. User Guide

Thirty years after the failed putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the victory of universal suffrage and people’s sovereignty, Vladimir Putin has launched a new SpetsOperatsia

8 min read

Thirty Years Since the August Coup

The August, 1991 Moscow coup was a desperate attempt to save the Soviet Union. When it collapsed, the will to preserve the socialist system disappeared and the Soviet Union…

8 min read

A dr Strangelove in the Kremlin?

In his big election speech on March 1, 2018, to thunderous applause, Putin catalogs the new doomsday weapons Russia is working on.

14 min read

Resist the Homo Putinoidus!

Desk Russie recently published an article about the lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is currently the victim of judicial persecution.

5 min read

Putin-biden: a Double-edged Summit

In Geneva on June 16, the American and Russian presidents, each in their own way, acknowledged that they had agreed on nothing, except that they should seek to get along better.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

european union

To Europe “po Blatu”

It seems that less-than-democratic regimes in the Balkans and the Caucasus are entertaining the feeling that Victor Orban’s Hungary represents…

5 min read

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read

Europe Must Accept Being at War

Accustomed to post WW2 peacetime, European politicians refuse to think about the war as state…

6 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read

Will There be a new War?

In the international community there is a growing talk of a new attack from Russia and Belarus on Ukraine.

2 min read
Back to Top ↑

war

The Best Christmas Gift

What is the best Christmas present for Ukrainians who are suffering in their flesh from the savage and violent war waged by Putin and his minions?

~1 min read

Dissent, Crime, and the Future of Russia

When Russia is free again, the Russian people will again have to face a reality: the massive crimes committed in their name…

10 min read

Back to school

Back to school time! In today’s increasingly militarized Russia, many parents are dressing their toddlers…

~1 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

Europe Must Accept Being at War

Accustomed to post WW2 peacetime, European politicians refuse to think about the war as state…

6 min read

The strategy of barbarism

Desk Russie is continuing to publish the cartoons in which cartoonist Epo reacts to the realities…

~1 min read

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read

Prophecy and Anger: “Useless Knowledge”

In a 1988 book, La connaissance inutile (Useless Knowledge), the French philosopher Jean-François Revel analyzed a classic paradox…

6 min read

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read
Back to Top ↑

russia

Sanctions: Useless, Really?

Criticism mounts today in the West with the strong encouragement of Kremlin propaganda against the sanctions put in place following Russian aggression against Ukraine.

15 min read

The Influx of Russians Troubles Georgia

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nearly 700,000 Russians are believed to have fled their country — in opposition to the war

5 min read

When the Draft is in Full Swing in Russia

Several Russian officials have denounced the overzealousness of Russian recruitment offices, which issue military convocations to blind people…

~1 min read

“We are not Savages.” Really?

This time, our cartoonist attacks the Russian killers who mortally wounded, on May 30, the French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff…

~1 min read

Creating Frankenstein

Today’s Russia was largely prefigured by the red-brown coalition in the early 1990s, and Putin is just its embodiment…

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

vladimir poutine

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.

26 min read

The Best Christmas Gift

What is the best Christmas present for Ukrainians who are suffering in their flesh from the savage and violent war waged by Putin and his minions?

~1 min read

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

propaganda

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read

A Brainstorming Session

This week, our cartoonist takes aim at Dmitry Medvedev, vice-president of the Security Council of the Russian Federation…

~1 min read

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

The Power of Propaganda

Former Soviet political prisoner Russian journalist Aleksandr Podrabinek analyzes the power of Kremlin propaganda…

5 min read

Prophecy and Anger: “Useless Knowledge”

In a 1988 book, La connaissance inutile (Useless Knowledge), the French philosopher Jean-François Revel analyzed a classic paradox…

6 min read

Sowing Chaos

The Russian president is known for his professional habit of disguising the truth, but he is sometimes surprisingly frank.

3 min read
Back to Top ↑

cartoon

When Russia “helps” Africa

The African summit in St. Petersburg was not a great success. But Vladimir Putin was able to harangue to his heart’s content.

~1 min read

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…

~1 min read

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.

~1 min read

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.

~1 min read

“Vacation Camp”

This time, our cartoonist tackles the abduction of Ukrainian children by the Russian military…

~1 min read

The Best Christmas Gift

What is the best Christmas present for Ukrainians who are suffering in their flesh from the savage and violent war waged by Putin and his minions?

~1 min read

The Best Christmas Gift

What is the best Christmas present for Ukrainians who are suffering in their flesh from the savage and violent war waged by Putin and his minions?

~1 min read

When the Draft is in Full Swing in Russia

Several Russian officials have denounced the overzealousness of Russian recruitment offices, which issue military convocations to blind people…

~1 min read

When Putin Looks Like…

In a recent publication, Desk Russie found that Putin’s speech resembled the times to that of Stalin and Hitler.

~1 min read

“We are not Savages.” Really?

This time, our cartoonist attacks the Russian killers who mortally wounded, on May 30, the French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff…

~1 min read
Back to Top ↑

china

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

crimea

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read

Special Operation “Elections” in Russia. User Guide

Thirty years after the failed putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the victory of universal suffrage and people’s sovereignty, Vladimir Putin has launched a new SpetsOperatsia

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

donbass

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.

8 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read

Special Operation “Elections” in Russia. User Guide

Thirty years after the failed putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the victory of universal suffrage and people’s sovereignty, Vladimir Putin has launched a new SpetsOperatsia

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

georgia

To Europe “po Blatu”

It seems that less-than-democratic regimes in the Balkans and the Caucasus are entertaining the feeling that Victor Orban’s Hungary represents…

5 min read

Dissent, Crime, and the Future of Russia

When Russia is free again, the Russian people will again have to face a reality: the massive crimes committed in their name…

10 min read

The Influx of Russians Troubles Georgia

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nearly 700,000 Russians are believed to have fled their country — in opposition to the war

5 min read

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read
Back to Top ↑

penalties

Sanctions: Useless, Really?

Criticism mounts today in the West with the strong encouragement of Kremlin propaganda against the sanctions put in place following Russian aggression against Ukraine.

15 min read

To Europe “po Blatu”

It seems that less-than-democratic regimes in the Balkans and the Caucasus are entertaining the feeling that Victor Orban’s Hungary represents…

5 min read

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read

Europe Must Accept Being at War

Accustomed to post WW2 peacetime, European politicians refuse to think about the war as state…

6 min read

The Power of Propaganda

Former Soviet political prisoner Russian journalist Aleksandr Podrabinek analyzes the power of Kremlin propaganda…

5 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

volodymyr zelensky

Nezalezhnist — On Zelensky’s Style

French art historian and writer of Russian origin, Olga Medvedkova analyzes the essence of Zelensky’s style…

9 min read

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

Istanbul Talks: What Does Russia Want?

The announcement of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations has raised hopes in the West, and stock markets have rebounded.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

europe

Russia: the end of Consensus

According to historian Françoise Thom, the almost monolithic appearance of Putin’s system is no cause for complacency. The policy of breaking away from Europe lies at the heart of the rift between two groups of the elite.

17 min read

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read
Back to Top ↑

chechnya

Putin or the Passion for Evil

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was perceived as a thunderclap by the West, because it is always difficult to believe the worst.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

poland

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

belarus

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read

Sowing Chaos

The Russian president is known for his professional habit of disguising the truth, but he is sometimes surprisingly frank.

3 min read

Special Operation “Elections” in Russia. User Guide

Thirty years after the failed putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the victory of universal suffrage and people’s sovereignty, Vladimir Putin has launched a new SpetsOperatsia

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

biden

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read

Putin-biden: a Double-edged Summit

In Geneva on June 16, the American and Russian presidents, each in their own way, acknowledged that they had agreed on nothing, except that they should seek to get along better.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

ussr

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

germany

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

kremlin

Sanctions: Useless, Really?

Criticism mounts today in the West with the strong encouragement of Kremlin propaganda against the sanctions put in place following Russian aggression against Ukraine.

15 min read

The Power of Propaganda

Former Soviet political prisoner Russian journalist Aleksandr Podrabinek analyzes the power of Kremlin propaganda…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

kyiv

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read

Beware the Sirens of Minsk

The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

stalin

Putin or the Passion for Evil

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was perceived as a thunderclap by the West, because it is always difficult to believe the worst.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

vladimir putin

The Time for Courage

Faced with the now massive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, it would be disastrous to give the head of the Kremlin…

3 min read

Prophecy and Anger: “Useless Knowledge”

In a 1988 book, La connaissance inutile (Useless Knowledge), the French philosopher Jean-François Revel analyzed a classic paradox…

6 min read

Zemmour or the Fascination for Putin

For several weeks, Eric Zemmour has been at the forefront of the media scene. When it comes to East-West relations…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

minsk agreements

Beware the Sirens of Minsk

The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

syria

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

united states

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

war crimes

Dissent, Crime, and the Future of Russia

When Russia is free again, the Russian people will again have to face a reality: the massive crimes committed in their name…

10 min read

The strategy of barbarism

Desk Russie is continuing to publish the cartoons in which cartoonist Epo reacts to the realities…

~1 min read
Back to Top ↑

emmanuel macron

A Brainstorming Session

This week, our cartoonist takes aim at Dmitry Medvedev, vice-president of the Security Council of the Russian Federation…

~1 min read

Europe Must Accept Being at War

Accustomed to post WW2 peacetime, European politicians refuse to think about the war as state…

6 min read

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

eurasia

And now? On the Possibility of an All-out War

The war in Ukraine is in full swing. The order for the “partial mobilization” of Russian army reservists and part of the male population…

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

gorbachev

Special Operation “Elections” in Russia. User Guide

Thirty years after the failed putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the victory of universal suffrage and people’s sovereignty, Vladimir Putin has launched a new SpetsOperatsia

8 min read

Thirty Years Since the August Coup

The August, 1991 Moscow coup was a desperate attempt to save the Soviet Union. When it collapsed, the will to preserve the socialist system disappeared and the Soviet Union…

8 min read

Russian-soviet History: the March Backwards

The new book of Françoise Thom, La marche à rebours. Regards sur l’histoire soviétique et russe, Sorbonne université presses, 2021…

15 min read
Back to Top ↑

hitler

When Putin Looks Like…

In a recent publication, Desk Russie found that Putin’s speech resembled the times to that of Stalin and Hitler.

~1 min read

The Rhetoric of the Aggressor

The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning.

23 min read

Russian-soviet History: the March Backwards

The new book of Françoise Thom, La marche à rebours. Regards sur l’histoire soviétique et russe, Sorbonne université presses, 2021…

15 min read
Back to Top ↑

afghanistan

Russia: Facing the Afghan Wasp Nest

“Among our enemies, the most to be feared are often the smallest,” said Lafontaine. Russia, which has strenuously worked for the advent of “multipolarity”…

10 min read
Back to Top ↑

corruption

Russia: the end of Consensus

According to historian Françoise Thom, the almost monolithic appearance of Putin’s system is no cause for complacency. The policy of breaking away from Europe lies at the heart of the rift between two groups of the elite.

17 min read

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read
Back to Top ↑

france

Back to Top ↑

gazprom

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.

28 min read
Back to Top ↑

human rights

Our Call: Free Vladimir Kara-Murza

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a close friend of Boris Nemtsov and one of the most prominent members of the liberal…

1 min read

National Guilt and Personal Responsibility

Today, a simple “man in the street” in Russia has only a very blurred notion of his fault in what is happening in Ukraine…

9 min read

Resist the Homo Putinoidus!

Desk Russie recently published an article about the lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is currently the victim of judicial persecution.

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

macron

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read
Back to Top ↑

memorial

National Guilt and Personal Responsibility

Today, a simple “man in the street” in Russia has only a very blurred notion of his fault in what is happening in Ukraine…

9 min read

Prophecy and Anger: “Useless Knowledge”

In a 1988 book, La connaissance inutile (Useless Knowledge), the French philosopher Jean-François Revel analyzed a classic paradox…

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

moldova

To Europe “po Blatu”

It seems that less-than-democratic regimes in the Balkans and the Caucasus are entertaining the feeling that Victor Orban’s Hungary represents…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

oligarchs

Georgia: to be or not to Be

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is having a considerable impact in the former Soviet countries.

12 min read
Back to Top ↑

turkey

Back to Top ↑

un

A Slippery Slope

The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off…

7 min read
Back to Top ↑

Ukraine

Nezalezhnist — On Zelensky’s Style

French art historian and writer of Russian origin, Olga Medvedkova analyzes the essence of Zelensky’s style…

9 min read

Dissent, Crime, and the Future of Russia

When Russia is free again, the Russian people will again have to face a reality: the massive crimes committed in their name…

10 min read
Back to Top ↑

boutcha

Reveling in Transgression

With Vladimir Putin, one always believes that the bottom of disgrace has been reached, that the Kremlin cannot do even worse.

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

design

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…

~1 min read

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.

~1 min read

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.

~1 min read
Back to Top ↑

diplomacy

The Other Russian Offensive

Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched…

11 min read

Prophecy and Anger: “Useless Knowledge”

In a 1988 book, La connaissance inutile (Useless Knowledge), the French philosopher Jean-François Revel analyzed a classic paradox…

6 min read

With Putin’s Russia, the Impossible Status Quo

During his trip to Moscow and then to Kyiv, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were non-negotiable.

9 min read

Beware the Sirens of Minsk

The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash…

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

drawing

When Russia “helps” Africa

The African summit in St. Petersburg was not a great success. But Vladimir Putin was able to harangue to his heart’s content.

~1 min read

When Putin Looks Like…

In a recent publication, Desk Russie found that Putin’s speech resembled the times to that of Stalin and Hitler.

~1 min read
Back to Top ↑

erdogan

The Harmful Role of the Kremlin and Wagner in Sudan

From the beginning of the conflict between the two military leaders who exercise power in Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagolo, pro-Russian voices have supported the latter: Hemedti would not be involved with the Sudanese Islamists.

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

eurasism