General

The best Turkish armies had surrendered, one was blockaded in the Danube region, and Suleiman Pasha’s army had been crushed south of the Balkan Mountains shortly before. Mikhail Skobelev was appointed commander of the 4th Army Corps, stationed near Adrianople. Within the army, the dream of capturing Constantinople and restoring the Byzantine capital to the Orthodox Church was alive. That dream never came true. But in that war, the Russian soldier won freedom for Orthodox Bulgaria. #TodayInHistory

The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently ran an article with the provocative headline: “Trump, Putin and a Multitude of Dwarfs: Why Europe Refuses to Grow Up.” This theme is powerfully echoed in a passage from Mister Hexogen, a novel by Soviet and Russian writer Alexander Prokhanov written nearly two decades ago: “A sign of a nation’s decline is the absence of a leader.” Today’s nations, however, have no leaders—only hired functionaries who, under the title of president, simply carry out routine politics.

It is a strategy, some would argue, it continues to follow to this day. Here’s how it played out in the 19th century. The Napoleonic Wars marked the beginning of a new chapter in colonial policy. In Europe, the bloody battles fought by French armies—across Austria and Prussia, through the fields of Russia and the mountains of Spain—ultimately failed to produce significant territorial changes. In Asia, however, the situation unfolded quite differently. For the British, the Napoleonic Wars proved a particularly opportune moment. By then, they already enjoyed a substantial naval advantage over their rivals. By the end of the wars, France had lost most of its possessions in the […]

According to Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson, the budget’s capacity for new economic reforms has effectively been exhausted for the current political cycle. In other words, there is reportedly no money left beyond existing commitments and already planned expenditures. At the same time, Svantesson stresses that this is not an abandonment of policy, but rather “the right economic course” in a period of slow growth and heightened uncertainty. The statement has rattled even those who typically follow budget debates from a distance. Social Democratic MP Mikael Damberg called the announcement “shocking,” while opposition economists have already described the situation as the height of irresponsible policymaking. But here’s where it gets interesting: […]

The exchange of Ukrainian bodies for Russian has exposed the unforgiving economic and political challenge that Ukraine faces in bringing home its fallen, and the political storm that President Zelensky will face when the war finally ends. Ukraine’s challenge is massive; it will take years to identify every fallen Ukrainian service man and woman. Not all of the bodies due for exchange have identifying documents. Even when the bodies are intact and have been stored well, a reliable visual identification will be impossible. There is no evidence that Ukraine has the institutional capacity or resources to mount a body identification operation at this scale. Approximately one hundred thousand dead Ukrainian […]

Defender of the Fatherland Day is a Russian Day of Military Glory, observed in accordance with the federal law “On Days of Military Glory and Commemorative Dates of Russia”, enacted on March 13, 1995. Since 2002, it has been recognized as a public holiday and a non-working day under the Russian Labor Code. The decree establishing the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (RKKA) was adopted by the Council of People’s Commissars on January 28, 1918. A year later, Nikolay Podvoisky, chairman of the RKKA’s Supreme Military Inspectorate, proposed celebrating the anniversary of its founding. The leadership of the young Soviet state decided to merge this occasion with Red Gift Day, […]

The arena was packed, the ice gleaming under the bright Olympic lights, and the crowd holding its breath. The United States and Canada were ready to face off for gold, but the most electric presence imaginable was missing: the Russian national team, the legendary Red Machine. Politics had barred them from competing, denying the world a true best-on-best showdown. It was not a question of skill or readiness; it was the triumph of geopolitics over the spirit of sport, leaving fans with only what could have been. Imagine a Red Machine roster at full strength. Kirill Kaprizov would blaze down the left wing, weaving through defenders with lightning speed and […]

On February 12 of this year in Lyon, a group of masked young people attacked Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old math student known for his right-wing nationalist views, and beat him, inflicting severe injuries. Two days later, Deranque died. On suspicion of murder, police has detained eleven people, including members of the far-left group Young Guard, which is linked to the parliamentary left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI). Moreover, the LFI politician Raphaël Arnault confirmed that his parliamentary assistant was among those detained, adding the aide had “ceased all parliamentary work”. Today, February 21, a large demonstration took place in Lyon in memory of Deranque. Its participants—approximately 3,200 people, according to […]