When the shelling of Ukraine began a year ago, free-thinking Russians faced a fateful choice: lie low, resist or flee. Hundreds of thousands decided to leave. Because for them the war meant Russia itself had lost its meaning and its future. Now they have to rebuild their lives and their hopes for Russia from exile. Can they get their country back? In this eight-part series, The Economist’s Arkady Ostrovsky travels across Europe and the Middle East to find out. The answer may hold the key to ending the war.New episodes will be released...
Chulpan Khamatova is one of Russia's best-loved actors. Once courted by Vladimir Putin, she now lives in exile in Latvia. Her work and fame brought access to the key protagonists in Russia’s recent past. It’s a unique vantage point to contemplate the nature of evil—and its antidote.
The next...
Published 03/18/23
In one sense, the war did not really begin in 2022. It did not even begin in Ukraine. It started the first time Vladimir Putin invaded one of Russia’s neighbours and got away with it. That was 15 years ago, in Georgia. And in the same place Joseph Stalin, author of the Soviet empire’s darkest...
Published 03/11/23