How Putin Tapped a Well of Ethnic Hatred in Russia
Radical nationalists have infiltrated the country’s police and politics.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP / Getty; Pawel.gaul / Getty; Denis Sinyakov / Reuters. Putin Can’t Keep His Private Life Private
Russian journalists and activists have recently obtained extraordinary access to the president’s inner circle.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Erich Auerbach / Getty; Sergei Chirikov / AFP / Getty. The ‘Gray Zone’ Comes to Russia
Moscow holds certain hot spots abroad in a stasis of isolation and neglect. Now part of Russia is experiencing these conditions for itself.
NN / Magnum The Real Trade-Off With Russia
Political prisoners and hostages have been freed, but at a cost.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani. Sources: Anadolu / Getty; Contributor / Getty; Alexander Nemenov / Getty. Evan Gershkovich’s Soviet-Era Show Trial
Putin’s security service is reviving pressure tactics from a terrible past.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: AP; Getty. Putin’s ‘Rabble of Thin-Necked Henchmen’
Who will succeed Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Stalin? Not even the handpicked elite can say.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / Getty Alexei Navalny’s Last Laugh
Something I’ve seen in Putin’s most effective opponents: Even if it costs them their life, they defy him with humor.
Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency / Getty Putin’s Deal With Wife Killers
The most violent criminals get a Kremlin pardon if they agree to fight in Ukraine.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Adam Berry / Stringer / Getty; Courtesy of Vera Pekhteleva's family / BBC. How I Lost the Russia That Never Was
I sometimes felt that we told the truth only at the funerals of our assassinated friends. Was this what Russia had been all along?
Gueorgui Pinkhassov / Magnum ‘Nobody Will Evacuate These Poor People’
Reaching flood victims in Russian-occupied Ukraine is so dangerous that only Ukrainians will do it. Where are the international organizations that were made for this?
Rick Mave / Redux
