The invasion of Ukraine has led many to reassess Putin’s decision making strategies. Once considered a highly rational player, the Russian leader now appears to possess a new outlook. This understanding of the world places culture and history above all.

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has naturally caused alarm in Europe and around the world. Having faced pressure from the Kremlin for eight years, Kyiv now fully finds itself on the frontline of a battle for the very values of freedom and democracy.

Media outlets around the world are now frantically discussing the prospect of a full-blown war between Ukraine and Russia. Whilst such debate continues to grab headlines, the realities on the ground will likely result in a much more different outcome.

For roughly a half a decade now, there has been a radicalising shift in the Kremlin’s understanding of its relations with Ukraine. As Ukraine continues to follow its own path, Vladimir Putin assumes an evermore extreme position that Ukraine, its peoples, language and culture simply do not exist. For Putin, Ukraine has always been and will always be a part of Russia.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s longest-serving president and champion of post-Soviet stability, has accomplished much over the past 21 years. He has delivered Russia from the economic turmoil left by Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, fought and won two wars in Chechnya, and brought unprecedented levels of prosperity and technological development to Russia. He has also defended traditional values the world over, once again placing Russia on the map of the world’s great powers at the expense of democracy and a fruitful relationship with the West. Putin has won many titles for this, including that of the most powerful man on earth, a modern dictator, or the greatest Russian.

Russia stands to gain geopolitically from the Western failure in Afghanistan. As a meeting with the Taliban leadership in July showed, Moscow is positioning itself as a key actor in the new Central Asian reality.

The Sputnik V vaccine was an incredible achievement for Russian science. The measure of success however, will depend on the ability to vaccinate a majority of the Russian population in order to reach herd immunity.

How can we understand how Joseph Stalin, one of history’s most notorious dictators, is not only tolerated, but oftentimes defended in present-day Russia? Is this a failure of history? Who or what is fanning the flames of this modern Stalin-cult?

Recent months have witnessed some important anniversaries in the history of the Second World War. On January 27th 2018, the city of St Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Leningrad. The Nazi siege of the city, which lasted some 900 days, intended to starve the city out of existence. Though ultimately unsuccessful, over one million of the city’s residents died as a result, whilst many more experienced over two years of pain and suffering.