An interview with Linas Linkevičius, a Lithuanian politician and diplomat and former foreign minister (2012–2020). Interviewers: Adam Reichardt and Maciej Makulski

The space for freedom is shrinking in Russia. Many see a repetition of 1937 – a period of the most severe Stalinist terror, when government agents, at any moment, could come to any house and throw you in jail. The reason does not matter and it can happen to anyone. Yet still, everyone continues to stand by and stay silent.

On January 17th this year, the return of Alexei Navalny to Russia was being watched by the entire politically-minded society, or at least a large part of it. People across the political spectrum were equally fixated. I know many leftists (or liberals) who were sincerely worried, and many rightists (or conservatives) who rubbed their hands maliciously. All were watching via the internet livestream or traditional media, and some with one eye closed. The arrest of Navalny at Sheremetyevo airport became the starting point not only for street protests and clashes, but for intra-family disputes.

On February 2nd Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree sanctioning Lviv oligarch Taras Kozak’s companies which owns three pro-Russian television channels. Unofficially, these channels are controlled by Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin’s right-hand man in Ukraine. The US election victory of Joe Biden has stiffened western and Ukrainian resolve to take on Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time when he is facing growing opposition at home.

The question of information warfare and disinformation have become hot topics since the 2014 crisis in Ukraine. Nevertheless, one should not assume that this threat was invented by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Soviet Union had practised dezinformatsiya and mokryie dela (wet affairs – assassinations) for decades.

A review of The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia. By: Mark Galeotti. Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 2018.

The latest ceasefire introduced in July 2020 was the only, albeit significant, achievement regarding Donbas in the last years. Recent signs, however, indicate that the situation may dangerously escalate in the coming weeks.

For fans of the reigning Russian champions, Zenit St. Petersburg, football can often seem more important than life and death. Undeterred by the growing spread of COVID-19, in March 2020, Zenit’s Gazprom Arena was one of the only places in Europe where it was still possible to watch live sports. The club’s supporters took full advantage of this, packing the stadium to capacity for their side’s 7-1 thrashing of FC Ural. “We’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die,” they chanted gleefully, as the rest of the world closed down around them in a desperate attempt to contain the virus.

The West is incompatible with today's Russia. Rather than to wait for another Peter the Great, it seems the West is in need of reconsidering its policy towards Moscow.

While Navalny is for many Europeans not an ideal alternative to Putin, he has become a significant figure with regards to Europe’s political future. Navalny’s rise over the last few months has severely disrupted Putin’s system of rule. This suggests that the re-emergence of genuine political pluralism in Russia may now be possible.

The Kremlin is facing growing public dissent following the sentencing of Navalny and arrest of thousands of protesters.

The return of Alexei Navalny to Moscow following his poisoning was understood by the Kremlin as a declaration of war.

When a Kremlin spokesman refuted the claim that President Putin is afraid of Alexei Navalny, he failed to mention that the regime nurses an underlying fear of the Russian youth.

The violation of the Treaty on Open Skies is just yet another example of the Russian attitude to international arms control treaties.