Anti-Fake

When it comes to Ukraine, people still often mention major corruption scandals. Could it really be that, even amid an existential war, this country remains mired in corruption? Or perhaps all these high-profile cases actually signify something else?

“What is Europe’s strategy towards Russia?” asks one of the Russian opposition leaders, Yulia Navalnaya, in a column for The Economist . Yet each time a Russian opposition figure publishes another text or delivers another speech, one question inevitably arises: what exactly is the Russian opposition’s own plan for Russia?

How much is the Kremlin willing to pay foreign-facing influencers to praise Russia? The bloggers claim nothing. The data says otherwise. Sasha Meets Russia, for instance, is just one among a network of “loyal foreign bloggers” managed by a stablemaster with direct Kremlin ties.

Amid Moscow’s collapsing economy, Russia’s top businessmen and officials are falling—literally and figuratively—under mysterious circumstances. Even the untouchables are vulnerable to a system in turmoil.

When was slavery abolished in your country? The Soviet Union’s myth was one of promised equality and progress. Yet millions lived as state-bound peasants—for them, serfdom was reintroduced and didn’t truly end until the 1970s.

Why waste elite spies when petty criminals will do? A new study exposes how Moscow is outsourcing sabotage and assassinations across Europe to gangs and convicts.