Masha Gessen on the Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko, who faked his own assassination as part of a sting operation in coöperation with Ukranian law enforcement.
Vladimir Putin will have paid very close attention to the location of the Syrian artillery battery where four Russian soldiers lost their lives at the weekend. The desert around Deir ez-Zour remains a dangerous place – politically as well as physically – in which the Americans and Russians play an extremely risky game of war.
The front line with Russia has moved east. It makes sense for American forces to follow.
https://ru.krymr.com/a/29259313.html
http://expert.ru/2018/05/30/manipulyatsii/
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3643905
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3643983
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3643979
When the United States escalated sanctions against Russia last month in retaliation to Moscow’s “malign activities” overseas, the impact was immediate. Shares in companies controlled by Kremlin-friendly oligarchs fell and the rouble suffered. Yet already critics are asking: are the sanctions working
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-s-show-goes-on-as-russia-rides-out-sanctions-r9cs2qvqv