Аркадий
Михайлович Островский

Russia's unacknowledged war in Ukraine did not start with the annexation of Crimea. The precedent was set six years earlier, during a five-day war between Russia and Georgia that resulted in Russia’s occupation of the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. That was when Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, reportedly began talking about Crimea

For more than a decade oil income and consumer spending have delivered growth to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Not any more

There has been little in the way of good news. Ukraine has lost precious time to reform its economy, which is teetering on the verge of collapse. The first post-revolutionary government included some of the activists from the Maidan protests and proved to be pitifully weak, lacking experience and skills

Since the Moscow-backed annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, the virtual reality created by Russian state media has played a primary role in the conflict, backed by Russian military and intelligence. The Kremlin is fighting a proxy war aided by the TV remote control

Arkady Ostrovsky for The Economist on the Russian president’s unexpected concessions on Ukraine

A reporter returns to the summer vacation spot of his childhood - for a month of revolution, rumor and Russian occupation

Only a few weeks ago the dismissal of the Ukrainian government by President Viktor Yanukovych and his offer to appoint an opposition leader as the country's new prime minister would have had an electric effect

During a recent live broadcast from Kiev on Russian state television, a protester pushed his way onto camera. As the Russian reporter, standing in the middle of Independence Square, the stage of the latest protest in Kiev, tried to describe the scene, the protester handed him a little statue, resembling an Oscar.

Twelve years after his first election, Vladimir Putin is becoming president of Russia again. The country is a lot harder to control now