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Articles by Mark Galeotti

opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia’s Hardliners Present Their Manifesto

If head of Russian security council Nikolai Patrushev has his way, what will Russia become?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Echoes of Afghanistan in Russian Soldiers’ Poor Discipline in Ukraine

Obvious failures in discipline tend to reflect soldiers who are not only hungry, but angry and out of control.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Love Bombing Moscow

The best way to condemn Putin is to show ordinary Russians that we love them, respect their culture and admire the admirable in their history.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Personal Politics of Putin’s Security Council Meeting

If the Russian president never faces a war crimes tribunal, he ought to face an industrial one, as he seems to cultivate a toxic work environment.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Anti-War Broadside Highlights Nationalist Critique of Putin

The anti-war letter published by a fringe former colonel-general is a useful reminder that Putin’s nationalist rhetoric doesn’t convince everyone.
opinion Mark Galeotti

London’s Ukraine Coup Claims Strain Both Belief and Consensus

In an age of disinformation, it is no longer enough for governments simply to hint at having intelligence in support of their claims.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia and West Continue to Talk, But Not Necessarily in the Same Language

For Moscow, talks with the U.S. on NATO and Ukraine are like divorce proceedings at the end of a long, increasingly bitter marriage.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Criminals’ Open Letter Shines Light on Prison Torture and Prison Power

The one-page letter may well be illustrating not simply the continued use of brutal and illegal tactics by prison authorities, but also the evolution of...
opinion Mark Galeotti

What Good Could the Putin/Biden Conversation Really Do?

While no big results came out of the Putin-Biden talks, it would be a mistake to consider the conversation futile and fruitless.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Kremlin Unlikely to Know Any More Than Us if Invasion Is Coming to Ukraine

This Russian administration does not tend to work on rigid, long term plans of the sort intended to bring about checkmate in 15 moves. 
opinion Mark Galeotti

The West’s Response to Lukashenko’s Migrant Gambit Might Seal Belarus’ Fate

Moscow’s problem is that having thrown their weight behind Lukashenko, they are now stuck with him.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Climate Change Defines Some of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Putinism

There has been a change in the Russian president’s thinking that forms a case study of policymaking in such a personalized and centralized system.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Scapegoating Russia Over Our Gas Problems Is Not the Answer

The gas crisis is a fitting metaphor for the challenges of the modern world: complex, global, hard to fix and likely to have long and unpredictable impacts...
opinion Mark Galeotti

Who Cares About the Pandora Papers?

The sorry truth would seem to be that by now no one is either surprised nor mobilized by the Pandora revelations. 
opinion Mark Galeotti

Kremlin Looks to Establish a ‘Techno-Authoritarian’ Power Vertical 2.0

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has the ambition to manage Russia and sees the country's future in a smoothly-operating government machine.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Why the Duma Elections Still Matter

The current electoral process, however rigged and policed, will help the next generation to shape Russia.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Moscow Watches Kabul’s Fall With Some Satisfaction, Much Concern

The Kremlin will wait now to see whether the Taliban will fare any better than any of the other powers who have thought they could reshape the country...
opinion Mark Galeotti

Of MICE and Men in the Berlin Spy Game

The arrest of David Smith in Berlin appears to show that there are more than a few in the West who see something genuinely admirable in Russia.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Real Politics Is Being Forced on Russia’s Communist Party

The Kremlin is abandoning attempts to cosplay democracy and relying more openly on the suppression of any critical voices, including the KPRF.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Blockbuster Guardian Leaks Cannot Yet Either Be Discounted Nor Accepted

I’ll neither take the Guardian’s blockbuster story as gospel truth nor cynical fake. I’ll just wait and see how this plays out.
opinion Mark Galeotti

New National Security Strategy Is a Paranoid’s Charter

Russia's new National Strategy regards not just foreign countries as a threat, but the very processes reshaping the modern world.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Moscow Turns Up the Volume Over HMS Defender

The media coverage that followed yesterday’s clash is telling in what it says about Russian goals and sensitivities.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Emotions Central to the Putin-Biden Summit

It is not that American policy should be subordinated to Putin’s emotional neuralgias, but Biden should at least know what he is dealing with.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Are the Minsk II Peace Accords Worth Preserving?

It is time to recognize that the Minsk process has run its course — and may if anything be blocking any more meaningful dialogue. 
opinion Mark Galeotti

Hacking Controversy Highlights Kremlin’s Self-Destructive Approach

The cybersecurity debate is a metaphor for a wider problem for Moscow and the West, undermining last efforts to find grounds for cooperation.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Great Turn in Putin’s Post-Post-Modern Authoritarianism

A regime that for twenty years sought to be an exemplar of a kind of “hybrid authoritarianism,” seems to be seeking to get back to basics.
opinion Mark Galeotti

A Seven-Year Fuse Blows Up Czech-Russian Relations

It is hard to know what is most surprising about the fatal depot story: the timing, the scale of the Czech response, or the operation itself.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Crimea Endures, Neither Hellhole Nor Paragon

Crimea seems to be neither a shining beacon nor a slough of despond, disappointing both Moscow and its critics.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Problem Facing Today’s Corrupt Officials and Soviet Black Marketeers: What to Do With the Cash?

Unable to bank their ill-gotten gains, today’s corrupt officials find themselves in the same circumstances as the tsekhoviki, the magnates of the late...
opinion Mark Galeotti

Moral Panic About Russian ‘Vaccine Diplomacy’ Is a Western Blunder

Efforts to prevent the take-up of Sputnik V are morally reprehensible, they are politically counter-productive.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Kremlin Turns on Russia’s ‘Subversive Transparency’

The state finally seems to be trying to crackdown on its thriving black market for stolen data.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Navalny the ‘Escape Risk’ Faces a Campaign of Silence

The Kremlin hopes it can bury Navalny in the prison system while it blackens his name and grinds away at his movement.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Team Navalny Needs Strategy for the ‘Phoney War’

Can Navalny's organisation develop from anti-corruption activism into a broader movement, learning from Belarus?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Navalny Also Needs to Reach Russia’s ‘Men in Grey Suits’

Street protests rarely bring about political change in isolation, actual change usually comes from self-interested elites.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Medvedev Sets Out His Stand For Rapprochement With U.S., Relevance For Himself

The ex-President is searching for significance. As Biden enters office, he might just have some encouraging things to say.
opinion Mark Galeotti

No One Benefits From Renewed Demonizing of Russia

The continued presentation of a Russian threat that is both outsized and out of control is profoundly problematic for the West itself.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia in 2021: Whitewashing Cliffs and Placing Sandbags

In an increasingly unpredictable world, the Kremlin is choosing to go on the defensive.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Latest Navalny Investigation Puts an Increasingly Paranoid Kremlin on the Spot

The bombshell Navalny investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider reveals some alarming conclusions about the mood of the late-Putinist Kremlin.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Time for Moscow to Move On and Stop Thinking So Much About Washington

Attempting to match America is a terrible act of self-harm — and it is doomed to fail.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russian Ceasefire Deal in Nagorno-Karabakh Marks Slow, Painful End of Empire in the South Caucasus

Azerbaijan is triumphant — but its triumph, while recognized by Russia, was really delivered by Turkey.
opinion Mark Galeotti

No Country for Old Spooks: Reshuffle at the Top of the FSB Will Set the Tone for Remainder of Putin Era

The offhand way that one of the most powerful men most people haven’t heard of was dismissed may say something even about the Navalny case.
opinion Mark Galeotti

EU’s Navalny Sanctions Miss the Mark

I cannot help but feel the pressure to act sometimes forces governments to do something soon, rather than do something smart.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin’s UN Speech Masks Decline in Confident Rhetoric

While presenting Russia as a world leader, Putin was actually rehearsing the defense of a nation in decline.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia’s Murderous Adhocracy

A system in which everyone wants to earn the president’s favor means political murder is no longer a monopoly of the state.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Lukashenko’s Gamble on Thuggishness

Like a gambler who knows he has bet all he has and cannot afford to lose, the Belarusian strongman has doubled down.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Lebedev’s Peerage Highlights London’s Need to Address Russian Influence

Johnson seems eager to show his contempt for British intelligence by granting a peerage to his longtime friend and political asset.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Safronov Case Marks an Escalation of a New Campaign Against Dissent

The Kremlin has unleashed the Federal Security Service against critical voices in the media and cultural spheres.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The ‘Talibangate’ Claims About Russian Bounties Still Don’t Add Up

A story that raises serious probability questions is being accepted by many as proven.
opinion Mark Galeotti

This Year’s Victory Parade Was Both Impressive and A Little Sad

The limits of Russia’s present strength were evident in the supporting cast Putin could assemble.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Spy Cases Map Contours of Kremlin Geopolitics

The recent spy scandals expose once again Russia’s transactional approach to international politics.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Coronavirus a Mixed Blessing for Russia’s Underworld

The more serious the economic slowdown, the more likely that this will lead to a redistribution of underworld power.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russian Newspaper Coverage of the U.S. Time of Troubles

It turns out much of Russian media is just not that interested in the American riots.
opinion Mark Galeotti

No Victory Day for Sobyanin, or the Other Regional Bosses

Even in the best-case scenario, the victory parade will mean more infections across Russia.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin Withdraws From the Coronavirus Crisis in a Political Abdication

Putin is clearly eager to avoid being identified with the pandemic and the difficult measures being adopted to fight it.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Prague Assassination Claims Alarming but Fortunately Likely Fantasy

Why I find it hard to take the story at face value.
opinion Mark Galeotti

If Putin Wants to Use the Military Against the Coronavirus, He’ll Need to Trust His Governors or Step up Himself

Will governors be granted the power to tell local military commanders what to do?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Coronavirus Propaganda a Problem for the Kremlin, Not a Ploy

Having created a troll ecosystem it is hard for the Kremlin to direct its activities.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Moscow's Mayor, Not Putin, Is Leading Russia's Coronavirus Fight. Will He Be Allowed to Do the Job?

The coronavirus is an interesting — if somewhat depressing — case study of late Putinist crisis management.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Farewell, Limonov, a Hand Grenade Amongst the Party Poppers

A Limonov may not have been interested in democracy, but democracy needs to be interested in Limonovs.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Medvedev’s Security Council Role Makes Him And it More Interesting

Putin appears to have given his ex-premier the chance to demonstrate his political virility.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Surkov’s End and the KPIocrats’ Triumph

What the exit of Kremlin's ‘grey cardinal’ tells us about late Putinism.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin Can Cautiously Enjoy the Iran Drama From the Audience

Tehran and Moscow have certain interests in common, especially in minimizing U.S. influence in the Middle East, but they are at best frenemies.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia in 2020. Like 2019, But More So

Putin and his entourage seem to think "better safe than sorry."
opinion Mark Galeotti

Shorn of Prejudices, the Lubyanka Shooting Is a Familiar Story

The shooter may have been a Russian, wielding a Russian gun, targeting a Russian institution, but the story is a universal one.
opinion Mark Galeotti

MH17 Recordings Are About Crowdsourcing Whistleblowers

The detailed questions the JIT throw out into the ether will almost certainly be read by people who know at least some of the answers.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Boris Johnson and Putin’s Unwitting Helpers

Sometimes it almost looks as if Putin’s information warriors and political operators need not do anything, the West gladly does their work for them.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin's Declassified KGB Record Shows He Was No High-Flier, but a Solid B

A recent report about Vladimir Putin as a KBG officer shows that he was seen as worthy, serious and reliable, but not as a high-flier or a leader.
opinion Mark Galeotti

5 Things Russian Gangsters Might Teach Us About the Islamic State’s Search for a New Leader

What happens after organized crime structures suffer decapitating strikes?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin’s ‘Useful Idiots’ Are Those Who Call Others ‘Useful Idiots’

Those accusing Tulsi Gabbard of being a Kremlin asset should take a long hard look in the mirror.
opinion Mark Galeotti

1990s Russia Is Alive and Well in the USA

The values of some public figures in the White House suggests they would have been quite at home in 1990s Russia.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Strategies for a Kinder, Gentler Political War

What if the Kremlin is tired of being everyone's geopolitical scapegoat?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Is This Russia's Next Leader?

For the first time in his seven years as Defense Minister, Shoigu gave a lengthy interview to a mainstream Russian newspaper. We should pay attention.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Future Without Putin No Longer Taboo Issue

The irony is that while Putin is active internationally and ubiquitous on the state media, the very scale and stridency of current elite debates reflect...
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Kremlin Puts Its Faith in Arbitrary Authoritarianism

The state's aim is to create a climate of fear and uncertainty.

Почему я пошел на RT

Если главный поток голосов решит уйти из RT, то сама сеть и ее аудитория не исчезнет...
opinion Mark Galeotti

Why I Talked to RT

The people we need to engage with are those who don’t agree with us, who don’t share our sense of the world.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia and China's Cosplay Alliance

How long will this awkward friendship last?
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia's Opposition Has a Long Way to Go

Despite Moscow's record protest, the Kremlin's position is still strong.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Old Ultra-Violence in Moscow Solves Nothing and Everything

Violence paired with a smart effort to co-opt the population is, sadly, an eminently successful technique.
opinion Mark Galeotti

When BoJo Meets Vova

A piece of advice for Britain's new prime minister on how to deal with Putin's Russia.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia's Roadmap Out of the MH17 Crisis

No way out from MH17 trap for Russia, except through Donbass.
opinion Mark Galeotti

The Geopolitics of Theresa May’s Dutiful Handshake

May was right to take the G20 meeting with Putin at Osaka, even if she hated doing so.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Golunov Freed; Putin, Not so Much

The spectacular case showed that Putin is at once invulnerable and impotent.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Corruption and Populism Are the West's Weaknesses, Not Moscow’s Invention

It is important to remember that no one tied Austria's far-right politician Strache to a chair and forced him to listen to the Russian's pitch.
opinion Mark Galeotti

What the Mueller Report Tells Us About How Russia Works

Please, put away those onion-dome-on-the-White-House graphics and abandon those excitable claims of Trump as a Russian agent.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Russia and NATO Both Think Time Is on Their Side

Both sides show little readiness for compromise or pragmatism.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Kremlin Strategy Doesn’t Need Winners, Just Players

Sometimes playing is more important than winning.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Mueller Provides Scant Real Relief for Russia

The Mueller report is unlikely to make any real impact on U.S.-Russian relations.
opinion Mark Galeotti

A Year After the Skripal Poisoning, How Much Has Really Changed?

Mark Galeotti on the legacy of the Skripal poisoning.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Surkov Hints Putin Himself No Longer Essential for the System to Persevere

In his latest piece Surkov may be burying Putin with reassurance and respect.

The Kremlin's New Ogre

In a time when much of politics is about signal and drama, the Kremlin needs figures to represent the worst and the most unpredictable side of the system...
opinion Mark Galeotti

Is Late Putinism Dead or only Resting?

The fourth term of Putin's presidency is characterised by disconnectedness, falling popularity rates and lack of ideology.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Paul Whelan’s Arrest in Russia Brings Civilians Back Into the Crosshairs

Whether or not the former U.S. marine was a spy, a new and chilling tactic could pose a threat to bystanders.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Heroes of the Fatherland: Killing Here, Hacking There

Diminished and demeaned, Putin has no incentive to reel in his spooks.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Interpol Wasn’t at Risk of Becoming Putin’s Plaything

But the West should still be relieved.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Putin’s Needy Little Helpers Are Ruining Russia (Op-ed)

New reports of contract killings point to an emerging class of Kremlin businessmen sending Russia back in time.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Will Russian Spycraft Adapt to the Information Age? (Op-ed)

Rather than rethinking their tactics, Russia may be the biggest beneficiary of this brave new world.
opinion Mark Galeotti

There's More to Russian Espionage Than the GRU (Op-ed)

The West’s obsession with one Russian spy agency is becoming a dangerous addiction.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Zakharchenko's Assassination Won't Bring Peace to Ukraine (Op-ed)

Without consulting the people, neither Kiev nor Moscow will be able to consolidate peace.
opinion Mark Galeotti

Is Russia Still a Haven for Old Pariahs? (Op-ed)

Populists, nationalists and separatists used to receive a warm welcome in Moscow.