opinions
Thinking the Unimaginable
A transatlantic pathology: analysis of the passions and mechanisms of the populist crisis of liberal democracy.
Does Ukraine’s History Prompt Israel to Provide It With Special Support?
The defeat of Hamas and Hezbollah and the fall of the Assad regime open a new path for cooperation between the two countries.
Russia’s Future: How to Separate the Possible from the Impossible
It is necessary to prepare for the decolonization of Russia now.
Is Putinism Fascist?
Classical fascism offers striking parallels with Putin's policies. For Ukrainians, Putin's fascism is obvious.
United States: Cloning Putinism?
According to the author, the regime that Trump wants to impose on Americans has similarities to that of Putin and, in both cases, the complacency of the oligarchs plays an important role.
Putin’s New Bluff
The Russian president's announcement to change military and nuclear doctrine is aimed at dissuading Western powers from supporting Ukraine.
Under the Southern Gaze
"Non-Allied" Countries and Russian War in Ukraine: An (im)Possible Engagement
After a series of minor but painful military defeats, largely caused by the lack of much-needed ammunitions, Ukraine also experienced several diplomatic setbacks on various fronts, even though Ukrainian officials still try to put on a brave face. Some were...
Why the EU Should Replace the Eastern Partnership With a Trans-Caspian Partnership
It is time for a more geopolitically assertive European Union to rethink geographically and broaden thematically its Eastern policy.
A Shared Democratic Struggle in Ukraine and France
In France, the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly had the effect of a tsunami. In three weeks’ time, we risk seeing a cohabitation that would severely test French support for Ukraine and even the foundations of our democracy. However, even in these dark times, the struggle...
Fighting an Uphill Battle
How to win when your enemy is superior in number of men and weapons? The Ukrainian political scientist calls for “reframing the fight”.
Why the Anti-jewish Riots in the North Caucasus?
The pogrom at Makhachkala airport took the world by surprise. How should we interpret this event? Was it spontaneous or was it a manipulation by Russian power which thus sought to send messages to the West and Israel?
The war Against Ukraine Exposes the Shortcomings of International Humanitarian law: Together we can Remedy Them
Mikhail Savva, political scientist and expert at the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, calls for reform of international humanitarian law in the face of Russian authorities' misleading and deceitful behavior. In his view, the existing mechanisms are not sufficient to force Russia to respect the international conventions it has...
Russia: the end of Consensus
According to this French historian, the image of an almost monolithic Putinist system now turns out to be an illusion. Putin has prevailed because he promises two things: fabulous wealth for those who serve him, and the restoration of Russia as a great power. Today, however, he has wrecked...
The Bakhmut Apocalypse
Essayist and journalist Jean-François Bouthors examines the symbolic significance of this Pyrrhic victory, based on the capture of Bakhmut by Yevgeny Prigozhin's militia. For him, the Wagner militia embodies a nihilism comparable only to the ideology of al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). It's the cult of death in the...
A Spoonful of Tar in a Barrel of Honey
Marianna Perebenesiuk, an analyst of Ukrainian origin who is often invited on French TV channels, shares her thoughts on the principles of organizing television debates. Her main thrust is to make the difference between a contradictory debate and commentaries on current events. These commentaries require expertise, but they are...
Dissent, Crime, and the Future of Russia
When Russia is free again, the Russian people will again have to face a reality: the massive crimes committed in their name by Putin’s regime in Ukraine, Syria, Georgia, several African countries and elsewhere. Of course, these crimes have not spared Russians themselves, within the country’s borders, but those...
Defeating the Russian Bearhemoth in the Historiverse
As an expert on the European far right, the author analyzes the importance of the German-Soviet pact of 1939, also known as the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact", the real trigger for WWII according to him. If one of the signatories — Nazi Germany — has lost the war, the other one...
A Slippery Slope
The double blackmail exercised by the Russian president, gas blackmail and world famine blackmail, is starting to pay off: the West has just lifted a certain number of sanctions put in place at the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Risky decisions have just been adopted by the...
The Rhetoric of the Aggressor
The historian Françoise Thom examines the speeches of Hitler, Molotov and Putin in order to show how similar their themes and reasoning. A dive into the totalitarian universe.
The justifications given for wars of aggression are usually quite similar. Some of the themes that we have noted in the speeches...
In Europe, There can be no French Exceptionalism
The strategic ambiguities of France and Germany and the reiteration of Emmanuel Macron’s unfortunate words on the “humiliation” that the Allies should not inflict to Russia are leading more and more European countries to imagine an alternative path to the EU and NATO on security issues.
After the important conference...
The Other Russian Offensive
Faced with the perilous situation that the West’s unanimous condemnation of the war in Ukraine represents, Russia has launched a new "special operation", this time inside Western countries. It has mobilized both its friendly media and its networks of agents of influence within the decision-makers.
A few days ago, the...
Defederating Russia
What happened to the Russian Empire? It disintegrated at the end of an imperialist war. What happened to the Soviet Union? It disintegrated at the end of the Cold War. What will happen to the Russian Federation?
The answer is obvious, even if it saddens many. Russian patriotism is such...
The Best Time to Fight Russia
We have to fight Putin today. We must do everything to protect Ukraine, including, if necessary, entering into direct military conflict with Russia. Today he’s shocked and disoriented. His plans for a blitzkrieg are busted. His army is in a terrible state. His generals, his spies and his ministers...
Beyond the “negotiations”, a long war
Is the timid opening in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on March 29 in Istanbul a "positive signal", as President Zelensky declared? If the Europeans give in to the illusion of a false peace and lift, or simply reduce, sanctions and military aid, it will be a tragedy,...
Roman Kechur, President of the Ukrainian Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies: “Putin is not a Political Manager but an Emperor”
We publish an interview with Roman Kechur, president of the Ukrainian confederation of psychoanalytic therapies, where he analyzes Vladimir Putin’s behavior from a psychological perspective. “Putin is a colossus on clay feet", says Kechur. “He will still do one or more evil things. People will still continue to die....
French Kremlinophilia: an Incurable Disease?
French Kremlinophilia on the right and on the left is based on a complex but extremely solid substratum, which we can see today. The French Putinologists seem to be as impervious to reality as their idol, whose obsessions they espouse and for whom they find every excuse. They swallow...
Beware the Sirens of Minsk
The Kremlin has gotten the attention it sought: it now has most of the western world guessing whether it will unleash an additional hundred thousand of Russian troops on Ukraine, this bringing about a military conflagration at a scale unheard of in Europe since the end of world war...
Russia can be Checked by a Regional Response in Europe
Russia is posing an essentially 19th century challenge to Europe — a threat to the sovereignty of nations by redrawing their national borders through conventional force. Moscow backs up that challenge — more or less implicitly — with 20th century nuclear capability. The European security system, with its transatlantic...
Reshaping Ukraine’s Western Integration
There is widespread fear of an escalation of the current Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict into a large and prolonged inter-state war in Europe. This could lead West European governments to agree to Putin’s key demand of reneging on NATO’s future inclusion pledge for Ukraine and Georgia. Should this happen, the...
The Boomerang of Obscurantism: the Case of Covid
The Covid crisis has demonstrated the price that the Russian population has to pay for the policy that the Kremlin has been pursuing for years, favoring passions over reason, obscurantism over expertise, and repression over free debate of ideas. But there are converging indications that this policy could have...
The Return of Utopia to Power: the Turning Point of Putin’s Regime
At the Valdai meeting, Putin drew attention when he said: "The existing model of capitalism is outdated". Of all the speeches he made, this was the only remark that alluded to the creeping revolution he is in the process of promoting in Russia.
Until the mid-2010s, Putin, consumed by his...
The Destruction of the Soul in Putin’s Russia
In no Russian regime has propaganda held such a large place as it does in the Putin regime. Propaganda was very visible during the Soviet period, but it had not penetrated the soul and minds as it does today. Propaganda now replaces diplomacy and often harms it. Why this...
Why do Some Russian Opponents of Putin’s Regime Criticize the Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dmitry Muratov?
Among Russian opposition, opinions are divided: some congratulate the winner, Dmitry Muratov, Editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, while others accuse the Nobel Committee of cowardice and compromise. For the latter, the prize should have been awarded to Alexei Navalny, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya or Memorial. Who is right? Here is a personal...
The “Energy Partnership” With Russia: Lessons from the Past, Dangers for the Future
Today the trap patiently built by Moscow against Europe for 20 years is closing. Russia has never hidden its desire to abuse its dominant position in the energy market to achieve its foreign policy objectives. Panicked Europeans are struggling like flies caught in a spider's web. How did we...
Nordstream-2, an Economic Project, did you Say?
Until very recently, Chancellor Merkel kept repeating that Nordstream-2 was a purely commercial project, devoid of any political implications. This insistence by Westerners on seeking immediate material benefits, while showing an abysmal myopia in the face of the long-term consequences of decisions taken, has been skilfully exploited by the...
From the Afghan Withdrawal to the Foundation of the AUKUS: the Bright Future of European Defense?
If we are to believe the optimists, the withdrawal of the United States from the Afghan theater last August and the subsequent decision by Washington, Canberra and London to found the AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States), a trilateral alliance in the Asia-Pacific region designed to counter China's actions, are signs...
Resist the Homo Putinoidus!
Desk Russie recently published an article about the lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is currently the victim of judicial persecution. In 2015, Pavlov founded Komanda 29 (Team 29), an informal organization that brings together journalists and lawyers working on cases related to state secrecy. The organization had a website that...
Deciphering the European Policy of the Kremlin
Putin's article published in Die Zeit on June 22 marks the Kremlin's return to a European policy pursued since the Gorbachev years, after the paroxysm of Europhobia that followed the annexation of Crimea. Under enticing slogans, Gorbachev's ambition was already to dominate the European continent. The Russian president seems...
Soft Propaganda: an Invisible and Invasive Threat
Many analysts of the current Russian regime are only focused on the hard propaganda of the Kremlin and its relays in the West, especially on the extreme right of the political spectrum or among politicians who are notoriously self-interested. They do not pay enough attention to the “soft propaganda”,...
Despite Strong Words, the European Parliament Fails to Tackle Agents of Malign Russian Influence
The European Parliament’s resolutions tend to be critical of Putin’s Russia. One of the most recent resolutions on Russia adopted at the end of April this year was concerned, in particular, with the jailing of the Russian major opposition figure Alexei Navalny and the military build-up on Ukraine’s border....
The Senator and the Fraud
On June 21, in the Senate, Senator Nathalie Goulet organized a "press briefing" with Vadim Rabinovich, a Ukrainian press magnate and leader of the pro-Russian party "Opposition Platform For Life", and Marek Halter as a guest of honor. They were going to discuss both "Anti-Semitism in Ukraine" and "How...
Putin’s Setbacks and the Fight for his Succession
If we look at the news of the last few months, we see that a series of seemingly disparate events all point to a decline in Russia's influence. Is this a lasting trend or a temporary surge linked to the change of administration in the White House? The outcome...
Sputnik V: The Missed Promise of a Messianic Vaccine
The Russian leadership boasted that it was the first to invent an anti-Covid vaccine, in August 2020. The vaccine, called Sputnik V, is supposed to embody “victory”, a key word in the Putin regime's vocabulary. However, the Russian population, which has been suffering from significant excess mortality since 2020...
Russia: the Banality of Crime and its Strategic Consequences
Independently of any moral dimension, the practice of war crimes also says something about the strategy of the master of the Kremlin. If one can debate the existence of such a strategy on a global level, the strategy of crimes is the counterpart and the expression of the ideological...