The recent BRICS+ summit in Kazan, Russia — featuring Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — had some observers hailing it as the dawn of an anti-Western world order, led by Moscow and Beijing. The partnership between Russia and China is undeniably formidable. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have met […]

Two and a half years after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian economy seems like a riddle wrapped in an enigma of competing narratives. If you want to argue that the economy has been hobbled by Western sanctions, by the Kremlin’s prioritizing of military spending over everything else, and […]