Vladimir Putin

Invitations went out over social media this week, informing journalists about inauguration festivities organized by the “White Star” art collective, which includes several prominent figures in Russia’s pro-Kremlin youth movement.

​Forget about global climate change controls; count on a larger Army, even more nuclear weapons and more missile defenses

A closer look into the "bromance."

Russia's opposition likens itself to Michael Phelps facing an extreme challenge. "If you have a champion swimmer, and you fill up the pool with acid, he won't be able to swim. But it doesn't mean he's a weak swimmer."

A veteran Russia watcher says computer hacks are just one of the many ways Moscow disrupts and influences foreign elections. Watch out, she says, for the Russian insiders around Donald Trump.

The embattled Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, appeared in Moscow on Tuesday night, for his first trip outside of his country since the uprising against him began in 2011. It’s a sign of his dependence on Russian military assistance. And it seems Vladimir Putin summoned Assad to get a sense of how flexible he is on his role in any political settlement or transition in Syria. Syria's secular elite shares a deep comfort level with the arrival of Russian forces.

Not all the political stories in Russia are about Putin and his United Russia party. Here's one about an independent candidate in the "Cambridge, Massachusetts" of Siberia.

Russian bombs fell on rebel-held parts of Syria today. Moscow says its intervention into Syria is about fighting the terrorists of ISIS. But the real winner here is Bashar al-Assad.

FIFA has come under intense pressure from countries and sponsors over a huge bribery scandal. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, no stranger to allegations of corruption, is standing up for the organizations and its reeling president.

Now that Vladimir Putin is back in the public eye, Russia observers can turn their attention back to figuring out who exactly killed opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. But even that isn't the only question surrounding the Kremlin at the moment.