Garry Kasparov sees Trump's second term as the Putinization of America, with Elon Musk as its leading oligarch. Alexander Dugin welcomes the same changes and calls Trump Putin's ideological twin. Both agree that Trump's America is starting to look like Putin's Russia. They differ only on whether that is a disaster.
In March 2023, a Hamas delegation visited Moscow, and months later Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Russia and Iran arm Hamas and other militants, while Iranian drones fly for Russia in Ukraine. Every flare-up in Gaza lifts oil prices, filling the war chests of Moscow and Tehran.
In recent months, Europe has seen a coup plot in Romania, a blast at a Spanish defense factory and sabotage on a German frigate. All have been linked to Russian intelligence. While fighting openly in Ukraine, Moscow wages a quieter war against Europe through sabotage, cyberattacks, bribery and propaganda.
In 2022, many in the Russian opposition believed that Ukraine's victory would quickly bring down Putin's regime. Three years later, the Russian economy has survived sanctions, and the West avoids a direct clash with a nuclear power. Would a bad peace be better than endless losses?
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Israel's newspapers covered the war in four languages and in four different ways. Hebrew papers condemned Russia with caution, English ones spoke of a barbaric invasion, and Arabic ones barely noticed the war. Russian-language outlets were free of Kremlin propaganda.
Donald Trump promised to end Russia's war against Ukraine in a week by pressuring Kyiv into concessions. When Zelensky refused, Trump called him a dictator and began repeating Kremlin talking points. Yet Congress, the defense industry and Europe may well stop him from abandoning Ukraine.
Sergey Kozlov, Russia's ambassador to Saudi Arabia since 2017, organized the Russian side of the Riyadh talks with the United States. Earlier, as ambassador to Yemen, he pocketed his staff's pay, billed for receptions that never happened and took cuts from construction deals. Then he was promoted.
On February 12, Sudan's foreign minister announced a deal with Moscow on a Russian naval base in Port Sudan. But his government, at war with the Rapid Support Forces, no longer even controls Khartoum. And after its losses in the Black Sea, does Russia's navy still need a base so far away?
In February 2022, 16 Israeli outlets in Hebrew, English, Arabic and Russian covered Russia's invasion of Ukraine differently. All but the Arabic press sided with Ukraine and focused on Jewish refugees, but none urged a break with Moscow. Why did one war look so different in one country?
In 2017, near Sudan's Abu Hamad gold mine, Wagner mercenaries reportedly shot dead at least 73 protesters, including children. Prigozhin's firm mined gold with near-forced labor and mercury, helping Omar al-Bashir evade sanctions. Now Sudan lies in ruins after a civil war that has displaced 11 million people.