Andrey Belousov came to the Defence Ministry as an economist whom Vladimir Putin had tasked with making the Russian war machine more efficient — with fitting enormous military spending into the country’s economy. Two years on, another question arises: might the Kremlin need the same man if Moscow has to solve the reverse problem — how to leave the war while minimising the economic consequences for Russia?
Alexander Dugin was never the brain of the system. He was its affect — the resentment kept on staff. And affects get written off the moment cold calculation is required.
The words about a “cult of personality” capable of destroying a country came not from some émigré oppositionist — but from Putin’s own foreign minister. And they may cost him far more than his career.
How Igor Sechin subjugated Russian oil, why the war became his business model — and why his time is running out.
The West has a habit of quoting Nikolai Patrushev as the voice of deep Russia. The best proof that the caption under the portrait is wrong has been supplied by Putin himself.
