Briefing | All disquiet on the home front

The war in Ukraine is straining Russia’s economy and society

Despite advances on the battlefield, pressure is growing

Photograph: Magnum Photos

In early November, on the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, Vladimir Putin gave a speech meditating on the patterns of history. The communist takeover of Russia, he said, was one of the “milestones…that determined the course of history, the nature of politics, diplomacy, economies and social structure”. The war he started in 2022 by invading Ukraine, he implied, was another such moment.

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