Tag: RUSSIA

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  July 20, 2026: Getting Down to Business

  Russia Decoded With Dmitry Kiselyov away on vacation, the latest Vesti Nedeli fell to a substitute host, Yevgeny Popov, and the resulting broadcast felt like a different show entirely. Gone were the familiar tropes, the bandits and fascists and postmodern flourishes, replaced by a stripped-down, fact-heavy recitation of the news. As Kiselyov’s propaganda machine idles

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  July 13, 2026: “Time Is on Our Side”

  Russia Decoded This week, Vesti Nedeli contrasted the two warring nations: Russia endures mere discomfort, from gas lines to rationing to rising prices, while life in Ukraine becomes unsustainable, with empty Patriot batteries, draft riots in Lviv, and Russian missiles landing at will. The message to Russian viewers is unmistakable: “we are taking some blows

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  Russia’s Pain at the Pump (w/ Sergey Vakulenko)

  Three Questions Since April, Ukraine has dramatically escalated its drone campaign against Russia’s oil refineries, knocking out a substantial share of the country’s refining capacity and triggering gasoline shortages from Crimea to central Russia. What was once a nuisance for Moscow has become something closer to a full-blown fuel crisis. Yet the strikes’ effects are

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  July 6, 2026: Does Putin Have a Way Out?

  Russia Decoded With Ukraine’s drone campaign striking ever deeper into Russia, Western analysts have rushed to declare a turning point in the war. But is it one? This week’s Vesti Nedeli broadcast, pointedly titled “War for Peace,” reads like a direct rebuttal to the argument that Putin has trapped himself in a geopolitical standoff with

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  June 29, 2026: Putin Takes the Wheel

  Russia Decoded This week’s Vesti Nedeli broadcast was especially Putin-centric. Acknowledging fuel shortages, reciting battlefield details by heart, and personally steering the response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries, the Russian leader appears not just in command but energized by the continuing confrontation with the West. However, recent events — from Ukrainian drone strikes on

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