That’s the question we asked a set of Russia hands around town this week.

Perhaps terrorists who choose to carry out their massacres with guns are actually “taking advantage” of American society in a different way than many liberals think.

A Russian performance artist, who set fire to the front door of the FSB’s offices, was found guilty and convicted to a half million ruble fine by a Moscow court this past week.

The President of the European Commission is off to meet Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum—a sign of how tepid Europe’s support for extending sanctions against really is.

Construction on the Kerch straits bridge, meant to connect Crimea to mainland Russia, has been halted. Putin’s close friend needs some more money.

The problem with efforts to recall the judge in a Stanford sexual assault case.

The new head of Russia’s Central Election Commission announced the formation of a task force comprising several branches of the security services to prevent election rigging. Just whom they will actually be fighting remains an open question.

This kind of hazy, fog-of-war reporting from far afield fails to deliver the kind of illuminating coverage readers deserve.

Another week, another reshuffling of the deck: Having already coopted his sources of financial support, Vladimir Putin starts to cull Medvedev’s siloviki support network, just to make sure his likely successor is as weak as possible.

The Republican Party is too weak and too strong at the same time.