Arkady Ostrovsky

London

Russia and Eastern Europe Editor at The Economist

The Economist, Russia Editor. Author of The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War, winner of the 2016 Orwell Prize for Books.

Articles

Putin woos Trump with a partial ceasefire and big geopolitical deal

Mar 18, 2025 | economist.com | Anton La Guardia |Arkady Ostrovsky

Russia wants to talk to America over the heads of Ukraine and other European countries Mar 18th 2025|KYIV AND WASHINGTON, DCIF DONALD TRUMP hoped that Vladimir Putin would accept his call for an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine during their telephone call on March 18th, he was disappointed.
Sub-zero temperatures, a two-metre wide cell and electrocution or rape if you don't bribe a prison warden. What life is REALLY like in Putin's gulag for Russia's most outspoken critic | Daily Mail Online

Mar 27, 2024 | dailymail.co.uk | Arkady Ostrovsky

The wake-up call in cell number nine of the IK-6 prison colony in the Siberian town of Omsk comes at 5am in the form of the Russian national anthem blasting from a loudspeaker. Each day, journalist and politician Vladimir Kara-Murza knew as soon as he heard the opening chord he had only five minutes before prison guards came to take away his pillow and mattress. By 5.20am his metal bed frame, attached to the wall, would be locked up so that he could not use it for the rest of the day.
Vladimir Putin cannot keep funding his war for ever

Nov 17, 2023 | martinplaut.com | Arkady Ostrovsky |Martin Plaut

The EconomistNov 13th 2023ShareBy Arkady OstrovskyIn march vladimir putin will hold a presidential election designed to demonstrate support for his regime’s invasion of Ukraine two years earlier. His achievements in those two years should not be underestimated. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions displaced. Most of them are Ukrainians fleeing Russian missiles. But as many as 1m educated Russians may have fled their country, fearful of repressions and mobilisation.
How the war in Ukraine is changing the Caucasus

Nov 12, 2023 | economist.com | Arkady Ostrovsky

The World Ahead | Europe in 2024Turkey and Azerbaijan hope to benefit from Russia’s betrayal of ArmeniaBy Arkady OstrovskyCompared with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the horrors of Hamas’s attack on Israel and the ensuing conflict, the one-day war waged in September 2023 by Azerbaijan against its ethnic-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh may seem like a blip.