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Jul 16, 2024 | 
engelsbergideas.com | Vladislav Zubok
In the winter of 1979, as a student of history in Moscow, I devoured a novel by the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. The Autumn of the Patriarch had just been translated into Russian. It was a story of a Central American dictator, ‘the General’, and his inevitable degradation in the bubble of power. The prose was a long fable yet intensely realistic, particularly for a young man like me living under the never-ending rule of the general secretary of the Soviet Union.
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Feb 20, 2024 | 
engelsbergideas.com | Vladislav Zubok
Russia’s drift away from partnership and cooperation with the West began well before Putin came to power. The main drivers of this development among the Russian bureaucracy and elites were the reaction to the Soviet collapse, the crisis of identity, fragility of Russian sovereignty, and ressentiment against the US-led international order. In the late 1990s, anti-Americanism emerged as an important element in an emerging Russian identity.
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Aug 28, 2023 | 
raamoprusland.nl | Vladislav Zubok
Prigozhin thought that his ‘hard drive’ of Putin’s murky network of contacts, conspiracies and deals might save him, following his mutiny. He was wrong, writes the well-known Russian historian Vladislav Zubok. But his murder means Putin is now more Mafia Don than Imperial Tsar.
Wagner leadership: Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) and Dmitry Utkin (right). Picture Wikimedia.
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Aug 25, 2023 | 
engelsbergideas.com | Vladislav Zubok
Yevgeny Prigozhin did not expect to meet a sudden, horrible death on board his private Embraer Legacy 600 jet before it began its final descent from a height of nine kilometres to the ground, north of Moscow, near Putin’s dacha on Lake Valdai. He was killed instantly, together with Dmitry Utkin and several other prominent figures of the Wagner Group.
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Jun 28, 2023 | 
almendron.com | Vladislav Zubok
In the midst of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief rebellion on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the “treason” of the Wagner paramilitary leader with the revolutionary turmoil of 1917.
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Jun 28, 2023 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Vladislav Zubok |Joshua Kurlantzick
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions In the midst of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief rebellion on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the “treason” of the Wagner paramilitary leader with the revolutionary turmoil of 1917.
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Jun 27, 2023 | 
tribunecontentagency.com | Vladislav Zubok
In the midst of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief rebellion on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the “treason” of the Wagner paramilitary leader with the revolutionary turmoil of 1917. “Intrigues, squabbles, politicking behind the back of the army and the people led to great calamity, destruction of the army and the demise […]To purchase full-length Foreign Affairs articles, please email Tribune Content Agency at [email protected]
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Jun 24, 2023 | 
newstatesman.com | Vladislav Zubok
“Alea iacta est” – the die is cast. These were the words that Julius Caesar supposedly uttered when crossing the Rubicon to seize power in Rome in 49BC. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, is no Caesar, but he possesses the same political intuitions that defined the Roman conqueror and other historical pretenders to power. Corrupt and cynical, and with a criminal record for robbery and fraud, Prigozhyn emerged from Vladimir Putin’s close entourage.
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Jun 21, 2023 | 
lse.ac.uk | Vladislav Zubok |Tomila Lankina |Adam Curtis |Grigor Atanesian
LSE Player is home to the latest films and podcasts from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Here you can watch videos on cutting edge research, find the award-winning LSE IQ podcast, and listen to more than 5,000 public event recordings featuring some of the world’s leading thinkers.
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Apr 3, 2023 | 
almendron.com | Sergey Radchenko |Vladislav Zubok
There aren’t enough palm trees, the Soviet general thought to himself. It was July 1962, and Igor Statsenko, the 43-year-old Ukrainian-born commander of the Red Army’s missile division, found himself inside a helicopter, flying over central and western Cuba. Below him lay a rugged landscape, with few roads and little forest. Seven weeks earlier, his superior—Sergei Biryuzov, the commander of the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces—had traveled to Cuba disguised as an agricultural expert.
