Brian McDonald

Sergei Ivanov, the president Russia almost had

The former defence minister and Kremlin chief-of-staff, who has died at age 73, was once heavily tipped to replace Putin in Moscow's top job

Jun 28 • Brian McDonald

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Yeltsin’s 1996 triumph: The rigged election Washington blessed and Russia never forgot.

Michael McFaul called Yeltsin’s 1996 victory a triumph for democracy. In hindsight, it looks more like the moment America decided Russian democracy only…

Jun 23 • Brian McDonald

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How Western Europe’s elites lost the plot over Russia

The West won the Cold War by offering a better life, not by policing thought. The op-ed and think tank classes seem determined to forget that lesson.

Jun 1 • Brian McDonald

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May 2026

The Budapest Memorandum: What it was, and what it wasn’t

Signed in the afterglow of the Cold War's conclusion, the 1994 agreement has since been mythologized by people who haven't actually read it, and hope…

May 6 • Brian McDonald

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March 2026

The great illusion of Russia’s “pivot to China”

There will be no “reverse Nixon," but Moscow also won't bet the house on Beijing

Mar 20 • Brian McDonald

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February 2026

A fairytale for Donald: why Russia’s reported dollar talk is a tasty dish, but not meant to be eaten

If it's true, Moscow's message to Trump is about beautiful numbers, but empty plates.

Feb 12 • Brian McDonald

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November 2025

China, Russia, peace: the three incompatible visions tearing the West apart

NATO members can’t unite because they don't all want the same future

Nov 28, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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September 2025

Is Russia really going to build Europe’s largest high-speed rail network?

A bold vision or a Potemkin promise? A look at the scale, the strategy, and the obstacles in the country’s bid to link 60 million people by high-speed…

Sep 17, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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Lockheed Martin, lamb chops, and landlocked navies: the real story of NATO expansion and how this Yale historian tried to stop it

In 1998, the historian John Gaddis warned the US Senate that enlarging the bloc would backfire. He was dismissed... weapons makers weren’t.

Sep 9, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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Power of Siberia 2: the EU’s greatest self-own

Beijing now inherits the stability that once fueled Western Europe's industry. And all Brussels can do is shout at clouds

Sep 3, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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August 2025

How the EU can still escape its ‘century of humiliation’

Brussels must ditch the slogans, face up to the realities of geography, and bring Russia back into a Europe whole and free

Aug 27, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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The ghost in the Kremlin’s corridors: Yevgeny Primakov’s lasting power

How a cautious Arabist turned prime minister sketched a doctrine of multipolarity in the 1990s; and why his fingerprints still mark Russia’s diplomacy…

Aug 24, 2025 • Brian McDonald

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