Contributors
Joshua Yaffa
Joshua Yaffa is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia,” which won the Orwell Prize in 2021.
All Work
- News Desk
Russia’s “Madman” Routine in Syria May Have Averted Direct Confrontation with the U.S., For Now
Moscow’s fiery rhetoric—more theatrical than substantive—may be the limit of Russia’s immediate reaction, or at least a signifier that its response will not be on the battlefield.
April 14, 2018
- News Desk
Why Trump’s Expulsion of Diplomats Does (and Doesn’t) Unnerve Moscow
The move displays renewed Western unity but lacks the financial penalties that would actually hurt the Russian élite.
March 26, 2018
- News Desk
Election Day in Pro-Russia Crimea
In the port city of Sevastopol, the euphoria of having joined Russia was fading, and being replaced by a sense of pragmatic realism.
March 20, 2018
- News Desk
As Russia Votes, Its Youth Are Open and Curious but Not Yet Insurrectionary
A televised exchange with Vladimir Putin captures a sense of the bubbling discontent among Russia’s young people.
March 17, 2018
- News Desk
Moscow Is Laughing at Trump—and All of Us
The chaos dominating American politics is amusing to the Putin-era élite because of the injuries and slights they feel they have suffered from Washington.
February 18, 2018
- News Desk
Putin’s Shadow Army Suffers a Setback in Syria
A private militia group suffered dozens of casualties last week at the hands of U.S. forces, in the first direct fighting between Americans and Russians since Vietnam.
February 16, 2018
- News Desk
The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Most Acclaimed Theatre Director
After years of support from the Kremlin, Kirill Serebrennikov was under house arrest when his newest ballet premièred at the Bolshoi Theatre.
December 11, 2017
- News
Putin’s Russia Wrestles with the Meaning of Trotsky and Revolution
On the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, a series on state-run Russian television showcases Leon Trotsky’s life but warns of the chaos that rebellion can bring.
November 7, 2017
- The Current
Why Would the Kremlin Be Interested in Meeting with the Trump Foreign-Policy Adviser George Papadopoulos?
Based on his guilty plea in the Mueller investigation, it sounds like the Trump adviser’s plans fizzled out—but that doesn’t mean the Kremlin’s did.
October 30th 2017, 6:31 P.M.
- The Current
Paul Manafort and the Dirty World of Ukrainian Politics
Today’s indictment is a reflection of how corruption in one country rarely stays there, but leaks out into the global financial system.
October 30th 2017, 12:44 P.M.
