July 22, 2026
Hanna Notte
The following is an excerpt from The New York Times.
“Putin is now isolated from the world more than ever,” President Joe Biden proclaimed in his State of the Union address in March 2022. One week before, President Vladimir Putin of Russia had ordered his tanks into Ukraine, prompting Western nations to sever ties with Russia and throw their support behind Kyiv. The shock over Mr. Putin’s brazen land grab reverberated across the globe. Many expected Russia to turn into a bête noire.
But it soon dawned on Russia’s adversaries that the country wasn’t going anywhere. Forced to prepare for a long war, the Kremlin instructed its diplomats, intellectuals and operatives to secure support in the non-Western world. Many countries proved receptive to Russian overtures, refusing to be forced into a binary choice between Russia and the West. Russia soon became something curious: the most sanctioned country in the world, yet more than able to stay afloat. Estrangement from Europe was offset by ever closer relations with the global south.
To make sense of this turn of events, I set off on a journey around the globe. Traveling to over a dozen countries, I spoke with the politicians and people who support Russia, and I interviewed Russians who propel the Kremlin’s agenda from Moscow and those who operate on the periphery. The question was simple: How has Russia managed to weather its rejection by the West? What I found was testament to the country’s relentless adaptation. No matter what the West does, Russia will not yield.
Continue reading at The New York Times.
