Preparing for Defeat  —  I'm writing this from Skopje, North Macedonia, where I've been for the last week teaching one of our Leadership Academy for Development courses.  Following the Ukraine war is no different here in terms of available information, except that I'm in an adjacent time zone …

The Things I'm Afraid to Write About  —  One evening, I sat on the brown-leather couch of a younger man who admired me for my writing, and maybe other things, if the salty text messages were true.  He came from a different generation, but I was pleased to discover that he shared …

The Weakness of the Despot  —  An expert on Stalin discusses Putin, Russia, and the West.  —  Stephen Kotkin is one of our most profound and prodigious scholars of Russian history.  His masterwork is a biography of Josef Stalin.  So far he has published two volumes—"Paradoxes of Power …

Intelligence points to heightened risk of Russian chemical attack in Ukraine, officials say  —  MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The United States and its allies have intelligence that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons against Ukraine, U.S. and European officials said Friday …

Justice Thomas slams cancel culture, ‘packing’ Supreme Court  —  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he's concerned efforts to politicize the court or add additional justices may erode the institution's credibility, speaking Friday in Utah at an event hosted …

American Voters Now View Ukraine as Favorably as France, Germany and Japan  —  American voters' perceived friends and adversaries  —  As recently as a year ago, many Americans did not know what to make of Ukraine — if they knew anything about it at all.  One-third of voters couldn't say whether …

Putin's pre-war moves against U.S. tech giants laid groundwork for crackdown on free expression … Russian agents came to the home of Google's top executive in Moscow to deliver a frightening ultimatum last September: take down an app that had drawn the ire of Russian President Vladimir Putin within 24 hours or be taken to prison.

POLITICO Playbook: Trump descends on S.C. — and splits its Republican Party  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  PALMETTO STATE INTRIGUE — As President DONALD TRUMP heads to his latest political event this evening — a rally in Florence, S.C. — POLITICO's lead GOP politics reporter, Alex Isenstadt …

Kremlin arrests FSB chiefs in fallout from Ukraine chaos … A Russian spy chief is said to have been placed under house arrest in a sign that President Putin is seeking to blame the security services for the stalled invasion of Ukraine.  —  Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB's foreign intelligence branch …

Biden, Democrats infuse Ukraine crisis into a recast election-year pitch to voters … PHILADELPHIA — President Biden and his party have moved in recent days to reorient their election-year pitch to voters around Russia's invasion of Ukraine — seeking to shift blame for struggles …

Using a New Cyber Tool, Westerners Have Been Texting Russians About the War in Ukraine  —  Website developed by hackers is new initiative in West's battle to counter Russia's propaganda campaign  —  People around the world are using a new website to circumvent the Kremlin's propaganda machine …

Russia threatens to attack western weapons shipments to Ukraine  —  Warning raises risk of direct confrontation between Moscow and Nato  —  Russia has warned that it will fire on western armaments shipments to Kyiv, raising the risk of a direct military confrontation between Moscow and Nato during the war in Ukraine.

That Russian Business You're Boycotting Isn't Actually Russian  —  The consumer activism that makes a vodka C.E.O. say: 'Do you know we're Latvian?'  —  They poured the liquid out — blueberry-flavored, orange-flavored and the original, face-puckering unflavored version …

War in Ukraine: How Russia is recruiting mercenaries  —  Social media channels and private messaging groups are being used in Russia to recruit a new brigade of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine alongside the army, the BBC has learned.  —  The BBC has spoken to a serving mercenary …

Ukraine at ‘turning point’, Zelenskiy says as Russians regroup near Kyiv … Ukraine was at a turning point in the war with Russian forces appearing to be regroup for a possible assault on Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as the United States imposed new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs.

Supplying Arms to Ukraine is Not an Act of War  —  (Editors' note: This post also appears on Lawfare.)  —  Debate has been swirling in Washington and among NATO allies about whether states can legally provide Ukraine military assistance in its ongoing armed conflict with Russia.

Oleg Deripaska hints at legal action over UK's brutal sanctions on Russian oligarchs as he claims there is ‘not a single fact’ to support them  — Oleg Deripaska suggested UK's sanctioning of oligarchs may lead to court action  — He claimed there is ‘not a single fact in support’ of the crippling set of sanctions

Yacht justice: A new front in the war drags Russia's oligarchs into the spotlight … From the hillsides above Barcelona, the superyacht looked like a building.  The titanic vessel, christened Dilbar in 2016, was often docked at Port Vell, dwarfing the Barcelona aquarium next door …

A Trump vs. Kemp proxy war deepens in Georgia after new endorsement  —  Donald Trump dipped deep down into Georgia's ballot to endorse a little-known GOP candidate for insurance commissioner who only entered the race against an incumbent backed by Gov. Brian Kemp this week.

Esther Byrd, QAnon-adjacent defender of Jan. 6 insurrection, appointed to Florida Board of Education … A.G. Gancarski  —  A.G. Gancarski has been a correspondent for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014.  In 2018, he was a finalist for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies “best political column.”

After 2 Years of Pandemic Life, Turn Toward Normalcy Is a Shake-Up  —  As the Omicron variant recedes, cities and states with the longest mask and vaccine mandates are rapidly lifting them.  The abrupt shift has unsettled the most vigilant Americans.  —  It was two years ago …

US pays $2M a month to protect Pompeo, aide from Iran threat  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it's paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former top aide, both of whom face “serious and credible” threats from Iran.

Kinzinger: My ‘biggest regret’ was voting against first Trump impeachment  —  Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Friday expressed regret for failing to vote to impeach former President Trump the first time over his dealings with Ukraine in light of the recent Russian invasion.