Owen Matthews

The Russian government told its citizens that it had defeated Islamists in the Caucasus. This morning's attack belies the point.

Igor Shuvalov is first deputy to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, charged with reforming Russia's economy. He also runs Russia's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund.

Russia's new diplomatic strategy is cheap and counterproductive. But playing the pest is the only way for Moscow to claim relevance.

Why the U.S. should hail the Islamists.

Russia's leaders are furious at their country's Olympic performance. But they're blaming the wrong people, and so they're going to fail again in Sochi.

It says a lot about the kind of place Russia has become that just two minutes of mild mockery of the Kremlin could cause a political shock wave. But sure enough: when the state-controlled Channel One showed a short cartoon in January depicting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and PresidentDmitry Medvedev dancing together in Red Square, singing a comic duet about the big news stories of 2009, liberals rejoiced.

Just two years ago, Russia's energy reserves made it seem like a rising superpower—and a Western bogeyman that could do anything it wanted. That was then.

Why his victory may actually be good news for Ukraine.

Why Brussels turned its back.

Only one thing's for sure in Ukraine's election: the winner won't be Russia, no matter what it says.

Turkey is the surprising beneficiary of U.S. misadventures in the Middle East.

Turkey's foreign minister discusses his country's expanding role as a regional power.

How Medvedev plans to reform the military—and why Obama should not be worried.

Two years ago, Russia was one of the ­fastest-­growing auto markets in the world--but few Western carmakers were willing to risk a partnership there. Then, in 2007, Renault purchased a 25 percent stake in AvtoVaz, whose Lada brand was famous for the wrong reasons: its plants were fitted with ­Soviet-era production equipment and its 100,000 employees produced just 130,000 cars annually.

When the Berlin Wall fell, young Russians clamored for all things Western. Now they rail against anything that is.

Nikita Belykh is radically remaking Russia's vast Kirov region. The country's democratic future may depend on his success.

Last month Dmitry Medvedev set out his bold new vision of a "more civilized" Russia, no longer prone to the "legal nihilism" that has rotted the fabric of Russian capitalism and turned the courts and police into tools for settling private business disputes.

Russian terror in the age of Putin.

Why Dmitry Medvedev will fail.

The missile-defense shield was a fantasy to begin with. So why did Russia and Eastern Europe obsess over it?

The ruins of the ancient Armenian capital of Ani are haunting, and haunted. On what is now a windblown patch of grassland enclosed in colossal walls and dotted with ancient cathedrals, there was once a great city.

Don't be fooled: Russia's still reeling from the commodities crash, and things are poised to get worse before they get better. Putin's oil fund will be "practically exhausted" by the end of 2010, says Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

Newly nervous post-Soviet states crack down on Western schools.

Germany Has Become Russia's Best Friend, But To Whose Benefit?

A weapons system shows how Russia plays Washington and Tehran against each other.

The Kremlin is trying to promote national myths—at the expense of the truth.

Putin's successor as president seemed like a smooth-talking yes man. That's changing now.

Georgians want better relations with Russia, which won't bend till Saakashvili goes. He may have to.

Moldova's would-be color revolution fails. Chalk one up for the Kremlin.

A year ago he was Russia's richest oligarch. Now he's a warning to the others.