The Disastrous Paradox of Russian Fear | Putin and his coercive security services have created a problem among ordinary Russians that has no easy solution. Irina Borogan and @andreisoldatov.bsky.social cepa.org/article/the-disastrous-p...
Moscow’s Plasticine Man Comes to Washington? | “The members of the delegation are not a channel to the Kremlin — it is a conversation with people who neither shape its decisions nor have meaningful access to them.” @andreisoldatov.bsky.social and Irina Borogan
This article in El País is must reading, and they've posted it in English translation. "Borogan and Soldatov have a deep understanding of the thinking of the silovichi, the elite of the Russian security forces. Founders of the Agentura website, they revealed Putin’s mass video surveillance in 2012
“From the FSB’s perspective, they can’t afford even a 1-percent chance that these people could one day undermine Russia’s political stability.” @andreisoldatov.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/russia-spy-recru...
How does a system sustained by propaganda and fear evolve — and endure?
A conversation with on The Orwellians Podcast about Our Dear Friends in Moscow.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kp7...
Moscow’s Plasticine Man Comes to Washington
Our latest for @cepa.org on the Russian delegation invited by the U.S. Congress for talks, with Irina Borogan.
cepa.org/article/mosc...
"Russia's leaders and security services remember 1991 and they remember what happened to Russia and what happened to them when Moscow stopped a big war in Afghanistan: the country collapsed," @andreisoldatov.bsky.social
How does one face power — and adapt to it?
A French-language review of Our Dear Friends in Moscow on Palingénésie.
palingenesie.com/our-dear-fri...
✍🏼 Commentary by KCSI Visiting Fellow @andreisoldatov.bsky.social featured in an article by @theguardian.com on concerns raised over ex-Putin interpreter’s key role in monitoring Hungary vote.
👉🏼 Full article and Andrei’s comments: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
De Russische Doema staat op het punt een wet aan te nemen die de inzet van de strijdkrachten buiten het grondgebied mogelijk maakt om 🇷🇺 burgers te bevrijden die door buitenlandse rechtbanken - zoals het Internationaal Strafhof in Den Haag - worden vastgehouden.
Via @andreisoldatov.bsky.social
Russia Plans an Invasion of the Body Snatchers | The Kremlin’s war against international law reaches beyond mere words and now includes the use of heavily armed military squads operating on foreign soil. @andreisoldatov.bsky.social and Irina Borogan
A collage of book covers including Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation by Zaakir Tameez, The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond, The Undertow by Jeff Sharlett, Colored Television by Danzy Senna, The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Gewa, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, Our Dear Friends in Moscow by Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov, and The Traitor's Circle by Jonathan Freedland, in a graphic provided by Storygraph.
So many great books this month! Especially Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation by Zaakir Tameez--I will be recommending that to everyone forever.
#BookSky
"In the face of what looks like a permanent war, they have chosen adaptation, internalisation and, ultimately, isolation." @andreisoldatov.bsky.social and Irina Borogan
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/2...
Russia’s Paranoid Despot and His Secret Police | "Putin and his spies share the very dark assumption that a lost war would cause the collapse of the state, the country, and the agencies themselves." @andreisoldatov.bsky.social and Irina Borogan
Cover of Our Dear Friends in Moscow: the inside story of a broken generation by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
Reading this right now. About the moral and professional arc of a group of journalists as Putin rises. Super interesting and very conversational writing style
The strategy of Russia’s liberal elite is clear: make your peace with Putin. It’s how they survive | Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
Four years into the war, the strategy of Russia’s liberal elite is clear: make your peace with Putin — Irina Borogan and I in @theguardian.com , drawing on themes from our book Our Dear Friends in Moscow.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The UK Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee has published its report on transnational repression, an increasingly urgent issue in Europe.
Our article, “The Russian way in transnational repression” (via @kcsi.uk), is included in the “read more” section.
lordslibrary.parliament.uk/transnationa...
Our article explores the historical roots of Russia’s use of TNR, from the Tsarist and Soviet periods to the present day — and why targeting critics abroad remains a central focus of the Kremlin.
kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...
The UK Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee has published its report on transnational repression, an increasingly urgent issue in Europe.
Our article, “The Russian way in transnational repression” (via @kcsi.uk), is included in the “read more” section.
lordslibrary.parliament.uk/transnationa...
Here's my video from frozen Kyiv. Temperatures in Ukraine have risen - it's -1C today, with a lot of slush! - but are forecast to drop again this week. Air raid sirens and Russian attacks continue. The Kremlin had targeted *every* power plant, with most hit many times www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxIT...
The Russian authorities have designated our website, Agentura.ru, a “foreign agent.”
Our mission hasn’t changed since its launch in Sept 2000: to shed light on Russia’s secret services — as I told @nytimes back then. We’ll keep doing it.
www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/t...
The failure to prevent attacks doesn’t negate the fact that some FSB departments are highly capable (e.g., ORU, the Operative-Search Department). Their work, plus pervasive surveillance and bilateral cooperation with foreign states, lets Russia track down suspects (and get them).
“When people today compare right-wing and authoritarian tendencies in Austria and Europe with Germany in the 1930s, it is nonsense. It is rather Russia in the 2010s — and that’s also frightening.”
— Michael Hafner, on Our Dear Friends in Moscow
michael-hafner.at/andrei-solda...
Russia: The Price of ‘Treason’
Irina Borogan and I on a harassing documentary — the FSB’s latest attempt to respond to a wave of attacks carried out by Russian youth — for @cepa.org
cepa.org/article/russ...
Incredible sloppiness by military counterintelligence (DVKR), by far the largest FSB department. One would have expected them to scale up protection for top military brass; instead, they spend their resources spying on the military.
Denmark’s Weekendavisen has published a review of Our Dear Friends in Moscow, titled “Bedste fjender” (Best Enemies), focusing on the moral choices that shaped Russia’s recent history.
www.weekendavisen.dk/boeger/bedst...
Merry Orthodox Christmas from yours truly VVP and his secret services 🎄
Thank you to @kcsi.uk including Our Dear Friends in Moscow in your holiday book recommendations —much appreciated.
🎄 It’s that time of the year when the buzz of work quiets down and we get the time to rest before ringing in the new year — and pick up a book or two.
🥳 If you find yourself in need of last-minute holiday gift ideas, look no further than our KCSI-approved book guide!