Steve Rosenberg: "Once Launched, the Machine of Persecution and Punishment Can't Stop…” - Russian Newspaper

Mar 26, 2026 | Another critical editorial today in Nezavisimaya Gazeta: “The scope for prohibition [in Russia] becomes almost unlimited. Once launched, the machine of persecution and punishment cannot stop…

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Newspaper Slams Internet Blackouts & Growing Restrictions inside Russia

Mar 25, 2026 | In the Russian papers you won't find criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine. But one paper today has an editorial slamming internet blackouts and increasing restrictions in Russia: “Where is the cut-off point, the line in our personal & collective experience we’re not prepared to cross, where we would say no, we can’t live without this, we don’t want to?”

Steve Rosenberg: Surprising Criticism of Russian Authorities in Mainstream Russian Newspaper

Mar 23, 2026 | From a mainstream Russian tabloid, surprising criticism of the authorities: “Either they see us as kids too small & brainless to be trusted or have anything explained to us [or] the system has become so unbalanced one part no longer understands what the other is doing.”

Putin vs Gays: Why Has Russia Launched a Full-Scale Crackdown on LGBTQ People?

Nov 7, 2025

Steve Rosenberg: In Russia "Restrictions Are Tightening, Self-censorship Increasing."

Mar 20, 2026 | Today’s Russian papers write about attempts to protest against internet censorship, & about growing depression and fatigue in Russian society. “Restrictions are tightening…self-censorship increasing. This doesn’t help our psychological wellbeing.”

Is Russian Oil Headed for Cuba, Testing the U.S. Blockade?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A Russian oil tanker is being closely tracked to see if it will challenge the Trump administration’s blockade on Cuba.

A Russian tanker full of oil is moving through the Atlantic Ocean and drawing scrutiny to see if it is heading to Cuba, a potential test of the U.S. oil blockade of the island, according to shipping data and industry analysts.

The ultimate destination of the tanker is still unknown. But if Russia is attempting to send oil to Cuba, as some analysts suspect, it could represent a critical lifeline for the Cuban government — and a new potential showdown between two superpowers over the small island nation.

Cuba has not received a significant shipment of fuel since Jan. 9, soon after the United States captured Venezuela’s president and took control of its oil exports, which once largely powered Cuba.

That is causing a severe crisis for Cuba. The Trump administration has threatened other nations not to send fuel, hoping to choke Cuba’s government into submission.

The tanker, called the Anatoly Kolodkin and owned by the Russian government, is carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of crude oil, which analysts estimate could buy Cuba weeks of energy. » | Christiaan Triebert and Jack Nicas | The reporters analyzed ship-tracking data and satellite images and spoke to oil-shipping analysts for this article. | Thursday, March 19, 2026

Leer en español.

Steve Rosenberg: “Iran Events Show that Russia Can’t Rely on Any Diplomatic Agreements with the US” - Russian Paper

Mar 18, 2026 | In today’s Russian papers: “Iran events show that Russia can’t rely on any diplomatic agreements with the US.” Plus, criticism of Hungary’s leaders in 1956 uprising: “You mustn’t cross red lines. A red line was you mustn’t threaten USSR geo-political interests.”

Steve Rosenberg: "Iran's Got Trump by the Throat" Declares Russian Newspaper

Mar 17, 2026 | How is the Iran war seen from Moscow? One Russian paper today: “Trump wanted to strangle Tehran, but he’s tightened the noose around his own neck.” Plus, reaction in the Russian press to Mr Nobody Against Putin winning an Oscar [spoiler alert: there isn’t much.]

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Media Continue to List Benefits for Moscow from Iran War

Mar 16, 2026 | The Russian newspapers continue to write about how Russia benefits from the Iran war. Writing about Donald Trump, one paper says the US president has "made a mistake as old as the world. It's a feature of personalistic regimes. He comes to believe in his own genius. Those around him say only what he wants to hear. He takes a decision in a narrow circle of one of two trusted persons…as a result the blitzkrieg scenario didn’t work." Plus, a Russian lawyer who believes "the USSR is alive, not only in our hearts."

Steve Rosenberg: Moscow's Mobile Internet Blackout Sends Sales of Walkie-talkies, Pagers & Paper Maps Spiralling

Mar 13, 2026 | Today Russian newspapers report the consequences of Moscow’s week-long mobile internet blackout. “Sales of walkie-talkies are up 27%, sales of pagers up 73%...sales of road atlases up 170%.” Meanwhile, high oil prices mean that Russia’s “export revenues are growing.”

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Schools Introduce Obligatory History Exams, Education Based on "Love for the Motherland"

March 12, 2026

Steve Rosenberg: In Russia, Who's Criticising Donald Trump...and Who Isn't?

Mar 11, 2026 | One of today's Russian papers writes that Donald Trump “needs help extricating himself from the poisoned political web spun from his arrogance & recklessness. Putin’s political trump cards have multiplied due to the miscalculations of his US counterpart”

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Paper on Donald Trump: "The 'Peace President' Has Lost His Mind."

March 10, 2026

Jeffrey Sachs: “US Will Fail” in Iran War | Israel a Terror State? | Russia & China’s Next Move

Mar 1, 2026 | We interviewed Jeffrey Sachs on the ongoing US-Israel attack on Iran — and his verdict is blunt: “The US will fail.”

Iran War Spreading: Russia Gets Involved | Stanislav Krapivnik

March 1, 2026

Steve Rosenberg: Russian Newspaper Refers to “the Machine of Persecution & Punishment” in Today's Russia

Feb 27, 2026 | This week one Russian newspaper described “the machine of persecution & punishment” in Russia. “Everything that a few months ago was not just legal, but natural, is being criminalised.” Plus, the state of the Russian economy and how the Russian press reported on the 70th anniversary of Khrushchev's 'secret speech' denouncing Stalin's cult of personality.

Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, Talks about Russia’s Failures Re Ukraine

Listen here.

Four Years into Its Full-scale War in Ukraine, Russia Is Feeling the Effects

BBC: At first glance, Yelets in winter looks like something from a Russian fairy tale.

From the embankment I spy the golden domes of Orthodox churches and, down below, ice fishermen dotted along the frozen river.

But in this town, 350km (217 miles) south of Moscow, the fairy tale feeling is transient.

On the riverbank I spot an army recruitment billboard. It promises a one-off sum equivalent to £15,000 to anyone who'll sign up to fight in Ukraine.

Close by there's a poster of a Russian soldier taking aim with a Kalashnikov.

"We're there where we need to be," the accompanying slogan declares.

The Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Outside Russia it was widely seen as an attempt to force Kyiv back into Moscow's orbit and to overturn the entire post-Cold War security architecture in Europe.

The Russian leadership envisaged a short and successful military operation.

It didn't go to plan. » | Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor, in Lipetsk | Monday, February 23, 2026

What Is Putin's Plan after Four Years of War in Ukraine? | Global News Podcast

Feb 23, 2026 | We take a look at Russia, its leader, and its people, after four years of war in Ukraine. What is Vladimir Putin's end game? Have his talks with US President Donald Trump emboldened him? And what does the Russian public make of the conflict, as casualties rise and the economy struggles?

We speak to the BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg, one of the few Western journalists covering the Kremlin from inside the country.

Steve Rosenberg: "Russia Needs a Military Alliance" Says Russian Paper.

Feb 24, 2026 | An opinion piece in Moskovsky Komsomolets calls for Russia and allies to form a military alliance. Remembering the Warsaw Pact, the writer claims that Moscow was “restoring constitutional order in Hungary in 1956 & in Czechoslovakia in 1968,” a sign of how Russia in 2026 is reinterpreting history.