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deskrussia.bsky.social
russian desk
@deskrussia.bsky.social
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Quality analysis on Russia & Russia’s war in Ukraine |
English-language version of @deskrussie.bsky.social |
Director: Philippe de Lara |
Editor-in-chief: Galia Ackerman |
Website: https://desk-russie.info/ |
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deskrussia.bsky.social
russian desk @deskrussia.bsky.social · Dec 23
We bring quality analysis to you about Russia and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

As a French media, we promote the work of French historians, journalists and geopolitical analysts.

Be sure to visit our English-language website 👇
desk-russie.info
desk russie · The News Deciphered Just for You
Our ambition is to offer you an informed view of today's Russian reality through analyses, decryptions and original information, often first-hand, but also debates and positions.
desk-russie.info
deskrussia.bsky.social
Putin has compromised the United States in his efforts to demolish international law. This is the primary objective of the Witkoff/Dmitriev peace plan.

Françoise Thom decodes the points that have not received sufficient attention from Western observers ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/11/27/t...
The Witkoff/Dmitriev Peace Plan: Stupidity or Betrayal? • russian desk
Putin has just made one of his most cherished dreams come true: he has compromised the United States in his efforts to demolish international law. This is the
desk-russie.info
November 29, 2025 at 2:04 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Is Witkoff really just a bumbling businessman? Or the incarnation of a new world order in which international affairs are reduced to business deals serving the interests of an international oligarchical elite?

By Samantha de Bendern (first pub. in May 2025) ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/05/14/t...
The Realtor Who Came in From the Cold • russian desk
Trump's chief negotiator is acting in the service of a section of the elite, interested in restoring trade ties.
desk-russie.info
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
For this article we met with Ihor Tsurupa from the KROVOSPAS project. For almost 4 years now, around a hundred volunteers have been producing enough hemostatic dressings to equip, at cost price, a large proportion of the million soldiers defending Ukraine ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/11/17/u...
Ukraine: Krovospas, or the Factory of Survival • russian desk
For almost four years, around a hundred volunteers have been performing a small miracle: producing enough hemostatic compresses to equip a large part of the fighters defending Ukraine.
desk-russie.info
November 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Seduce, confuse, isolate —

How RT establishes a relationship of dependence and emotional trust, following its Soviet predecessor’s logic of influence ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/27/a...
Anatomy of Media Influence, From Novosti to RT • russian desk
From 2017 until its ban in 2022, RT France transformed distrust of the media into a culture of mistrust, the effects of which still persist.
desk-russie.info
November 13, 2025 at 10:05 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Russia’s Brics Currency That Never Happened ⤵️

— by George Witherington
desk-russie.info/2025/10/27/r...
Russia’s Brics Currency That Never Happened • russian desk
This project embodied Russia's desire to change the global financial order. The British financial expert traces the story of its failure.
desk-russie.info
November 3, 2025 at 11:16 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
RT no longer needs to broadcast to exist: it now lives in the cognitive reflexes of its audience.

RT has transformed itself into autonomous mental software, capable of functioning without its creator.

By Guillaume Sancey ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/27/a...
Anatomy of Media Influence, From Novosti to RT • russian desk
From 2017 until its ban in 2022, RT France transformed distrust of the media into a culture of mistrust, the effects of which still persist.
desk-russie.info
October 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
What we call “hybrid warfare” is simply war. It is a cognitive war, but also an Orwellian, subversive, systemic war, whose goal is to accustom us to thinking within the universe of Putin’s lies, to make us accept Russian conditions in the real world. ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/27/b...
Beyond the “Hybrid War” Cliché • russian desk
The notion of "hybrid war" no longer corresponds to the war waged by Russia against both Ukraine and the West.
desk-russie.info
October 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Venezuela has become a “new Cuba” in the eyes of Moscow.

— Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier on the Moscow-Havana-Caracas geopolitical axis & Russia’s “secondary front” (a key concept in Soviet strategic thinking) ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/27/o...
On the Scope of the Ties Between Putin’s Russia and Chavista Venezuela: The Possibility of a “Secondary Front”? • russian desk
During the rise of the Russian revisionist program, Venezuela was seen as the "new Cuba."
desk-russie.info
October 28, 2025 at 9:04 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Just within one year, the number of Poles who know (or, rather, confess they know) a Ukrainian person declined from 66% to 61%; the number of Poles who have a friend or friends from Ukraine fell down from 15% to 11%.

By Mykola Ryabchuk ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/20/g...
Guests to Tenants to Irritants • russian desk
A common wisdom, supported by some proverbial psychologists, claims that a good guest should not bother their hosts longer than three days. After that he
desk-russie.info
October 23, 2025 at 9:07 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Of all European nations explored by the survey, Ukrainians are assessed most negatively, above only Roma and (since 2014) Russians, roughly on par with Turks, Chinese, Belarusians and, ironically, Germans – other victims of Polish historical resentments. ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/20/g...
Guests to Tenants to Irritants • russian desk
A common wisdom, supported by some proverbial psychologists, claims that a good guest should not bother their hosts longer than three days. After that he
desk-russie.info
October 22, 2025 at 9:24 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Putin finds himself indebted to his new war elite, which forms the backbone of his power. He is forced to continue redistribution and expropriation in order to feed it and ensure its support. ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/17/p...
Putin’s Endless War: Imperial Ambitions and Europe’s Moment of Truth • russian desk
A regime based on the rejection of all international norms is an extremist regime that can only be "convinced" by force.
desk-russie.info
October 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with the conquest and subjugation of Ukraine, it automatically becomes an empire again.” — Zbigniew Brzeziński

Putin’s Endless War: Imperial Ambitions and Europe’s Moment of Truth, by Borukh Taskin and Aaron Lea ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/10/17/p...
Putin’s Endless War: Imperial Ambitions and Europe’s Moment of Truth • russian desk
A regime based on the rejection of all international norms is an extremist regime that can only be "convinced" by force.
desk-russie.info
October 20, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by russian desk
liotier.bsky.social
"While Trumpist thinking eludes any coherent doctrine of American foreign policy, it nonetheless has a logic of its own. From the point of view of Russian geopolitical interests, it is even more rational"
October 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
“As in the case of Roosevelt, Trumpian policy is only rational in terms of Russian geopolitical interests.”

A historical perspective by Laurence Saint-Gilles ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/05/01/t...
The Genealogy of Trumpism • russian desk
Trump's policies seem to defy all logic. The closest parallel would be the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose entourage was riddled with Soviet agents.
desk-russie.info
October 17, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by russian desk
liotier.bsky.social
Repost from September, but please read it if you haven't already - especially if you haven't read the wonderfully clear "Comprendre le Poutinisme". This time, Françoise Thom makes the parallels between USA and Russia explicit - oligarchs destroy everything they touch. Ignorance is now inexcusable.
October 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
How was public money from Western countries transformed into hidden private profits in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union? ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/e...
Economic Relations, an Underestimated Weapon in the Kremlin’s Hybrid War Against the West. II. Contagion • russian desk
Having been fooled by Russia for a century and a half, Westerners still keep asking for more.
desk-russie.info
October 15, 2025 at 8:42 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Behind Russia, Communist China

The West Faces the Strengthening of a Eurasian Axis

— by Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/b...
Behind Russia, Communist China: The West Faces the Strengthening of a Eurasian Axis • russian desk
Europeans risk being on the front line against this evil alliance.
desk-russie.info
October 13, 2025 at 12:20 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Four years of “lagging behind reality”
— by French essayist J.-F. Bouthors

Many political actors (particularly in France) are acting as agents of national and European division, when we should be coming together to counter Russia’s pernicious and brutal actions.
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/t...
The Riflemen of the War in Ukraine • russian desk
The intrusion of Russian drones into Poland has highlighted the fact that our current intellectual frameworks for understanding modern warfare are outdated.
desk-russie.info
October 7, 2025 at 8:55 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Despite having been fleeced by Russia for a century and a half, Westerners are still asking for more.

“Economic Relations, an Underestimated Weapon in the Kremlin’s Hybrid War Against the West. Part 2. Contagion.”

— By French Sovietologist Françoise Thom
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/e...
Economic Relations, an Underestimated Weapon in the Kremlin’s Hybrid War Against the West. II. Contagion • russian desk
Having been fooled by Russia for a century and a half, Westerners still keep asking for more.
desk-russie.info
October 6, 2025 at 11:40 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Western media outlets have extensively covered the resignation of Dmitry Kozak, deputy chief of staff to Vladimir Putin, seeing it as a sign of a hardening of the regime.

What if this resignation was just a cover-up?

— By Borukh Taskin & Aaron Lea ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/t...
The Kremlin Without Kozak: The Era of the Lawyers Is Over • russian desk
What does the removal of the architect of Russian policy from the "hot spots" of the former empire reveal: Abkhazia, Transnistria, Crimea, Donbass?
desk-russie.info
October 3, 2025 at 12:28 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Former Soviet dissident Sergei Khodorovich died in Paris on September 21, 2025, at the age of 85.

A tribute by French journalist Nicolas Miletitch ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/29/s...
“Sergei Was a Man of Honor, Duty, and Incomparable Courage” • russian desk
The former Soviet dissident, Sergei Khodorovich, has died in Paris at the age of 85.
desk-russie.info
October 2, 2025 at 1:16 PM
deskrussia.bsky.social
@umland.bsky.social: “The Cold War in Europe until 1989 remained cold, not because the West was cautious and Germany was peaceful, but because NATO stood united and resolutely confronted Moscow, responding to every provocation with an adequate counteraction.” ⤵️
September 23, 2025 at 9:50 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
Despite apparent progress, Europe continues to treat an ontological challenge with managerial means, without questioning either the nature of the evil it is fighting or the spiritual foundations it claims to defend.
Full essay by historian Pierre Raiman ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/08/t...
The old philosopher, the ogre at our gates, and the good Europeans • russian desk
An existential threat cannot be addressed by ordinary instruments of diplomacy.
desk-russie.info
September 23, 2025 at 9:40 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
“Europe has long prioritized economic interests, sidestepping the issue of the Russian regime. It is as if the peace of the graveyards were an acceptable political ideal, provided that it spares Europe the heroic demands of its vocation.”

Full essay ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/08/t...
The old philosopher, the ogre at our gates, and the good Europeans • russian desk
An existential threat cannot be addressed by ordinary instruments of diplomacy.
desk-russie.info
September 22, 2025 at 9:49 AM
deskrussia.bsky.social
U.S. officials would do well to consider the repeated misfortunes of those who have been caught in the trap of economic cooperation with Russia.

A historical retrospective and a warning by French Sovietologist Françoise Thom ⤵️
desk-russie.info/2025/09/11/e...
Economic relations, an underestimated weapon in the Kremlin's hybrid war against the West. I. The Leninist imprint • russian desk
From the very founding of the Bolshevik state, Lenin and his successors exploited the greed and naivety of Westerners.
desk-russie.info
September 19, 2025 at 7:55 AM