Putin has gifted Kazakhstan four tigers, including two cubs, from the same endangered breed used by him in a botched PR stunt that left one of the big cats dead

Until this weekend, the prevailing narrative in the Russia-Ukraine war was that Vladimir Putin was on the back foot.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia and the country’s former president, threatened European Union diplomats in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv. “The EU has said it will maintain its diplomatic presence in Kiev unchanged,

Vladimir Putin has closed Moscow airspace to all private planes and helicopters as fears of an assassination attempt mount. The area slated for closed airspace – up to an altitude of 16,700ft -is roughly four times the size of the United Kingdom.

The Kremlin has dramatically increased the personal security around President Vladimir Putin, installing surveillance systems in the homes of close staffers as part of new measures prompted by a wave of assassinations of top Russian military figures and fears of a coup,

Less than a week after Xi rolled out the red carpet for Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin arrived to a similar welcome — with telling differences in protocol, priorities and optics that hint at how China manages ties with Washington versus Moscow.

In this spirit, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried for more than four years to protect the population of Moscow from the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine. Festivals and other events have gone on much as they did before,

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed ties with Russia as a force for “calm amid chaos” during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, days after Xi hosted President Donald Trump for a landmark US-China summit.

Ukraine is proving it holds more “cards” than some assumed, thwarting Russia’s battlefield advances while pounding its infrastructure. Vladimir Putin is visibly under stress to end the war. Yet Moscow is still demanding peace terms far exceeding its military leverage.

Its residents could either bathe in the patriotic glory of war or ignore it altogether, shutting their eyes to distant suffering while reaping the benefits the conflict brought to Russia’s economy. No longer.

Vladimir Putin appeared to struggle with mobility issues during his arrival in Beijing for a high-stakes summit.