Will American Liquefied Natural Gas Change the Russian Sanctions Game?


When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the United States reacted with its first round of sanctions against the country, with the Obama administration levying additional sanctions in December of 2016 after the American Intelligence Community announced that Russia had interfered in the American presidential election. We may never know what effect American sanctions have had on the situation in Ukraine, but one thing is clear: they have not deterred Russia from continuing to target American elections. Why? As this post will argue, the structure of the Russian economy is partly to blame.

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Magic and Dragons and Swords, Oh My! Affect and the Medieval


As medieval knights, damsels, and lords descended on central Moscow this summer as part of the annual Times and Epochs festival, many of them saw their activities as specifically apolitical. Similar sentiments are voiced throughout Russia’s growing movement of Historical Reconstruction, members of which meet at hundreds of festivals throughout the country each summer. But upon reflection, many acknowledge that medieval reconstruction does indeed align with a certain social and political orientation: “Healthy values, ‘absorbed’ from the past, are characteristic of reconstructors: strong families, traditional gender roles, a cult of camaraderie.”

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Medieval Knights in Central Moscow


Billed as “The world’s largest historical event,” Times and Epochs annually attracts hundreds of thousands of battle re-enactors, period-specific artisans, and uncostumed spectators for recreations of everything (or every time) from ancient Rome to medieval Rus’ up to the Russian Civil War and WWII. The festival is only one of an enormous number of such events that have sprung up across the country in recent years and that act as the meeting points for the growing Movement in Historical Reconstruction.

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