Tony Wood

Russia’s invasion suggests that its own commitment to the agreements was a sham, but the broader failure to implement Minsk II never put that to the test. The troubled peace has been shattered. The question remains, why did all those who for so long foretold this war do so little to stop it, and so much to hasten the disaster Russia has now set in motion?

Any attempt at a coherent portrait of this teeming excess seems doomed to failure. There are too many people with too many stories, too many sights, sounds, smells, too many historical epochs mingled together, too many possible books to write.

What most people in the US call an ‘embargo’ – meaning the sweeping trade restrictions first imposed in 1960 and ratcheted up many times since – is known in Cuba as el bloqueo, ‘the blockade’. One term suggests targeted trade measures; the other implies all-out economic warfare. The same applies to the word ‘revolution’: it is either a single event that occurred in 1959 or, for supporters of the Cuban model, a process that is still unfolding. Analysis of Cuba can seem to operate in parallel universes, depending on where you stand.

As Navalny points out, Putin’s private domain is more than thirty times the size of Monaco. But unlike Monaco, it is protected by a no-fly zone and a naval security order requiring ships to stay two kilometres from the shore. Navalny’s team nevertheless managed to float nearby in a dinghy and launch a drone over the estate. The sweeping aerial views make clear not only the scale of the project but the pointless extravagance.