Donald Trump is a millionaire, a real estate magnate, has direct interests in technology companies and... is Donald Trump. The President of the United States embodies in himself all the characteristics of the "enemy" that this weekend has been pointed out by the left gathered in Barcelona, with Pedro Sánchez as host, who has established himself as the reference of the international progressive movement. "When we socialists govern, states do not bow to elites, we put them in their place," he exclaimed to close the weekend summits before the 6,500 people who filled pavilion 8 of Fira de Barcelona. The commitment of the Spanish leader, but also of the heads of state and government who have met, is to "resist" the push of the far-right, but also to "build" together a new multilateral world. "We will twist the arm of those who believe themselves untouchable. Of the millionaires who exploit people and play with greed; of the speculators who play with people's savings and homes, and of the technologists who line their pockets at the expense of the health of democracies and the mental health of our youth," Sánchez ratified, intoning from the stage the "No to war" that the entire auditorium followed.

The territorial dispute clouds the peace negotiations over Ukraine, now suspended due to the conflict in the Middle East. Although the recognition of the occupied regions as Russian is important for Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin's ambitions involve the Belarusianization of Kyiv, that is, its political subordination. Moscow wants a meek and friendly neighbor that poses no threat in itself to Russia, nor as a vanguard of hypothetical Western aggression. However, the Russian president missed the opportunity to depose Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of the war, and after four years of daily bombings, the advent of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine seems like a fantasy or a bad joke.

Vladimir Putin has launched his spring offensive in Ukraine. Taking advantage of a dry March after a brutal winter, the Russian army has intensified attacks against the last major Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donbas, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, with assault operations exceeding 600 attacks in four days and battalions of up to 500 soldiers. The objective is clear: to conquer what the military calls the Donetsk fortress belt before the diplomatic path, if it ever materializes, freezes the conflict map.

In Moscow, alarms have sounded. After sixteen years, Viktor Orbán's continuity at the helm of Hungary is in danger. Vladimir Putin fears losing his great ally in the European Union, a thorn in the side for Brussels' support of Kyiv and a stubborn buyer of repudiated Russian gas and oil. To try to prevent this, various media outlets have warned that the Kremlin has launched an operation to influence the elections of April 12. Actions that include from the disembarkation of spies in Budapest to disinformation campaigns on social media and, even, considering the staging of a false attack against the current prime minister to boost his popularity.

The EU is going through difficult times, with two powerful enemies closing in and trying to undermine its autonomy in every area. One is Vladimir Putin's Russia, which, since the invasion of Ukraine, has not stopped threatening the European space, even militarily. The other is Trump and his administration, who have not stopped showing contempt for the EU and threatening it economically and even militarily, despite being historical allies. And, as if that weren't enough, there are the internal enemies, the main one being, and this is not too surprising, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, who has not stopped throwing a wrench in the works of EU initiatives, especially those related to European support for Volodymyr Zelensky's Ukraine.

The film The Kremlin Magician, This French production, directed by Olivier Assayas with a screenplay by Emmanuel Carrère, represents what no one had dared to do before: to stage on screen the background and key figures of the first fifteen years of Putin's Russia. It depicts the transition to a police state, a synthesis of Soviet totalitarianism and oligarchic capitalism. I gather that screenwriter Emmanuel Carrère—son of historian Hélène Carrère de Encausse—has greatly irritated the Kremlin, but he has been skillful enough to guarantee the physical safety of some characters by changing their names.

It seems incredible that a year and a half after Donald Trump's return to the White House, Europeans still haven't reached a common position on how to deal with him. And this despite the fact that, before the war in the Middle East, there was the tariff crisis and the Greenland incident, where his arrogant and erratic behavior was already on full display. In the case of the attack on Iran, there was no common and coherent response until Trump made a decision that clearly goes against European security, such as lifting the embargo on Russian oil. Now, finally, it seems that this decision has united all European leaders (except for the usual suspects like Orbán).

"I don't even want to discuss this possibility," Vladimir Putin stated last June when a journalist asked him how he would react if Israel or the United States were to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once the possibility became a reality, the Russian leader merely sent a telegram of condolence to the Iranian president, criticizing what he considers a "cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law." He has repeated this message in the following days. The man who invaded Ukraine without warning four years ago and who bombs its cities daily is not so much concerned about the image he projects to the world—his inability to help an ally—as he is about the ghosts this death evokes, inevitably linked to the trauma of the execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The assassination of Gaddafi in 2011 horrified and obsessed Putin, who began to fear a similar fate. The Kremlin leader perceived it as a betrayal by the United States and Europe, and this was one of the causes of the break with the West. However, fifteen years later, Russia is not in a position to raise its voice forcefully against the White House. The initial telegram, much shorter and more neutral than a televised statement, avoided pointing fingers at those responsible for Khamenei's death and made it clear that Moscow cannot and does not want to antagonize an omnipotent Donald Trump, who has broken Putin's isolation and is mediating to resolve the war in Ukraine. Since then, Putin has barely spoken about events in the Middle East.

Olivier Assayas (Paris, 1995), one of the great French directors of his generation, follows the rise and consolidation of power of Vladimir Putin in The Kremlin Magician, which premieres this Friday. However, the focus is not on the Russian leader but on the more discreet—yet equally murky—figure of Vadim Baranov, a fictional character inspired by Vladislav Surkov, ruthless spin doctor who designed Putin's trajectory and policy In the turbulent, almost explosive Russia of the 1990s. With a script written by Emmanuel Carrère based on the novel by Giuliano da Empoli and starring Paul Dano and Jude Law, The Kremlin Wizard It's a look behind the scenes of power and the seeds of fascism in the modern world.

Although Donald Trump has often been the focus of international public attention lately, we cannot forget Russian President Vladimir Putin, a far more shadowy figure than his American counterpart, since he governs a country without the democratic checks and balances of the United States. Russian prisons are full of dissidents, and every day there are reports of the closure of NGOs or organizations that, for whatever reason, are inconvenient for the regime. And all this is without mentioning the thousands of Russians who die daily on the Ukrainian front simply because of the imperial delusions of the Kremlin's occupant.

The voracity with which Assault operations are bleeding Russian troops dry in Ukraine This has forced the Kremlin to seek soldiers beyond its borders. In Africa, Russia leverages the influence it has cultivated for years to create recruitment networks that exploit the desperation of many young people yearning for a better life. For the first time, an investigation by the INPACT group—which was founded to monitor the atrocities committed by Wagner mercenaries—has quantified this phenomenon: it has documented nearly 1,500 cases of young Africans sent to the front lines, of whom 300, one in five, died.

In Russia, it is estimated that at least 1,200 women are murdered each year by their partners or ex-partners, but the figure could be much higher because the government conceals its statistics. Vladimir Putin's conservative revolution, the defense of traditional values, and the alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church have led to the decriminalization of gender-based violence. Now, in addition, pressure from the authorities has forced the closure of Nasiliu.net (No to Violence), the country's leading organization for women victims of abuse.

"Where are we in Anne Frank's diary?" The words of Pedro Rodríguez, professor of international relations at Complutense University, carry the weight of a pronouncement. A bombshell that forces us to reflect on Trump's threats in light of Hitler's crimes. The professor was responding to comments during a televised debate in which the panelists avoided using overly harsh labels to describe Donald Trump. They called him a capricious businessman who had pocketed $3 billion by 2025, or perhaps a narcissist leaning towards extremist positions. But no one dared to identify him as a fascist or, even worse, a Nazi. And Pedro Rodríguez, opening Anne Frank's diary, suddenly exposed the reluctance to speak plainly. These reservations are shared in the United States by figures who are, let's say, equidistant, such as journalist Robert D. Kaplan, but are by no means accepted by Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman or historian Robert Paxton, for whom Trump is a fascist reminiscent of Hitler.

"Out with the white woman, out with the white woman!" is the first thing I hear upon arriving at Tiéfo Amoro Square in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, the epicenter of anti-French protests and demonstrations in support of the military junta that has ruled the country since the coup d'état of September 30, 2022. "IB! IB! IB! IB!" Ibrahim Traoré, the world's youngest president, has promised to restore peace to Burkina Faso, a West African country, by July 2024. An ambitious promise for a country that already has more than two million internally displaced people and 11,312 deaths since 2016, according to the organization Conglicte. in the hands of terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that operate mainly in the northern and eastern regions of the country.

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize medal last week, during the visit to the White House of Venezuelan María Corina MachadoDonald Trump has once again made it clear that he remains furious about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. This Monday, the US president sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, in which he asserts that, having not received the award, he no longer feels "obligated" to think about peace. In the letter, the Republican leader specifically links the US expansionist threat to Greenland to not having won the prize.

Without excuses and without subterfuge. One thing one can thank Donald Trump for is that he's upfront and doesn't hide his intentions. At the beginning of his term, he stormed into the US administration itself to install his own people and get rid of anyone who bothered him; then he dismantled the entire system of foreign aid, like USAID, and raided universities and research centers to impose his ideology against social rights; he has transformed immigration police into a paramilitary group for social control to internally impose the white supremacy of his followers, and now he is intervening directly on the international stage, demanding tributes, in the form of tariffs, worldwide, and claiming the territories he believes belong to him to secure his power. In his view, the entire Western Hemisphere, that is, half the world, is his. And he must surely find a gesture of generosity in allowing the other hemisphere to be divided up, primarily, by the Chinese and the Russians.

Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack against Ukraine early this morning, killing at least four people and wounding nineteen in Kyiv, according to local authorities. The offensive, which affected several regions of the country, included the use of a ballistic missile. hypersonic Oreshnik, with nuclear capability, although it was equipped with conventional warheads.

It sounds a bit strange to speak of the "Catalan soul," or the "Spanish soul," or the "Swedish soul." And yet, it's taken for granted that a "Russian soul" exists, that "dark place" spoken of by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, and almost all the other writers of the golden age of Russian literature. Vladimir Putin also frequently appeals to the "Russian soul," in opposition to the supposed soullessness of Western Europe.

Vladimir Putin is not content with forcing hundreds of critics of his regime to flee Russia for fear of ending up in prison. He also wants to make their lives impossible in exile. For some months now, the authorities have begun adding opponents to the list of terrorists and extremists to hinder their access to funding abroad. And now a new law will further strangle them economically and threatens to effectively strip them of their citizenship.

Christmas 2021, two months before the attack on Ukraine, Putin began to give both real and false clues about the aggressionAnd he did so surrounded by illuminated fir trees as he approached Ded Moroz—Grandfather Frost—the Soviet equivalent of Santa Claus. Putin thanked him for his more than twenty years as President of Russia and asked for his support for his future plans—including the war he was considering. "My relationship with Ded Moroz has always been very good," Putin repeated, and he allowed himself to recall that he is the only Santa Claus who is part of his childhood memories from the 1950s, handing out sweets on New Year's Eve in the Leningrad neighborhood where he lived.