Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2017

Masha Gessen, New Yorker: Alexey Navalny and the Empty Spectacle of the Russian Election

It’s hard to write about the Russian Presidential election, not because it is particularly difficult to understand but because the normal language of such things can’t describe it. There are candidates, but their names can appear on the ballot only if the Kremlin allows it. There is a campaign, but candidates are allowed to appear on television only if the Kremlin O.K.s it. There are, usually, debates, but Vladimir Putin, who has been in power in Russia for eighteen years and is running for another six-year term, doesn’t deign to take part in them. There are opinion polls, but their results are adjusted to fit the probable result of the vote. And then there is the vote, but its outcome is preordained. In other words, the event scheduled for March 18, 2018, is not an election, but it is called one.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2017

Israelis Don't Care How the UN Votes. Here's Why. -- Daniel Gordis, Bloomberg

Will North Korea Blow Up the Winter Olympics? -- Tom Z. Collina & Catherine Killough, Foreign Policy

Beijing complicates Washington’s Afghan strategy -- MK Bhadrakumar, Asia Times

Who killed Benazir Bhutto? The theories behind the murder -- AFP

From hope to despair in Myanmar -- Bertil Lintner, Asia Times

Can New Zealand’s unlikely coalition deliver in 2018? -- Stephen Levine, East Asia Forum

Madrid and Barcelona need to talk. That’s not on the cards -- Miguel-Anxo Murado, The Guardian

Power on the Periphery of Europe -- Antonia Colibasanu, Geopolitical Futures

How a hard Brexit could hurt Germany: Reasoning with the worst that may befall -- Arthur Sullivan, DW

Why Has Latin America Turned Away from the Left? -- Andrés Velasco, Project Syndicate

Trump didn’t complete his foreign policy to-do list in 2017. That’s a good thing. -- VOX

The Fentanyl Crisis is a Reverse Opium War -- Greg R. Lawson, National Interest

The real fake news of 2017 -- Rex Murphy, The National

How the Era of the Big-Name News Anchor Crashed to an End -- Lloyd Grove, Daily Beast

Bitcoin Is an Implausible Currency -- Megan McArdle, Bloomberg

When the bitcoin craze becomes a panic -- Jeff Spross, The Week