A Quantum Leviathan Under The Economist’s Cover: How a "Deal" with the Kremlin is Being Prepared Behind Our Backs

Cartoon by Olexandr Sydorenko.

While Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, and other Ukrainian regions withstand the onslaught—under sirens, going hours without power, scraping together their last hryvnias for frontline drones—a completely different war is being waged on the closed diplomatic floors of Washington and London. A war of meanings. And the Kremlin’s goal here is to force the West to capitulate, but in a way that makes European and American politicians sincerely believe they are buying "shares in a new, sane, and peaceful Russia."