Sergei Stepancev

The Year Before the Storm Why the World Once Again Feels Like 1939—And Why This Time the Collapse Will Come from Within.

The Year Before the Storm.

A decaying empire does not retreat politely.

It lunges.

It gambles.
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Empire of Ruins Russia does build an empire. But it is an empire that survives by destroying what it touches.

Empire of Ruins.

Only one thing endured across generations and across Russia’s regions:

Ritualized hatred toward the West.

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Russia Will Proceed With Nuclear Tests Regardless of Its Promises Why trusting Moscow is impossible — and why nuclear weapons remain the only pillar of Russia’s global relevance.

Russia Will Proceed With Nuclear Tests Regardless of Its Promises.
What is the world prepared to do to stop a state that uses its own madness as its only instrument of influence?
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The Assets That Choose a Side On Why Private Russian Capital Abroad Should Be Sold Only to Those Who Are Ready to Support Resistance.

The Assets That Choose a Side.

Do not sell to those who will return power to the system.

Sell to those who will help break it.
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The Most Dangerous Russia Is the One After the War The war will end — but its logic will not. The most dangerous Russia is still ahead.

The Most Dangerous Russia Is the One After the War
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Morons, Populists, Scoundrels — and Putin’s Hired Guns How Europe’s home-grown saboteurs are doing Moscow’s work — and why it’s time to call their bluff.

Morons, Populists, Scoundrels — and Putin’s Hired Guns.
If Europe is serious about its security, it must start defending itself not only from external threats but from internal saboteurs.
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THE SHINING KREMLIN From Polite Control to Gleeful Violence — Jack Nicholson’s Descent as a Map of Putin’s Russia.

THE SHINING KREMLIN
The Shining State: From Mask to Madness — Jack Nicholson’s Descent as a Mirror of Putin’s Russia.
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“Nepotrebko” in Zurich — Where Even Morality Has a Bank Account In Zurich, nothing shocks. The city that once hid Nazi gold now hosts Putin’s diva — and applauds.

“Nepotrebko” in Zurich — Where Even Morality Has a Bank Account.
Neutrality here means never choosing between right and wrong — only between red or white wine at intermission. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

When Russia Turns East: Why the U.S. Must Abandon the Nixon Illusion China is richer, stronger, and soon equally nuclear — but it’s Russia’s allegiance, not its weapons, that could decide the 21st-century balance of power.

When Russia Turns East: Why the U.S. Must Abandon the Nixon Illusion.
Only by working with the United Kingdom — and by understanding the dual geopolitical and cultural nature of this threat — can Washington prevent Russia from becoming China’s Western mask.
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When Faith Becomes a Weapon: Trump, Nigeria, and the Kremlin’s “Church” Can a government truly defend Christianity abroad while ignoring its distortion and abuse at home?

When Faith Becomes a Weapon: Trump, Nigeria, and the Kremlin’s “Church”
Moscow Patriarchate stood so openly and fervently in defense of an unmistakably imperial, expansionist war — one marked by the very traits of militarism and ideological fanaticism. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

The Pain of Awakening: Why Russia Can Change Only Through Shock It sounds absurd to support Tomahawks from Moscow — but no nation built on imperial ecstasy will wake up without real pain.

The Pain of Awakening: Why Russia Can Change Only Through Shock
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The Defeat That Must Happen — or the Legacy That Won’t Only by finishing the struggle Ronald Reagan began can Donald Trump secure the kind of legacy that endures beyond politics — the legacy of the man who ended an empire of lies.

The Defeat That Must Happen — or the Legacy That Won’t

A chance to bring closure to the unfinished work of the twentieth century — to deliver the verdict that history has waited for since the Cold War ended only halfway. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

When Peace Comes Only After Defeat Why America Still Refuses to Face Reality.

When Peace Comes Only After Defeat

A world without a policeman burns. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

Orban Is Europe’s Ramzi Yousef — A Known Threat, Ignored Again The EU, like the FBI once did, knows the danger inside its walls but fears the cost of acting.

Orban Is Europe’s Ramzi Yousef — A Known Threat, Ignored Again
The threat is no longer a van full of explosives — it’s a pair of prime ministers with a pen and a veto: Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Robert Fico in Slovakia.
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The Fear That Must End: Confronting Russia’s Kleptocratic Machine Why appeasement has failed and the West must prepare for decisive change.

The Fear That Must End: Confronting Russia’s Kleptocratic Machine
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The Envoy and the Missile: How the Kremlin Covers Diplomatic Failure with Nuclear Smoke When Putin’s emissaries can’t charm Washington, Moscow launches another “invincible” weapon.

The Envoy and the Missile: How the Kremlin Covers Diplomatic Failure with Nuclear Smoke

In truth, it’s all theater — one actor selling friendship, the other fear.
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The Louvre Robbery and the Kremlin: When Thieves Move Freely and Guards Just Watch Russia is not a genius warrior — it’s a brazen street thug. And NATO today looks exactly like the Louvre’s frozen guards: alarmed, well-equipped, but paralyzed.

The Louvre Robbery and the Kremlin: When Thieves Move Freely and Guards Just Watch
Every time Russia strikes, the West launches an investigation, a press release, a sanctions package — but not a punch. Like the Louvre’s alarms, these are signals without consequences
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The Illusion of Restraint: Why America’s Caution Only Feeds Putin’s War Washington’s refusal to release frozen Russian assets or deliver long-range weapons makes sense only if it still believes Putin can sign — and honor — a real peace. He won’t.

The Illusion of Restraint: Why America’s Caution Only Feeds Putin’s War
But if the U.S. actually believes in the prospect of a “trustworthy” Russian peace — then it is walking straight into the same trap as in 2014, and 2008, and every time before.
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The Empire That Refuses to Heal Ukraine’s patience and the West’s hesitation only prolong Russia’s chronic disease.

The Empire That Refuses to Heal
Putin’s obsession with the Rurikids and Russia’s distant past — history twisted and rewritten to serve the needs of modern Putinism — borders on delusion. It is as if someone, believed that the US should “return” to European rule. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

Why Do Populists Love Russia? When conspiracy becomes ideology — and the Kremlin becomes its prophet.

Why Do Populists Love Russia?
Putin doesn’t have allies. He has hostages and pawns. And in their eager self-delusion, men like Orbán and Carlson are lining up to join that list.

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Russia Will Not Allow Peace in Gaza Moscow’s long shadow over the Middle East is older — and darker — than most realize.

Russia Will Not Allow Peace in Gaza
It’s not unthinkable that Russia could even attempt to blackmail Washington directly or indirectly — suggesting, through back channels, that continued calm in the region depends on U.S. concessions elsewhere.
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Russia Is Not Hamas Why the West Must Stop Treating Moscow as a Negotiable Enemy.

Russia Is Not Hamas

The West must stop asking how to live with Russia. It must start asking what kind of Russia the world can live with.

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Putin’s Psychological War on America He doesn’t bomb or threaten — he flatters, calls, and comforts, turning American vanity into his strongest ally.

Putin’s Psychological War on America

...because Putin doesn’t need tanks to advance.

He only needs phone calls, compliments, and the right American egos to answer them.

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When the World Realized Putin Was Not an Opponent — but a Pathological System On the naivety of “civilized approaches,” the failures of Russia’s opposition, and the need for ruthless reflection.

When the World Realized Putin Was Not an Opponent — but a Pathological System
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The Kremlin’s Narco Proxy: Why the Maduro Regime Must Fall Venezuela has become Russia’s outpost and a narcotic weapon against the United States.

The Kremlin’s Narco Proxy: Why the Maduro Regime Must Fall

The Maduro regime is not just a corrupt dictatorship; it is Moscow’s strategic foothold in the Western Hemisphere.

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Putin at 73: The Cult That Outgrew Brezhnev — and Reached Stalin How Russia’s elites turned devotion into survival — and the country into an Orthodox, nuclear North Korea.

Putin at 73: The Cult That Outgrew Brezhnev — and Reached Stalin
If nothing changes — if fear continues to masquerade as patriotism and silence as wisdom — Putin will complete the transformation of Russia into a rigid, militarized theocracy armed with nukes. open.substack.com/pub/sergeist...

The Trojan Horses of the West How Russia Turns Democratic Nations Into Instruments of Its Influence.

The Trojan Horses of the West

Russia cannot defeat the West from the outside. But it can make the West destroy itself from within — through its own elected leaders.
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When Bandits Rule the State Why Protests and Good Intentions Cannot Topple Criminalized Power — and What Real Change Demands.

When Bandits Rule the State

The moral challenge is immense. The path ahead may not look beautiful, but it is the only route to something cleaner, freer, and more just.

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The Hour of Resolve Four years of weakness have forged the Kremlin’s path — and unless the West acts decisively, the war will move beyond Ukraine’s borders to Europe itself.

The Hour of Resolve
The Kremlin will not stop unless it is stopped. And it will not stop until the West proves it has the will to end the war — not on Moscow’s terms, but on its own.

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The Emperor of Self-Delusion When Putin Lectures Europe About Power, It’s Time to Worry.

The Emperor of Self-Delusion

The Emperor of Self-Delusion keeps giving lectures on democracy — and the world keeps listening politely. One day, that courtesy will cost dearly.

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