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Guy Faulconbridge
For Guy Faulconbridge's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Rescuers search for residents to evacuate as they drive in a flooded residential area in the city of Orsk, Russia, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2024
Orenburg residents call on Putin for aid as record floods destroy defenses
Swaths of Orsk, a city of 230,000 in the region about 1,800 kilometers east of Moscow, have been left submerged.
At least 139 people were killed when gunmen in camouflage stormed Crocus City Hall. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the mass shooting.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2024
Russia's security chief accuses Ukraine, U.S. and U.K. of being behind Moscow shooting
Hardliners in Moscow could use the claim to justify an escalation of the Ukraine war and to explain how security services failed to prevent the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in October last year.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2024
Putin to travel to China in May for talks with Xi, sources say
The visit could be the Kremlin chief's first overseas trip of his new presidential term.
An intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile is fired during a training exercise, in Northern Arkhangelsk region, Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2024
Putin warns the West a Russia-NATO conflict is just one step from WWIII
Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow in August 2013. Navalny, the most outspoken domestic critic of President Vladimir Putin, has died in prison, Russian state media said Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 17, 2024
Alexei Navalny's death deprives Russia's opposition of a leader and hope
His death leaves the groups that oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin with no obvious candidate to try to turn any discontent into mass protests.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears for his court hearing in Moscow on Jan. 28, 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2023
Russia moves opposition leader Alexei Navalny to Arctic prison
Temperatures at the 'Polar Wolf' colony, one of the toughest prisons in Russia, are set to drop to around minus 28 degrees Celsius over the next week.
Deputy head of Russia's Security Council and chairman of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev visits the Raduga State Machine Building Construction Bureau named after A. Bereznyak in Dubna, Moscow region, Russia, on Feb. 2
WORLD / Politics
Nov 7, 2023
Russia withdraws from post-Cold War European armed forces treaty
Russia on Tuesday formally withdrew from a landmark security treaty which limited key categories of conventional armed forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall in central Moscow in February 2017.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 7, 2023
Russia's Putin to stay in power past 2024, sources say
The Russian leader has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until least 2030.
Russia's new nuclear-powered submarine Imperator Alexander III test launches the Bulava ballistic missile, designed to carry nuclear warheads, from the White Sea, in this screengrab taken from a video released on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2023
Russian nuclear submarine test-launches intercontinental missile
Russia's new strategic nuclear submarine has successfully tested a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian defense ministry said.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, attends a plenary session in Moscow on Oct. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 17, 2023
Russia set to revoke ratification of nuke test ban treaty, official says
Moscow would remain a signatory and would continue to cooperate with the test ban treaty organization and the global monitoring system.
Russian lawmakers attend a session of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, in Moscow in 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023
Russian lawmakers asked to study revoking nuclear test ban treaty
Revoking the ratification would send a warning that Moscow can fundamentally change the assumptions of post-Cold War nuclear planning.
Russia launches its first moon-landing spacecraft in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, in this still image from video taken on Friday.
WORLD
Aug 11, 2023
Russia launches first lunar lander in 47 years in race with India
India launched its own lander last month, and both the U.S. and China have programs targeting the lunar south pole.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 7, 2023
Wagner chief Prigozhin is in Russia, Belarus leader says
Prigozhin repeatedly accused the top brass of corruption and incompetence and cast the June 24 'march of justice' on Moscow as a protest against them.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 29, 2023
As Russia teetered, the elite trembled, and some private jets left
Fear triumphed over loyalty among some of Russia's elite as the Wagner mercenary group marched toward Moscow, and now some worry of becoming a target of Vladimir Putin's wrath.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 26, 2023
Russia moves ahead with deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
The U.S. State Department denounced the deployment plan, but said Washington had no intention of altering its position on strategic nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 16, 2023
Putin, secure in power, sets stage for long and draining war
The Russian leader says Moscow is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant West that wants to carve up his country and its vast resources.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 21, 2022
As Ukraine nuclear plant is shelled, U.N. warns against 'playing with fire'
More than a dozen blasts shook Europe's biggest nuclear power plant on Saturday evening and Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Sep 28, 2022
Will a cornered Putin follow through on his nuclear threats?
In his most recent comments, Putin explicitly warned the West that he would use all available means to defend Russian territory.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 28, 2022
'Sham' referendum in Ukraine results point to Russia annexation
The U.S. will introduce a resolution at the United Nations Security Council calling on member states not to recognize any change to Ukraine and obligating Russia to withdraw its troops.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 13, 2022
Xi to meet Putin in first trip outside China since start of pandemic
The trip shows Xi is confident about both his grip on power at home and about his role as a world leader at a time of renewed great power friction.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on