The Suspected Poisoning of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Prominent Adversary
I remember an essay a few years ago (it was the Ukrainian poisoning?) where the author essentially said that Russia's brand has basically been spoiled for outsiders.  (political brand certainly, but maybe overall as a country).<p>As in, Russia is no longer a trustworthy seeming, interesting, attractive place to want to go visit or collaborate with or be associated with.<p>I mean, of course it depends on the level of detail you're dealing with and who exactly you're associating with.  But for me, a general observer, Russia certainly seems to have gotten a history of doing and being the source of shady things.<p>Even aside from that, and this is probably skewed by the history books focusing on the oddest parts of history -- Russia always reads like an odd, outlier place in history.  Or maybe it's the Russian literature.  Always something strange, or depressing going on there.<p>What's up with that?