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).As in, Russia is no longer a trustworthy seeming, interesting, attractive place to want to go visit or collaborate with or be associated with.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.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.What's up with that?