Europe keeps trying to crack the Russian riddle: Why invade neighbors? Why the war crimes? But the answer hides in plain sight.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

By stripping the context from a story about Ukrainian corruption, the New York Times gave the Kremlin the one thing it can’t manufacture: credibility.

moscow is losing hundreds of thousands of men for slivers of Ukrainian land. Territory alone cannot explain what the marauding army of russian war criminals is killing and dying for.