Foreign Policy Blogs

FPA’s Must Reads (January 9 – January 15)

A screenshot image from a youtube video of Petr Khokhlov during an interrogation by agents from Ukraine.

A screenshot image from a youtube video of Petr Khokhlov during an interrogation by agents from Ukraine.

The Search for Petr Khokhlov
The New York Times Magazine
By Joshua Yaffa

Joshua Yaffa takes the reader on a fascinating journey in search of a Russian soldier who’s vanished in Ukraine. The story tracks down Petr Khokhlov, a soldier for the Russian army, after he disappears in near the Ukrainian border a midst a Russian-supported rebel uprising.

Edge of Evil
Latterly Magazine
By Justin Salhani

In the small Lebanese town of Ras Baalbek, the civil war raging in Syria seems like thousands of miles away. The creeping influence of ISIS and what they might bring has cast dark shadows over the quiet town of retirees and majority Christians.

Remote Control
The New Yorker
By Julia Ioffe

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled oil tycoon from Russia, is on a campaign to win over Russians’ public opinion and show them the corruption in President Vladimir Putin’s ways and that it’s time for him to go.

Failure to stop Petrobras scandal could haunt Brazil’s Rousseff
Reuters
By Jeb Blount and Anthony Boadle

It’s been over five years since investigators first revealed signs of corruption in Brazil’s oil giant, Petrobras. Now the scandal, yet to be resolved, threatens to leave an ugly stain on recently reelected President Dilma Rousseff’s time in office.

The making of the world’s scariest terrorist brand
Medium
By Marshall Sella

Marshall Sella describes the thought and strategy that went behind the how ISIS has deliberately branded itself as an organization cle
ar a clear mission and clear punishments for those that get in the way.

Blogs:
Torture as a False Moral Dilemma by Scott Monje
Syrian couple under Islamic State rule aspires to flee to Turkey by Rachel Avraham
Obama Heads to India for Summit with Modi by Jim Quirk
The BRICS Under Cheap Oil by Richard Basas
The Curious Case of the Gulf Woman by Sarah Elzeini