moscow bureau chief @FT. in soviet russia, news reports you: max.seddon@ft.com
Joined August 2011
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12 Nov 2023
As their yacht bobbed on the Mediterranean, the microchip executive snapped a picture of his Russian partner asleep on the deck.
He only knew the Russian by his first name, Maxim. But he knew Maxim was using a shadowy network to get the chips for the Russian defense industry.
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max seddon retweeted
Breaking: Supreme Allied Commander Europe: “I’ve watched the intelligence very closely. Russia is not looking for a conflict.”
ft.com/content/751d4555-9e8c… via @ft
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max seddon retweeted
Jun 11
The issue is not that the president only has selective information at his disposal, or that the security services are keeping things from him in an attempt to manipulate him. There is no doubt that Putin is calling the shots. The issue is that the decision-making process consists of one person with an unshakeable vision of how the world works. That vision filters out anyone who might think otherwise and any information that contradicts it, while narratives that appear to back up that vision are seized upon and circulated infinitely.
carnegieendowment.org/russia…
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Jun 11
“They are like a monkey with a grenade: it flicks a switch, and half of Siberia is accidentally left without internet.”
A new long read on how Russia's FSB is cutting the country off the global web, with @NastyaStognei:
ft.com/content/da121259-3823…
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max seddon retweeted
Jun 8
The FT view: Vladimir Putin's delusional view of conquest in Ukraine was supposed to return Russia to imperial great power status. Instead, Moscow's global reach is on the wane. ft.trib.al/OPIdSBL
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Jun 8
"The Kremlin has broken a longstanding compact with the Russian people. Only a grandpa like Putin could fail to see that in destroying what remained of a relatively free internet, he was destroying a central foundation of his own power," @skazal_on writes
nytimes.com/2026/06/08/opini…
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max seddon retweeted
Update from the latest post-Soviet tug of war -- Armenia's leader Nikol Pashinyan secures a win despite Russian pressure as voters back his policy of pursuing peace with Azerbaijan and normalised relations with Turkey.
ft.com/content/ca11d1cc-086d…
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Jun 8
European capitals push for talks but Putin remains unmoved ft.trib.al/0e4TtVO
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Jun 8
Russia’s security services shut parts of a special surveillance system protecting President Vladimir Putin and his closest aides in the wake of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination in Tehran, @mehulatlarge and @christopherjm report ft.com/content/6f4d806c-eb22…
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max seddon retweeted
Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan looks set to win a comfortable parliamentary majority in yesterday’s election. Vote count ongoing.
Thanks to @OCMediaorg for the live updates:
oc-media.org/live-updates-po…
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max seddon retweeted
Zelenskyy confirms our @FT scoop reported this morning: The Ukrainian president invited former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich to Kyiv last month in a failed attempt to convince Vladimir Putin to hold direct peace talks. ft.com/content/d097aba1-fd9a…
In an interview with @SkyYaldaHakim, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed he had met with billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich, and passed on a message for Vladimir Putin that he would not surrender the Donbas.
🔗 trib.al/vW6WPm1
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Jun 7
Russian drone hits nuclear fuel site near Chernobyl ft.trib.al/I4p0GsZ
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Jun 7
New from me and @ChristopherJM: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Roman Abramovich to Kyiv last month in a failed attempt to convince Vladimir Putin to hold direct peace talks. But Putin thinks Russia is winning and isn’t interested.
ft.com/content/d097aba1-fd9a…
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max seddon retweeted
"You can’t be a billionaire in Russia and be independent from the Russian state."
Russian-Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan is seeking power in Sunday’s vote in Armenia.
I met him at his hilltop mansion in Yerevan — where he is under house arrest:
ft.com/content/715b2685-0482…
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max seddon retweeted
Jun 5
🚨 Putin's back! After a noticeable absence from the public eye in early 2026, there has been an increase in the number of Putin’s public appearances, including trips to China and Kazakhstan.
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max seddon retweeted
Russia & Iran are recruiting teenagers across Europe and the Middle East to conduct sabotage. From Kyiv to Tel Aviv, we reveal how minors are hired online, paid in crypto & exploited as disposable, deniable, single-use agents. From @ChristopherJM & me
ft.com/content/58dabb01-41f6…
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Jun 4
Putin all but shoots down the EU "talk to Russia" idea. European countries can't mediate if they are actively helping Ukraine. Nobody other than Schroeder seems to interest him.
Russia has Candace Owens and the AfD in St Petersburg. The message to Macron and Merz is not subtle!
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Jun 4
Putin does say that Europe could be a useful mediator if it makes Ukraine accept compromises. But he says dialogue with Europe is ok to remain at the level of foreign ministries and security agencies.
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Jun 4
US fine arts commissioner Rodney Mims Cook Jr. shows off Trump's new White House ballroom at Putin's flagship conference in St Petersburg.
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Jun 4
Cook appears to imply that the Confederacy could have withstood General Sherman's march to the sea if had its own version of the Leningrad Symphony. "We did not have Shostakovich in Atlanta."
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Jun 4
Cook implies Russia's invasion of Ukraine must end for US-Russia culture ties to flourish.
"We had this in common. My children don't feel this anymore. We must educate them to understand this. But we must be at peace in order to achieve these goals [...] Help us do this."
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