NV Exclusive
“Ask your daughters.” These words, spoken by Friedrich Merz during a press conference in Berlin on Oct. 20, 2025, have already become a new political manifesto for modern Germany.
A strange thing has happened in Putin’s Russia: one of the regime’s most loyal prophets has become its accidental heretic.
When we talk about Russian aggression, the conversation often revolves around missiles, drones, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and propaganda. Yet one of the most insidious fronts of this war lies far from the battlefield — in lecture halls, academic conferences, and research networks. A study by Japanese scholar Sanshiro Hosaka offers a rare window into how this intellectual front operates.