This month’s vote will be the first conducted while Russia is involved in a major war, and Vladimir Putin is counting on a strong show of national unity and highlighting support in occupied Ukraine.

When the Soviet Union collapsed more than thirty years ago, American leaders hoped that Russia would embark on a transition to free-market democracy. Shared democratic values, the thinking went, woul…

If Western allies fail to send Ukraine the weapons it needs, the odds increase of the war dragging on indefinitely, at a terrible cost to both Ukraine and Russia and a growing risk to the wider world…