It’s ‘Black August’ in Russia, but Putin is sweeping this summer’s crisis under the rug

Over the past few decades, “Black August,” or “the August curse,” has become a sort of journalistic shorthand in Russia for dramatic crises that seem to happen in the last weeks of summer. In some respects, Black August is Russia’s rough equivalent to the “silly season” in British journalism, the late-summer lull when frivolous headlines …