Owen Matthews is a Contributing Editor to Newsweek and former reporter for The Daily Beast based in Moscow and Istanbul. His work has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the Guardian First Books Award, and France’s Prix Médicis.

Extreme Diets

Unpleasantly pudgy? Allergic to exercise? Give yourself over to Austria’s elite spas. Owen Matthews reports on the pleasures of vegetable broth and colonic irrigation.

Putin v. West

Vladimir Putin is strongarming the leaders of ex-Soviet satellites to ditch their EU aspirations—but his bid to make Russia into an alternative power bloc is failing, says Owen Matthews.

BORIS AND ME

Owen Matthews remembers the oligarch he knew, whose wealth and power seemed to bend the world around him.

Modern Warfare

The Turkish jet shot out of the sky by Syrian fire was almost certainly hit by a rocket provided by the Russians, reports Owen Matthews.

High Alert

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that any Syrian vehicle approaching the border “will be treated as a military target.”

Shots Fired

A Russian ship was to deliver choppers to Syria—until a U.K. insurer made it a pariah. By Owen Matthews.