At 9.30 a.m. Friday in Paris, I sat down with exiled Russian economist Sergei Guriev to discuss how two years of war against Ukraine and sanctions had impacted his country’s economy. As I knew him to be a long-time friend of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, then imprisoned in an Arctic penal colony. I asked when his last communication with Navalny was and how the West could best protect his friend. If we are to go by the authorities’ account – they maintain he died at 2:19 p.m. Moscow time after collapsing during a walk – Navalny would have been drawing his last breath as we spoke. But their narrative is riddled with contradictions, and the truth could well lie elsewhere.

There is therefore no section on Navalny in our Q&A with Guriev – at the time, we thought he was still with us. If anything, Guriev’s thoughts on sanctions’ effectiveness acquire a new edge as the West begins to unleash a new wave in response to the dissident’s death. Despite difficult times for his country, Guriev projects a defiant sense of optimism.

Two days before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, international security expert Stefan Wolff gauges Kyiv’s current military prospects to free itself from its aggressor, as flashpoints elsewhere on the globe continue to compete for the West’s attention. If we are to avoid a much darker world order, Wolff argues, then Europe has no choice but to reach deeper into its pockets.

Amid these trying times, art can provide a refuge. Think of Angela Merkel in 2017, who chose to contemplate Monet’s paintings in Potsdam rather than attend Trump’s inauguration. With research now showing that we are closer to creative geniuses than we thought, that is one pleasure we shouldn’t deny ourselves.

Oh, and you will do yourself a favour by reading about the most important Frenchman of whom you’ve never heard.