Russian President Vladimir Putin’s covert aggression in Ukraine continues – and so do Western sanctions against his country. But the economy is not all that is under threat; Russia’s soft power is dwindling, with potentially devastating results.

The Senate's revelations don't pose much risk of a rupture in transatlantic ties.  Instead, the most common reaction was to praise the report as a sign of American transparency and accountability—two of the values meant to bind the West together—while many European statesmen have so far avoided saying anything at all.

This map tracks mentions of the hashtags #TortureReport and #CIAReport immediately before and after the release of US Senate inquiry into interrogation techniques used by the CIA. 

Former ad man Simon Anholt thinks he has the answer to problems caused by globalisation – the Good Country party, a global political organisation. He’s launching it this weekend, and thinks it has the potential to gain 700 million members

The image of the Russian leader has not improved after American magazine Forbes declared him the most powerful man on Earth for the second year in a row, with US President Barack Obama as a runner-up.

Turkey's image in the global arena is an extremely negative one. To be honest, the world has never seen Turkey as an advanced democracy. There is an emerging almost mainstream international approach to Turkey that is very negative, if not humiliating.

Russia’s president constantly undermines his own case on the global stage.  Where Putin further miscalculates badly is that his country has next to no soft power. 

Turkey’s EU Minister Volkan Bozkır has admitted failures in "correcting misperceptions" in European countries about Turkey, but vowed that the government would continue to strive to boost Turkey’s image and increase the amount of high-level visits to Brussels.