Maxime Marquette
MadMax is an independent bilingual news outlet based in Québec, publishing analysis on geopolitics, technology, democracy, and culture.
Our mission: rigorous, source-cited analysis carried out with full editorial independence — no sponsorship, no party line.
Our editorial standards: sources are cited inline, corrections are fixed and logged publicly, and any use of artificial intelligence is disclosed.
“Burn rather than rot. Write rather than stay silent.”
Fire first. Sentences after. No lukewarm takes.
Always answer the strongest version of the opposing point. No strawmen.
No commissioned pieces. No editorial masters. No compromise.
Columns by Maxime Marquette
4,540 columns published
COMMENTARY: Tens of billions in contracts — Ankara, where defense became industry
On June 25, 2026, during a conversation at the Atlantic Council, Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, announced that the Ankara summit on July 7…
OPINION: Is Trump abandoning us? The fear haunting NATO's eastern flank
In the diplomatic corridors of Tallinn, Riga, Warsaw, and Vilnius, there is a question everyone asks in private and no one wants to put…
DECODING: Five percent of GDP — the figure redefining Western defense
Ten years ago, discussions about defense spending within NATO revolved around a target that the majority of members were not meeting: 2% of GDP.…
REPORT: Kapotnya, again — Moscow's refinery struck twice in one week
Before 2024, the Kapotnya district was known to Muscovites mainly as a peripheral industrial zone — the place where the smell of fuel lingers,…
COMMENTARY: Forty days of strikes — the pressure operation Zelensky launched
On June 26, 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly announced a 40-day pressure operation targeting Russian logistics and military infrastructure. This is not a…
OPINION: Importing gasoline by ship — the energy collapse of Putin's empire
Some images are worth a thousand analyses. Here is mine, the image of summer 2026: Russia, the world's third-largest producer of crude oil, is…
DECODING: Why Moscow's refinery won't reopen before 2027
The agency Reuters, cited by Militarnyi on June 24, 2026, published an unambiguous assessment: the Moscow refinery, located in the Kapotnya district, is unlikely…
ANALYSIS: Drones over Ufa: the 1,300-km strike that changes the calculus of the Russian war
On June 25, 2026, Ukrainian drones flew more than 1,300 kilometers to strike Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, deep inside the Urals. Two of…
PROFILE: Mark Rutte, the Man of Ankara: Portrait of the Secretary Who Must Keep Trump in the Alliance
Mark Rutte. The name does not stir patriotic emotions the way Churchill's or de Gaulle's does. Nor does it provoke the emotional devotion of…