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
DECODING: Tanks in the Streets of Taipei: the Five-Day Exercise Preparing the Island for the Unthinkable
Since June 22, 2026, Taiwan has transformed its urban arteries into combat corridors. Tanks, armored vehicles, columns of soldiers in combat gear have patrolled…
ANALYSIS: The 1260H list — how Beijing retaliates against Washington and arms the economic war for Taiwan
There are administrative documents that resemble declarations of war. The so-called "1260H list" — an inventory of companies designated by the U.S. Department of…
EDITORIAL: Zelensky extends a hand, Putin spits on it — diplomacy against the wall of Russian contempt
There is a fundamental asymmetry in the diplomacy surrounding the war in Ukraine that should provoke far more outrage than it does. On one…
COMMENTARY: Nine thousand five hundred returned — the only channel that still holds between Kyiv and Moscow
There is something almost incomprehensible, and yet real, about the following situation: Russia and Ukraine have been in total war for more than four…
REPORT: One hundred and sixty faces — the 76th prisoner exchange and the dignity Russia cannot steal
On Friday, June 26, 2026, somewhere at the border between two worlds at war, one hundred and sixty people crossed a threshold separating their…
DECODING: Anchorage, Istanbul, MFA — decoding the Kremlin's three maximalist peace mantras
In diplomacy, words matter more than facts — at least for those who do not take the time to break them apart. Vladimir Putin…
ANALYSIS: Istanbul 2022, the trap — why Putin's peace is nothing but disguised capitulation
In diplomacy, ghosts are dangerous. They seem to offer a way out, a solution, a precedent to cling to. In June 2026, Vladimir Putin…
INVESTIGATION: Russian oil, the last lock — why the Baltics demand the embargo Brussels keeps deferring
Somewhere beneath the plains of Central Europe, millions of barrels of Russian crude oil continue to flow every month toward Hungarian, Slovak, and German…
EDITORIAL: Twenty-first sanctions package — Europe must stop bargaining with an aggressor
There is a word that surfaces too often in the corridors of Brussels when the conversation turns to sanctions against Russia: «pragmatism». Pragmatism, we…