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: A Status Check on Russia's Shadow Fleet
In seventy-two hours, in early July 2026, Ukraine claimed strikes against 21 vessels, including 19 tankers, near occupied Crimea, according to reporting by Fox…
COLUMN: The War Ruble, a Cold Read One Month Later
One month after Washington tightened sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, the moment seems right to look coldly at what these numbers actually say, without…
EDITORIAL: Why Omsk Going Offline Matters More Than It Looks
On July 6, 2026, Ukrainian drones struck the Omsk refinery, Russia's largest, in what Reuters and CNBC described the following day as the deepest…
INVESTIGATION: Pyongyang in Five Numbers
Five numbers tell the story of North Korea's military dependency on Russia more precisely than any single narrative account could: 29,488 containers, an estimated…
REPORT: Field Notes on Russia's Shell Production Industry
Russia's shell production has reached 7 million units annually, a figure seventeen times higher than pre-invasion levels, according to Estonian intelligence cited by Euromaidan…
DECODING: Rosneft and Lukoil Sanctions, the Questions Few Outlets Are Asking
On October 22, 2025, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia's two largest oil companies, a decision most coverage treated as a single…
REPORT: Yaroslavl in flames, when the war reaches deep into Russia
In late March 2026, a refinery in the city of Yaroslavl, more than 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow, took a direct hit followed by…
DECODING: Tuapse, hit four times, the vulnerability of Russia's southern refining
On the Black Sea coast, the Tuapse refinery is no longer just an industrial site: it has become, despite itself, a barometer of Russia's…
ANALYSIS: Lines and rationing, daily life inside Russia's fuel crisis
By July 2026, gasoline and diesel had become, across much of Russia, something you planned around rather than something you simply bought.