apparatchik

Senator John McCain died on August 25, 2018 at the age of 81 after a long battle with brain cancer. McCain served in the US Navy as a bomber pilot, and survived several years in Vietnam as a prisoner of war. After retiring as a decorated war hero, he rose to national political prominence in the US Senate. He was defeated in two presidential bids, and was known as both a "non-nonsense" conservative and will be remembered as a figure of moral courage and bipartisan leadership.

Words from Round 2 of the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Putin invades Crimea. Kermit the Frog goes to Siberia (where Tina Fey is prison warden). Journalists tweet pics of brown water flowing from faucets in Soviet-reminiscent Sochi hotel rooms. Wes Anderson enshrines that concept via "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Meanwhile Cold War history series "The Americans" is signed to a third season on FX. Call it War on Terror fatigue, ascribe it to fashion's habit of looking back, just don't try to deny it. The Cold War is hot right now, and so are the words in this list. (For words on this list originating from Russian, we reference Wikipedia's entry for List of English words of Russian origin.)