How Putin will rig the Russian election
Pity the poor political technologists, as Russia’s professionals in the dark arts of spin, propaganda, gerrymandering and outright ballot box…
Putin wants to talk about Russia’s future, not the war
Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Federation Council (the upper chamber of the legislature) is rarely an exciting event, but…
Putin’s nuclear doctrine has been revealed
Secret documents have been leaked that reveal Russian scenarios for war games involving simulated nuclear strikes. They shed light on…
Why Macron won’t send troops to Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron does enjoy a good grandstanding. Having once been keen to present himself as a possible bridge-builder…
The fantastical myths that swirl around Vladimir Putin
If there is one man who is probably happiest that Vladimir Putin’s travel schedule has been so heavily curtailed of…
Two years on, the Ukraine war matters more than ever
There are inevitably voices in the West questioning the value of committing more than £5.5 billion a month in support…
Expelling the Russian ambassador would be a mistake
Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke for many people horrified by Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison last week when he suggested…
How the West can truly avenge Navalny’s death
With the Kremlin now claiming that it needs to hold on to the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny for…
What Tucker Carlson gets wrong about Russia
‘I have seen the Future and it works,’ proclaimed leftist American journalist Lincoln Steffens after visiting Bolshevik Russia in 1919.…
How long will Nadezhdin dare to defy Putin?
Despite a little eleventh-hour drama, Boris Nadezhdin’s bid to become the only genuine opposition candidate in March’s Russian elections has…
Zelensky’s rivalry with Zaluzhny spells bad news for Ukraine
Is he out or not? After a night of claim, counter-claim, rumour and speculation, it appears that Ukrainian president Volodymyr…
Putin’s Kaliningrad visit wasn’t a threat to Nato
President visits part of his own country. Shock. Vladimir Putin’s visit yesterday to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, perched precariously…
Who shot down the plane carrying Ukrainian PoWs?
It will prove to be a terrible and tragic irony if it turns out that Kyiv shot down a Russian…
Why is Zelensky echoing Putin’s rhetoric?
Today is Ukraine’s Day of Unity which necessarily had to be marked with an expression of national pride. However, president…
Despite three years in prison, Navalny still scares Putin
The March presidential elections in Russia will, of course, be a stage-managed farce, but that doesn’t mean that real politics…
Has Putin really revived Stalin’s infamous spy-catching unit?
Is Moscow reviving a notorious 1940s security agency? Or is the suggestion that the infamous SMERSH counterintelligence unit has been…
Putin’s migrant conundrum
The Russian economy has become heavily dependent on migrant workers, largely from Central Asia. As the defence ministry tries to…
Russia’s egg shortage is panicking Putin
The fall of the house of the Romanovs in 1917 may have been a long time coming, but arguably it…
Why Putin didn’t mention the war in his New Year’s address
With ‘don’t mention the war!’ the order of the day, it felt as if Vladimir Putin’s message to his people…
Does Putin use body doubles?
It has become something of a fad to try to identify and quantify the body doubles of Vladimir Putin. There are…
Why Ukraine’s attack on the Novocherkassk warship matters
It was not quite in time for Christmas (which Ukraine now celebrates on 25 December, after switching this year from…
Vladimir Putin bores the nation
From time to time, the tsar must listen to the complaints of his subjects. Having dodged this duty last year,…
An election campaign is still dangerous for Putin
It was elaborately staged precisely to try and look unstaged. After a medals ceremony at the Kremlin for Heroes of…
The US Senate is playing into Putin’s hands
The news this week that Republicans in the US Senate had voted together to block a supplemental funding bill that…
Sanctions against Russia haven’t failed
One of Russia’s toxic TV presenters recently cackled that Western sanctions ‘have only helped Russia wean itself off dependence on…
