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…
Putin isn’t afraid of Cameron
Considering the obsession Russia has with Britain as the source of all its woes, it is perhaps surprising how David…
Is the West losing interest in Ukraine?
There’s a very different tone coming from Kyiv these days. Speaking to Time magazine, Volodymyr Zelensky had just returned from Washington…
Why the Kremlin will fear Dagestan’s anti-Semitic mob
As the war in Gaza continues to have global repercussions, a mob in the southern Russian city of Makhachkala stormed…
Ukraine’s sabotage tricks are causing concern in Washington
There has never been any doubt that Ukraine was the focus of an intelligence war as much as a physical…
ATACMS missiles alone won’t change the game in Ukraine
America’s ATACMS long-range missiles were a potential ‘game changer’ to the war in Ukraine to some, a potential source of…
Putin has been blindsided by the Israel attack
Inevitably, some have tried to suggest the terrorist invasion of Israel was in some ways orchestrated by Moscow. ‘Russia is…
Why a gangster’s death in Central Asia matters
Such is the globalisation of the modern underworld, that the fate of a gangster you may never have heard of,…
By striking Crimea, Kyiv shows Putin that nowhere is safe
Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, appears to be Schrodinger’s admiral, alive according to Moscow, dead according…
The EU needs a coherent strategy on Russian sanctions
This week, the European Union opted to extend sanctions on some 1,800 Russian companies and individuals for another six months,…
Putin’s North Korea summit was pure theatre
If a little tyrant theatre is your goal, then rumbling across the border in an armoured train decked out like…
Why Putin is pointing the finger at Britain
Perfidious Albion is, we are told, at it again. In the course of a wide-ranging and often quite surreal speech…
Prigozhin’s death has exposed Putin’s weakness
So much is still unclear about the fate of Wagner group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, from whether he really did die…
Sanctions are failing to turn Putin’s oligarchs against him
When personal sanctions on Russian oligarchs and officials were imposed by the UK, US and EU after Putin’s invasion, the…
Why the Kremlin sees Britain as the ultimate bogeyman
Perfidious Albion is at it again. The Kremlin’s increasingly unhinged obsession with seeing a British hand behind its various upsets…
Was Putin behind the Electoral Commission hack?
The hacking of the Electoral Commission’s databases highlights the way that in the interconnected modern world, ‘warfare’ can be as…
Will MI6’s Russian recruitment drive work?
Sir Richard Moore, head of the Secret Intelligence Service – MI6 – follows the tradition of only giving one public…
Moscow’s Pyrrhic Nato victory
Despite the inevitable and performative expressions of anger, regret and dismay following this week’s Nato summit, Moscow feels it has…
Putin is struggling to solve his Prigozhin problem
It’s satisfying when a jigsaw piece slots into place. Today we heard that Wagner leader Evgeny Prigozhin met Vladimir Putin in the…
The Kremlin is trying to humiliate Prigozhin
When corrupt Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in 2014, his private estate at Mezhyhirya turned out to contain an…
After Putin: how nervous should we be?
The next generation is waiting for Putin to fall
Putin faces challenge from his own creation
It took a characteristically long time for Vladimir Putin to respond to the coup-that-dare-not-speak-its-name launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, but when…
The Kremlin is still afraid of Alexei Navalny
As Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is once again in court, facing charges that could extend his time in prison…
Putin is lining up a lengthy list of scapegoats for his war
Lately Vladimir Putin has been strikingly unwilling to subject himself to any serious debate about his war in Ukraine. On…
Will Putin manage to spin Kyiv’s counter-offensive as a victory?
The Ukrainian counter-offensive has duly started and, needless to say, there is a rush to judgement. It is going to…
