Moscow
Besieged Odesa is still caught in a conflict of identities
Older citizens have identified with Russia all their lives – and Russian is still commonly spoken everywhere. But young Odesans are now using more Ukrainian as a symbol of resistance
The spy who came back from retirement: Karla’s Choice, by Nick Harkaway, reviewed
Given a new lease of life by John le Carré’s son, George Smiley gets embroiled in a murky affair involving the Circus’s key Stasi asset and a missing Hungarian literary agent
Sarah Rainsford joins the long list of foreign correspondents banned from Russia
After decades of writing about Russian affairs, Rainsford now finds herself persona non grata – but admits she no longer feels nostalgia for the country
My summer of love with God’s gift
Studying in Russia in 1994, Viv Groskop falls in love with a Ukrainian rock guitarist named Bogdan Bogdanovich and accompanies him on a visit home
Celebrating Konstantin Paustovsky — hailed as ‘the Russian Proust’
When is a life worth telling? The Soviet writer Konstantin Paustovsky’s six-volume autobiography The Story of a Life combines high…
It is not the masterpieces that were lost, but the collectors, Natalya Semenova rights a wrong
It is not as surprising at it sounds that two of the greatest collectors of modern art should have been…
The plight of the returnee: A Terrible Country, by Keith Gessen, reviewed
If the 20th century popularised the figure of the émigré, the 21st has introduced that of the returnee, who, aided…
Playing Stalin for laughs
Christopher Wilson’s new novel is much easier to enjoy than to categorise. And ‘enjoy’ is definitely the right word, even…
I met Donald Trump’s Russian fan club (and fought them on TV)
Moscow To the Union Jack pub on Potapovsky Lane for a US election night party. The jolly Muscovite Trump supporters…
Teffi: from Russia with laughs
‘Ah! Scrubbing the deck! My childhood dream! As a child I had once seen a sailor hosing the deck with…
Spies in the spotlight
Spying is a branch of philosophy, although you would never guess it from that expression on Daniel Craig’s face. Its…
The surreal beauty of Soviet bus stops
The Soviet Union was a nation of bus stops. Cars were hard to come by, so a vast public transport…
Can Putin ban homosexuality and endorse polygamy? Yes he can
The Kremlin is tying itself in ideological knots as it tries to make new friends in the Muslim world
It’s dark days for dogs and their owners
So who is poisoning all the doggies, then? I assumed, when the first horrible reports came through from Crufts, that…
Panic, profiteering and a mysterious girl in a Mini: notes from Moscow
Moscow Here we go again. The rouble slides, then tumbles, and slides again. For those of us who remember the…
Soviet greyness, literary mediocrity and hot dates
Right at the outset of this autobiographical novel — in fact it reads more like a memoir — Ismail Kadare…
Governments have failed — mayors are the future
The power to effect real change may lie with dynamic city halls rather than ossified national governments
Secrets of the Kremlin
A building bearing testimony to the power of eternal Russia; a timeless symbol of the Russian state; a monument to…
Hitler didn't start indiscriminate bombings — Churchill did
‘I cannot describe to you what a curious note of brutality a bomb has,’ said one woman who lived through…
One Night in Winter, by Simon Sebag Montefiore - review
Simon Sebag Montefiore’s One Night in Winter begins in the hours immediately following the solemn victory parade that marked the…
