Russia
Africa’s lessons for Ukraine
Kenya During Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 I got a close look at Moscow’s troops and their kit. These…
Portrait of the week: Zelensky channels Churchill, Russia blocks BBC and Bercow banned from parliament
Home President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed a packed House of Commons by video, echoing Winston Churchill by declaring that…
Border farce: Britain is failing Ukraine’s refugees
Why is the UK putting up obstacles to deter Ukrainian refugees?
The courage on Ukraine’s front line
Central to the question of whether or not Ukraine can survive as an independent state is that of re-supply, not…
My one-way ticket out of Moscow
Things fall apart. Moscow friends call to say that I have to urgently send my 19-year-old son out of Russia.…
Can Boris get the Saudis to pump more oil?
The oil price is up by more than 40 per cent since the start of the year. It is being…
Don't make war in Ukraine about Putin’s mental health
There was a time when supposedly serious commentators on world affairs used to at least feign historical knowledge. They might…
Putin’s neo-communism is doomed to fail
It is responsible for inequality. For financial instability. And probably for poverty, racism and global warming as well. We have…
Chernobyl Two?
The electricity supply to the ruined nuclear plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine has been cut off. According to one knowledgeable…
Dostovesky and Putin’s useful idiots
When I was 17 I heard the name Dostovesky, and was enthralled. Just the name felt so glamorously intellectual, so…
What's behind Russia's new Z symbol?
National symbols are usually proudly emblazoned for all to see. That’s the point of them. One, though, seems rather to have…
In defence of mutually assured destruction
The slow return of the 1980s has reached its logical conclusion. The prospect of nuclear annihilation is haunting our nightmares once…
Why is Britain so useless at helping Ukrainian refugees?
Some MPs were in tears yesterday when President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the House of Commons, and understandably so, given the…
British fighters in Ukraine are brave but misguided
The first British volunteers have arrived in Ukraine to ‘do their bit’ in thwarting the Russian invasion. According to reports…
Putin is bored
At the beginning of this year, Vladimir Putin was sitting comfortably in the Kremlin: his legacy so far a steady…
Zelensky's address was strange, but sensational
This afternoon, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the House of Commons. A single flat-screen TV broadcast his speech to…
Could Turkey rejoin the West?
Istanbul, Turkey Wherever you go in Istanbul, Atatürk is rarely far away. Portraits of the man who founded the Turkish…
Putin miscalculated. Let’s not do the same
Only the Russian people can decide how long Putin remains in the Kremlin, but the invasion of Ukraine will likely…
Russia’s war on Ukraine: the lessons so far
The sheer complexity – and horror – of Russia’s war on Ukraine makes it difficult to distil the essential points. To take…
How close is Russia to collapse?
Russia is now as closed off to the world as the Soviet Union was before Mikhail Gorbachev made his first tentative steps…
Boris Johnson is operating in a new political reality
Boris Johnson is attempting to carve out a role for himself as the figure who can lead the West in…
Remember the Russians who will really suffer from sanctions
When I was in Russia in the very early 1990s, there was a generic figure who seemed to stand at…
Do Russians support Putin’s war?
Everyone is calling the conflict in Ukraine Putin’s war and insisting that it has nothing to do with the Russians…
The downfall of Russia’s oligarchs
The normal justification for sanctioning oligarchs is that doing so will cost them money, causing them to put pressure on…
The free world’s new reality
We are about to see brutality in Europe on a scalethat will be almost beyond our comprehension. Russia is turning…
