Russia
Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin: ‘The KGB put a microphone in our marriage bed’
Ismene Brown talks to the Russian super-couple Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin about ballet, opera and the KGB
Europe will reconcile with Russia, and soon. It can’t afford not to
The West will have to drop sanctions on Russia – or face another global economic crash
Letter from Donetsk: peace, with missile attacks
For what is technically peacetime, there’s a lot of shelling going on round here. Donetsk airport is still held by…
Václav Klaus: The lies Europe tells about Russia
Václav Klaus, the former Czech president, on David Cameron, the EU, Russia — and the end of free speech
Six rivals for the name Isis
Not in their name The BBC decided to start calling the Islamic terror group Isis by the acronym IS instead.…
The wars that really are about the oil
You can’t understand any of the world’s crises without understanding petropolitics
Radek Sikorski’s notebook: Goose-steppers in Oxford, and a drone in my garden
As the BA flight from Warsaw landed at Heathrow, I felt a little tremor of anxiety, though it wasn’t anything…
You can't make friends with Uncle Sam and survive for long
Can somebody tell me when America last got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places…
Violence, fear, confusion: this is what comes into a leadership vacuum
The old cliché that ‘nothing happens in August’ has again been brutally disproved. From the centenary of the outbreak of…
Why a City job should be graduates’ last resort
August is the season for conversation about career choices. Every holiday party seems to include new graduates or next year’s…
I know how ineffective sanctions are – but these ones just might work
‘Sanctions,’ said Kofi Annan, ‘are a necessary middle ground between war and words.’ Neither the EU nor the US will…
The MH17 disaster
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, told Parliament that President Vladimir Putin of Russia should end his country’s support for…
Sanctions won’t tame Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Talking might
Sanctions won’t help. One thing might
Vladimir Putin’s empire of lies
Putin’s answer to the destruction of Flight MH17 has been more propaganda. In Russia, at least, it seems to be working
Peter Mandelson’s diary: The accomplishments of George Osborne – and Vladimir Putin
My trips to meet Russians in Russia these days are a little less controversial than my encounter with them in…
Paul Johnson’s diary: Boris would make a great PM – but he must strike now
I feel an intense antipathy for Vladimir Putin. No one on the international scene has aroused in me such dislike…
No, Putin didn’t plot to invade Ukraine. But now he might have to
Further Russian military intervention would be a disaster. But Putin might have to do it anyway
Portrait of the week
Home The British economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, disappointing hotheads who’d expected 1 per cent. It…
Vladimir Putin knows what he stands for. Do we?
Possibly because his oratory is no match for his much-displayed pectoral muscles, the speeches of Vladimir Putin are seldom reported…
Don't call him an oligarch - meeting Dmitry Firtash
A rare interview with billionaire Ukrainian power broker Dmitry Firtash
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that inheritance tax ‘shouldn’t be paid by people who’ve worked hard and saved…
How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb
Just as every child now thinks he’s going to die of global warming, so those of us who grew up…
Let Putin have Crimea – and it will destroy him
Losing Crimea will be the making of Ukraine. And gaining it might well destroy the Russian president
Putin is making the West's Cold Warriors look like fools
Russia is making the West look posturing, weak and divided
Cicero would have agreed with Putin
Last September Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a ‘unipolar’ world, saying that the national revival of Russia was in…
