Vladimir Putin

Read: Vladimir Putin's victory day speech in full

9 May 2022 10:38 pm

The following is The Spectator’s translation of Putin’s speech for victory day 2022. Most respected citizens of Russia, dear veterans,…

Is Putin in pain?

22 April 2022 6:41 pm

Is Vladimir Putin in pain? Until now, there has been plenty of chatter about the wellbeing of his minister of…

The age-old story of strongmen

16 April 2022 9:00 am

The only good news, after the massacres in Ukraine, is that so many ugly behemoth super-yachts have been seized and…

The view from Ukraine: world war three has already started

7 April 2022 7:55 pm

I saw the first Russian bombs land from my balcony in Chernivtsi. They hit a military depot 50 miles away…

Viktor Orbán is no friend of the West

6 April 2022 2:20 am

Viktor Orbán‘s victory speech in Budapest on Sunday night took a curious turn. Speaking after a fourth landslide win, he…

The rouble's astonishing recovery

29 March 2022 9:50 pm

The tank columns are stalled; one or two towns captured from the Ukrainians have been retaken. Russia’s war effort has…

Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine, liberalism and identity politics

22 March 2022 3:00 am

This week, Sam Leith spoke to Francis Fukuyama – the author of ‘The End of History and the Last Man’ and…

Putin and the Muslim world

21 March 2022 1:02 am

Several thousand Muslim Chechen fighters are reportedly massing on the edge of Kiev. Syrian volunteers, filmed this week holding assault…

What happens if Russia defaults?

15 March 2022 4:15 am

Well down the list of things to worry about as the ghastly Ukrainian tragedy unfolds is the high probability that the…

The joy of wigs

12 March 2022 9:00 am

I thought, or anyway hoped, that once I’d finished the chemotherapy I would spring back to vitality. Seven weeks on…

Don't make war in Ukraine about Putin’s mental health

12 March 2022 12:05 am

There was a time when supposedly serious commentators on world affairs used to at least feign historical knowledge. They might…

What's behind Russia's new Z symbol?

11 March 2022 12:20 am

National symbols are usually proudly emblazoned for all to see. That’s the point of them. One, though, seems rather to have…

Putin is bored

9 March 2022 6:00 pm

At the beginning of this year, Vladimir Putin was sitting comfortably in the Kremlin: his legacy so far a steady…

Russia’s war on Ukraine: the lessons so far

8 March 2022 10:20 pm

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?

8 March 2022 8:45 pm

Russia is now as closed off to the world as the Soviet Union was before Mikhail Gorbachev made his first tentative steps…

Do Russians support Putin’s war?

5 March 2022 10:30 pm

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

5 March 2022 8:30 pm

The normal justification for sanctioning oligarchs is that doing so will cost them money, causing them to put pressure on…

No-fly zones won’t work, but what about aid to Ukraine?

2 March 2022 9:43 pm

Vladimir Putin’s forces are encircling the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, and a 40 mile-long convoy of Russian armoured vehicles…

'Staying Switzerland' on Ukraine is impossible

1 March 2022 2:27 am

The striking thing about the financial sanctions on Russia is not their severity, but just how many countries are joining…

Viktor Orbán has played a perfect game with Putin

1 March 2022 2:10 am

On 3 April Hungarians will have their ninth set of free parliamentary elections since the collapse of the communist dictatorship…

Now Lebedev turns on Putin

1 March 2022 1:30 am

Looks like this war isn’t going terribly well for Vladimir Putin. The Russian dictator now finds himself something of an international pariah, with…

Germany has rejected Merkel's military legacy

28 February 2022 11:30 pm

‘We are witnessing a turning point… the world is not the same anymore,’ said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday in…

Has Putin resurrected the West?

28 February 2022 6:00 pm

I think Putin will have been surprised. I mean: I was surprised. Weren’t you? Not, necessarily, that Ukraine should have…

A new Europe is emerging from this crisis

27 February 2022 7:43 am

With every hour that Kiev holds out, the geopolitics of Europe changes more. Germany, which so values its prohibition on…

To hurt Putin, go for oil and gas – not Swift

26 February 2022 12:41 am

Both the British and the Americans have been explicit that it is the Europeans who are blocking Russia being cut…