The King of Christmas: A short story by Owen Matthews
The Christmas King steps slowly from his house and sniffs the evening’s chill. His tread is dainty, for all his…
‘It wasn’t the Russian people who poisoned Skripal, it was just a few guys’: Alexander Lebedev interviewed
Who wants to be a billionaire? Not, apparently, Alexander Lebedev, the self-described ‘Russian ex-oligarch’ who has tried billionaredom and found…
In Ukraine’s presidential elections, life is imitating Netflix
Servant of the People is a hilarious Ukrainian situation comedy currently running on Netflix. It opens with a young high-school…
Dau is the strangest and most unsettling piece of art to come out of Russia in years
Dau is not so much a film as a document of a mass human experiment. The result is dark, brilliant…
Does Putin intend to go to war with Ukraine?
On Europe’s eastern borderlands, trouble is brewing. Two headstrong leaders — Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko —…
How Bellingcat outfoxes the world’s spy agencies
Bellingcat is an independent group of exceptionally gifted Leicester-based internet researchers who use information gleaned from open sources to dig…
The magnificent Atkinsons: rigours of travel in 19th-century Russia
Russia has always attracted a certain breed of foreigner: adventurers, drawn to the country’s vastness and emptiness; chancers, seeking fortunes…
Why the Romanovs were doomed
The true tragedy of the last Romanovs was a failure of imagination. Both during his last disastrous months in office…
Putin says he’s making Russia great again. In reality, it’s crumbling
This is Putin’s time. Next week, the Fifa World Cup kicks off in Moscow, and the Kremlin has spared no…
Vladimir Putin’s toxic power
Vladimir Putin’s spies have a dizzying variety of weapons at their disposal. This week Britain learned of a new one:…
For Putin, the World Cup is not about football but global respect
Authoritarian regimes love grand international sporting events. There’s something about the mass regimentation, the set-piece spectacle, the old-fashioned idea of…
A love letter to Turkey’s lost past
Patricia Daunt’s collection of essays is a fascinating exploration of some of Turkey’s most beautiful and evocative places, from the…
The hunger
In 1933 my aunt Lenina Bibikova was eight years old. She lived in Kharkov, Ukraine. Every morning a polished black…
Putin’s winning in Syria – but making a powerful new enemy
In Syria, the Russian leader is on the verge of his biggest – and riskiest – coup yet
How Putin outwitted the West
His cynical statecraft in Syria has run rings around Britain and America
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
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…
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…
Meet Vladimir Putin's real challengers (they're even worse than he is)
Cuddly liberals aren’t going to displace Putin: his real challengers are ultra-nationalists like Igor Strelkov
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
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
How did revolution become Istanbul's new normal?
On a recent weekend I was thinking of taking my sons to downtown Istanbul to do some bazaar browsing. ‘Bad…
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
Vladimir Putin's new plan for world domination
Russia is returning as an ideological force in the world – to champion conservative values
Putin’s own Cold War
Russia is ever more hostile to the US. But the US no longer needs to care
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