World
Putin’s Russian history is a fantasy
As the first cracks appear in the Kremlin leadership, it it is becoming clear that this is Putin’s war against Ukraine.…
Why is St Paul’s Cathedral commemorating a Benin slave trader?
The Church of England is rightly sensitive to the evils of slavery and racism. It has announced energetic measures to…
What Erdogan is thinking about Ukraine
Turkey’s twentieth-century experience was very different from that of most European countries. During World War One, the late Ottoman Empire…
A no-fly zone is an act of war
Fuelled by repeated appeals from President Zelensky, western support for a no-fly zone in Ukraine is growing. The number of Americans in…
Could a Kremlin assassin get to Putin?
Could an assassin kill Putin? Just as the second world war would not have happened without the demonic will and…
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…
How Britain can speed up sanctions against the oligarchs
In contrast to its leadership in relation to economic sanctions against the Russian state, the UK has been much too…
Meet the 72-year-old British colonel taking on the Russians in Ukraine
Some citizens of Nato countries are in Ukraine to fight. They are members of the new International Brigade the Ukrainians…
Why did Boris prioritise Lebedev’s peerage during the pandemic?
Like me, you probably remember the third week of March 2020 as though it were yesterday. Covid-19 was on these shores…
‘Help us, before it’s too late’
Western Ukraine Outside a military recruiting centre in Lviv, Egor Grushin, one of Ukraine’s most famous classical pianists, was waiting…
Hungary’s ‘patriotic fight’ with the EU: an interview with justice minister Judit Varga
Budapest is racked with tension. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sends a stream of refugees to Hungary’s eastern border, Viktor…
A cultural boycott of Russia plays into Putin’s hands
Has the cultural boycott of Russia gone too far? Events at an Italian university this week, where writer Paolo Nori…
Xi Jinping and the plight of Chinese nationals in Ukraine
The plight of desperate Chinese nationals in Ukraine has further battered Xi Jinping’s credibility, testing his continued refusal to condemn…
Are we cheering on Ukraine to destruction?
We’re just ten days into Russia’s assault on Ukraine and the western world has painted itself in Ukraine’s colours. Cities…
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 myopic focus on racism at the Polish-Ukrainian border
There are already a hell of a lot of foreign correspondents and human-rights workers at the Ukrainian-Polish border – an…
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…
Can Russia ever coexist with the West?
Seeing Vladimir Putin’s bloated face and listening to his increasingly unhinged rhetoric makes it tempting to assume that the current…
Sage admits its models were ‘at variance to reality’. But why?
The Sage committee was set up as a pool of experts on tap to advise government. During the pandemic, it mutated…
Ukraine and the art of viral war
The sky is dull and gray, the sun obscured by clouds. The camera pans down past some desolate Soviet housing…
Lindsey Graham unites the world
It was a beautiful moment of bipartisan unity when, left and right, American and European, young and old, united to…
Is Russia Today finished?
As the British authorities debate whether to ban the propaganda channel of a savage imperialist power, Russia Today is making a…
Rest in peace, Shane Warne
Headingly, July 22nd 1993 and the opening day of the fourth test that summer between England and Australia. This, as…
Putin will not survive a failed war in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has had a very bad week. His army, allegedly refurbished after its poor performance in the war against…
