Putin
Putin vs Pride
In an outstanding article in the New York Times, Roger Cohen recounted his experience of travelling across Russia for a…
Russian military chief lets slip the cost of invasion
When it comes to disclosing the true cost of the war in Ukraine for Russia, the Kremlin has rarely, if…
Conflicted
Why Putin still needs Wagner
Brute forces
The Wagner Group isn’t Russia’s only private army
The Wagner uprising has left Putin isolated
Both Vladimir Putin and the mercenary Wagner Group have been dramatically weakened by yesterday’s attempted coup. Wagner’s nominal leader, Yevgeny…
This failed coup will be just the beginning
Yevgeny Prigozhin has just exposed the full extent of Vladimir Putin’s weakness. In less than 24 hours, the leader of…
Prigozhin leaves Rostov
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, has left Rostov-on-Don and ended the armed insurrection against Vladimir Putin.…
Putin’s nuclear reshuffle is designed to antagonise Nato
Days before Nato leaders descend on Vilnius for the alliance’s annual summit next month, things will be afoot just across…
All quiet on the western front
Zoe Strimpel talks to the anti-Putin Russian artists who have been cancelled since the invasion of Ukraine
Why Putin won’t take Hitler’s way out
The last time Europe fought a major war, there was no shortage of planning. We knew what peace meant. Winston…
No more Mr Nice Guy
Volodymyr Zelensky is one of the few leaders of modern times whose charisma, determination and sheer cojones can be said,…
Is Putin preparing a nuclear strike?
Russia is peddling implausible tales of Ukrainian ‘dirty bombs’. Kyiv and the West are embarked on a campaign to counter…
What does Russia really want?
The question of ‘why’ Russia invaded Ukraine has been forgotten amid war’s fog. Greed and malice partially explains it. History, geopolitics…
Tsar Vladimir brings in martial law
Martial law can arrive with a bang: tanks on the streets, Swan Lake on the TV. It can also creep…
Nuclear options
How should the West respond to Putin’s threats?
Putin at 70: How The Spectator has covered his life
Vladimir Putin turns 70 today. Since he became Prime Minister of Russia in 1999, some of The Spectator’s greatest contributors…
Letters
Putin’s options Sir: I agree with Paul Wood that Vladimir Putin is on the back foot (‘Cornered’, 24 September). His…
Diary
Moscow A week of somewhat mixed messages from the Kremlin. One day Vladimir Putin opened Europe’s largest Ferris wheel…
Did Russia sabotage its own pipelines?
It almost seems worthy of the opening scene in a Bond film. Vital Russian gas pipelines running beneath the Baltic Sea close…
What’s behind Putin’s no-show?
Has Vladimir Putin carried out a cynical stunt, or ducked out of a seismic decision? That’s the debate among Kremlinologists…
More mad than Vlad
Putin’s most dangerous opposition comes from Russia’s ultra-nationalists
Gorbachev was no saint. But he was a kind of hero
Mikhail Gorbachev is dead at the age of 91, and in a way I feel orphaned. I became fascinated by…
Daria Dugina has become a martyr for Putin
There was something menacing yet vaguely absurd about the Tuesday memorial service held to commemorate the life and fascist times…
The stalemate in Ukraine won’t last forever
Addressing the vexed question of who is winning the war in Ukraine, six months on, is a task to challenge…
Putin’s grand illusions
Sanctions are working — whatever Russia says
