Russia

There’s only one way to end the war in Ukraine

23 January 2025 4:30 pm

Donald Trump has told Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. ‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war!’ he…

A mole in the CIA: The Seventh Floor, by David McCloskey, reviewed

18 January 2025 9:00 am

McCloskey’s latest thriller is well written and tautly paced, but we feel so little connection with the suspect agents that the eventual unmasking of the mole is an anticlimax

Give Trump’s realism a chance

12 January 2025 4:30 pm

In one place at least, the reaction to Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal has…

Portrait of the week: Reform’s rising membership, peerages and an 11lb puffball

4 January 2025 9:00 am

Home Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said that the party now had more members than the Conservatives. On…

Ed Miliband doesn’t understand how energy pricing works

3 January 2025 12:06 am

Are we about to find out the full foolishness of Ed Miliband’s policy of blocking licences for new oil and…

Where have Russia’s Zs gone?

1 January 2025 10:58 pm

A social media post on 30 December: photographs of admittedly-splendid new year decorations in Moscow, archly captioned ‘back to 2021.’…

Vodka and the Beatles on a New Year’s Eve in Narva

31 December 2024 4:30 pm

Narva, the northern Estonian city right on the border with Russia, has been much in the news of late. Not…

Why Ukraine killed Igor Kirillov

17 December 2024 10:50 pm

Another one down. This morning, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of RKhBZ, Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops, was heading…

‘Carried away by those Russians’ – the dreadful fate of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters

14 December 2024 9:00 am

The queen’s repeated warnings to Alix and Ella of the danger of marrying Russians were ignored, and both Princesses of Hesse would die appalling deaths at the hands of revolutionaries

Is Ukraine heading towards a Korean-style demilitarised zone?

7 December 2024 9:00 am

It is the strangest place, the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates South Korea from North Korea. It is simultaneously a…

The deepening unpopularity of Zelensky

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Perhaps all political careers must end, inevitably, in failure. But few politicians have had careers as meteoric, as surprising, as…

How to negotiate with Russians

30 November 2024 4:30 pm

Russians are notorious for an aggressiveness at the negotiating table. In 2017 I met a group of diplomats from eastern…

Russia’s sabotage campaign against the West

30 November 2024 9:00 am

When a DHL cargo plane crashed while approaching Vilnius airport on Monday, killing one of the crew, it looked like…

Portrait of the week: Storm Bert, Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and Putin gives cockatoos to North Korea

30 November 2024 9:00 am

Home A white paper outlined measures to counter economic inactivity (which had risen by September to 41.2 per cent among…

Here’s what Putin wants from Ukraine

22 November 2024 3:18 am

Donald Trump is still two months away from becoming the 47th president of the United States, and yet his return to…

Could Ukraine go nuclear?

20 November 2024 5:35 pm

Should Ukraine have nuclear weapons? This is a question that was raised, a little insincerely, by President Zelensky recently as he…

Could Trump save Ukraine?

19 November 2024 6:24 pm

One thousand days into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, three facts seem to be evident. First, Russia is losing.…

Ukraine will make the most of its new firepower

18 November 2024 7:43 pm

Overnight, the news of Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian soil has been sinking in.…

What will Putin do about Biden’s parting gift to Ukraine?

18 November 2024 7:20 pm

At the very moment most people seem to have forgotten of his existence, President Biden has slowly but purposefully shuffled…

Were the Arctic convoy sacrifices worth it?

9 November 2024 9:00 am

Stalin privately admitted that his army could never have triumphed without western aid, and the convoys also indirectly helped the war in the Atlantic – but the loss of life was horrendous

Meet the western conservatives moving to Russia

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Tofurious Maximus Crane was sitting in a barber’s chair in Moscow when he received the greatest news of his life.…

Can Zelensky and Putin do a deal?

31 October 2024 4:30 pm

Warring parties often strike deals. Exchanges of prisoners, ceasefires to deliver aid, covert talks between intelligence services – and eventually,…

Is Stalin-worship back in Russia?

20 October 2024 5:00 pm

As if the Russian political barometer hasn’t fallen low enough, news comes that it has yet to reach the bottom…

What does ‘victory’ for Ukraine look like?

28 September 2024 9:00 am

This week in New York Volodymyr Zelensky will present Joe Biden with a ‘Victory Plan’ for Ukraine. But how to…

It’s time to let Ukraine join Nato

21 September 2024 9:00 am

Kyiv The young amputee had a question. We were sitting once again in the rehab centre in Kyiv, and I…