Russia
Portrait of the week
Home The electors of Makerfield decided who might be prime minister. After John Healey resigned as defence secretary, Al Carns…
Starmer’s Russian oil tanker raid was a political stunt
This morning, in a blaze of publicity, Royal Navy commandos boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the English channel in…
Forever war: will Zelensky and Putin be brought to an exhausted peace?
Volodymyr Zelensky stood proudly on the steps of 10 Downing Street this week, flanked by Sir Keir Starmer and the…
Russia won’t give up Armenia without a fight
How do you fight an election if you’re under house arrest? If you’re the Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, once the…
How Iran turned Trump’s propaganda against him
On 19 November 1941, King George and Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to Woburn Abbey, home of Britain’s covert propaganda…
Putin and Erdogan are playing with fire in the Balkans and the Caucasus
As Russia and Turkey jostle for influence in Europe’s overlooked corners, regional tensions begin to resemble those in the build-up to the Great War
Russia is relying on drones to bring it victory in Ukraine
Earlier this week, Ukraine was subjected to one of the largest aerial assaults by Russia since the start of Vladimir…
Is the West deserting Ukraine at precisely the wrong moment?
Moscow is coming under direct drone attack, the Russian economy is creaking, patriotic bloggers are ever more apocalyptic in their…
Why drones will carry out the next 9/11
Few know more about drone warfare than Brett Velicovich. During the Iraq war, the former Delta Force intelligence analyst lived…
The tide has turned in Ukraine
The long war in Ukraine has morphed into a new and decisive phase, one that could lead to Ukraine’s upset…
Russians no longer believe Putin’s war propaganda
A year ago, Russia marked the 9 May Victory Day celebration with a spectacular display of fireworks that lit up…
The Kremlin’s secret plans for post-war Russia
A top-level Kremlin policy document discussing post-war political planning and how to neutralize potential ultranationalist discontent has been leaked to…
No, Russia is not on the verge of a coup
However much Western leaders inveigh against Russian disinformation (which, yes, is a real issue), we should never pretend this is…
How the Ukraine war could end in revolt
Ukraine and Russia are exhausted. Neither side is close to defeat and yet discontent is growing on both sides. In…
Is the US nuclear bomber base being targeted for a strike?
A lockdown at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana triggered by a mysterious drone swarm last month didn’t last long.…
A Ukrainian win is more important than ever
On 3 April we mark 1,500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine; on 11 June, the conflict will have lasted longer…
The Trumpian appeal of a Trojan horse
Given the tonnage of missiles launched at Iran, it seems remarkable how relatively few Iranians have been killed. But the…
With no coherent strategy, Britain seems perpetually adrift in the world
But rather than stagger from one global crisis to another, we could unite the disparate tools we still possess and truly take back control, says Jack Watling
Why Ukraine’s Russian oil strikes are backfiring
Every drone Ukraine fires at a Russian oil terminal is meant to defund Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Right now, each…
The chaotic truth about Russia’s internet blackouts
From the modern metropolises of Moscow and St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk on the permafrosted northern coast and Khabarovsk on the…
The Iran war is just what Putin’s depleted coffers need
Of all the parties watching the chaos in the Middle East unfold, one should be rubbing its hands together with…
‘More than half our squad were executed’: Inside Russia’s rotten army
The Russians are on the warpath – and Europe is Vladimir Putin’s next target. That was Sir Keir Starmer’s alarming…
How Silicon Valley is calling the shots on the battlefields of Ukraine
Sometime in the late morning of February 4, somebody at SpaceX headquarters pressed a computer key. A command line was…
No, Zelensky: World War Three hasn’t started
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that World War Three has already started. Speaking to the BBC on the eve of…
The secrets of Putin’s shadow fleet
Of all the weapons in Vladimir Putin’s arsenal, the most strategically crucial has proved to be not hypersonic missiles but…
