Russia
Are sanctions working?
As oil prices surge, Putin’s billions are soaring
Could Putin be toppled?
The former head of MI6 on where Russia has gone wrong – and what happens next
A short history of dogs in war
In his own inimitable way, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has unleashed his dogs of war on Vladimir Putin and once…
Inside Russia’s military collapse in Ukraine
The Russian military has performed far worse in Ukraine than anyone could ever have predicted. After failing to take Kyiv,…
Letters
Don’t ban Russia’s culture Sir: It is uncouth, illiterate and actually beneficial to Putin when theatres, opera houses and other…
Portrait of the week
Home The annual rate of inflation, impelled by energy costs, rose to 9 per cent, its highest since 1982. Unemployment…
Roman myths
Ravenna, Italy The war in Ukraine has caused an unholy convergence of the left and right in Italy.…
Cold Turkey
Why is Erdogan resisting Nato’s expansion?
Sanction Schröder
From the start of the war in Ukraine, the democratic world has shown striking unity in the economic boycott of…
Russia and the death of the Golden Arches theory
Ah, well, it was a lovely idea, born of the age of liberal-democratic triumphalism that was the 1990s: the ‘Golden…
Does Putin have blood cancer?
Suddenly, we are all diagnosticians. Clips of a puffy Putin slurring his words, his hands twitching or clutching a table…
Theatre of war
Russians must mobilise their own culture against Putin
The real reason for Putin’s intelligence shake-up
It has been reported this week that Vladimir Putin is shifting responsibility for covert operations in Ukraine to a different…
Why the new Anglo-Swedish pact matters
Boris Johnson will arrive in Stockholm tomorrow to sign a defence agreement with Sweden to tide the country over until it…
Putin’s cult of war
This idolisation of the Soviet military is Russia’s modern tragedy. Not least because it is crucial to Putin’s way of…
Read: Vladimir Putin’s victory day speech in full
The following is The Spectator’s translation of Putin’s speech for victory day 2022. Most respected citizens of Russia, dear veterans,…
Is Putin preparing for total war on 9 May?
Ahead of Russia’s annual Victory Day celebration on 9 May – which marks the date the Soviet Union defeated Nazi…
No, BP’s profit hasn’t boosted Starmer’s windfall-tax call
BP’s ‘underlying’ first-quarter profit of $6.2 billion, compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2021, was a direct…
Wild life
Yet again, millions of civilians across the Horn of Africa are starving. The world blames the crisis on drought and…
British volunteers shouldn’t be fighting in Ukraine
What’s going to happen to British volunteers captured while fighting Russian forces? According to Ukrainian analysts, there is intelligence to suggest that Russia…
Refugee status
The social cachet of taking in Ukrainians
West is best
So why be ashamed of ourselves?
Letters
In check Sir: Jade McGlynn (‘Conflict of opinion’, 23 April) has a point that there are many reasons for popular…
How Russia is splitting the EU
Russia is turning off the gas to Poland; the country’s state-owned gas supplier has refused to pay Gazprom in roubles.…
Germany’s military muddle over Ukraine
The reluctance of chancellor Olaf Scholz to provide heavy weapons to Ukraine is now coming under increasing fire from abroad…
