Russia
Not out
Can Imran Khan cling on to power in Pakistan?
The Spectator’s Notes
Now that events in Ukraine are restoring a sense of proportion about the difference between aggressive autocracies and free countries,…
Russia ‘realists’ have very little to say about evil
‘Every way of a man is right in his own eyes’, the Book of Proverbs says: it makes us feel…
The view from Ukraine: world war three has already started
I saw the first Russian bombs land from my balcony in Chernivtsi. They hit a military depot 50 miles away…
Viktor Orbán is no friend of the West
Viktor Orbán‘s victory speech in Budapest on Sunday night took a curious turn. Speaking after a fourth landslide win, he…
Russia’s ‘denazification’ project is only just beginning
Truth, infamously, is the first casualty of war. But the truth, in modern Russia, was critically wounded before it got…
The West is powerless in the face of Russian war crimes
‘Our home is our heart,’ a video posted by a couple from the Kyiv suburb of Hostomel begins, showing them…
Why Hungary’s opposition failed
Viktor Orbán has now spent a total of 16 years as Hungary’s Prime Minister but he has not lost his hunger…
Are sanctions working?
When allied military operations go well or badly, we very quickly hear about them. But what about sanctions? It is…
Russian cruelty has been laid bare
It was 2 a.m. when Russian gunmen broke in and took away 21-year-old Milana Ozdoyeva. When Sara, her three-year-old daughter,…
No. 10 prepares decades-long energy plan
The government’s delayed energy strategy is finally due to be released this week. The Prime Minister is due to unveil…
GI Joe
Is Biden’s approach to the war more calculating than it seems?
Barometer
Common knowledge Tensions in the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Jamaica led some to speculate that…
The Ukrainian connection
Dmitry Firtash wants to help with the war effort — but can we trust him?
The war’s next phase
A month in, and the war in Ukraine looks very different to how anyone expected. On the first day of…
Zelensky has saved Boris
Labour will try all it can to bring up the subject at every opportunity; as will a few backbench MPs.…
Ukraine is witnessing the future of drone warfare
Russian forces have reportedly been ordered to watch last year’s state-funded propaganda film Sky. The Kremlin-funded drama follows the lives of Russian airmen…
Who poisoned Roman Abramovich?
Russia is now 33 days into a war it expected would last 72 hours. Given the relative failure of the…
The rouble’s astonishing recovery
The tank columns are stalled; one or two towns captured from the Ukrainians have been retaken. Russia’s war effort has…
Germany’s progressives have a Putin problem
Eighty-nine years ago this week, the German Social Democrats in the Reichstag cast the only votes opposing Adolf Hitler’s dictatorial…
Could Biden gaffe us into world war three?
‘I want your point of view, Joe,’ Barack Obama once told his vice-president Joe Biden. ‘I just want it in…
Why Russian tactics won’t win the war
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, the war has settled into a largely attritional struggle –…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The Spectator’s Notes
Zakhar Prilepin is a well-known novelist in Russia and an ultra-nationalist warrior in Donbas. Once a member of the National…
Portrait of the week
Home Britain had provided Ukraine with more than 4,000 Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons, the Ministry of Defence said. Shell…
