Russia
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…
Oxxxymirin: Beauty & Ugliness
Grade: A+ I was going to review hyperpop chanteuse Charli XCX’s album this week, but it was such boring, meretricious,…
Inside Putin’s mind
The lessons of Chechnya
Screen off
What Russians watch — and believe
The middleman
Can Turkey’s President broker a peace deal?
Is Putin’s war spreading?
Yerevan, Armenia ‘This is our land,’ Anna says, looking out over her roadside flower shop. ‘Lenin promised it to us.’…
Was Biden’s chemical weapons threat a gaffe?
Did Joe Biden mean to threaten Russia with a chemical weapons attack? That seemed to be what he implied at…
The drone era has arrived
The Ukrainian airforce has so far held out in the battle for the skies. Russia continues to rely on missiles…
Is Germany already backsliding on Russia?
Just three weeks after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would directly arm Ukraine, Europe’s economic powerhouse is running out…
Boris’s Brexit-Ukraine comparison was a mistake
After years of post-Brexit rancour,the last few weeks have been a striking display of European (not just EU) unity. Britain…
