Russia
Ukraine's plight paints a bleak vision of Europe's future
It is tempting to view Vladimir Putin as a Cold War relic: a former KGB officer who hasn’t got over the…
Can Macron really lecture Putin about democracy?
A penny for the thoughts of Vladimir Putin on Monday as he stared at Emmanuel Macron from the end of…
Putin and Xi’s Potemkin alliance
Vladimir Putin very rarely travels abroad these days – and Xi Jinping has not met a foreign leader in person…
Could Viktor Orbán be a peacemaker in Ukraine?
For a politician whose calling card is the struggle for Hungarian national sovereignty, Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin’s press conference…
How the media helped drive the Ukraine crisis
Western warnings of an ‘imminent’ Russian invasion of Ukraine have grown more insistent in recent weeks with different voices, from…
Is our Ukrainian ambassador OK?
I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether…
Viktor Orbán or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Putin
Viktor Orbán first came to prominence when in 1989 he declared on live TV that Hungary must put an end…
Letters: The BBC licence fee is a protection racket
Russia’s star Sir: Wolfgang Münchau is surely right to highlight the risk posed to European peace and stability by Germany’s…
Letter from Odessa: life on the front line of a new Cold War
‘God Save the Queen’ trended on Ukrainian social media over the weekend. ‘As a Brit in Kiev I have never…
What did the Russians make of Francis Bacon?
The KGB might not have known much about modern art, but they knew what they liked. For instance, at what…
The phoney war: what’s really going on between Boris and Putin
It suits both Boris and Putin to pretend that Russia may invade Ukraine
The dangerous alliance between Russia and China
The growing alliance between Russia and China is something we shouldn’t lose sleep over, their long history of mutual suspicion…
Read: Tucker Carlson on Ukraine, ethno-nationalism and M&Ms
This week, Tucker Carlson spoke to Freddy Gray on the latest episode of Spectator TV. You can watch their conversation…
No one should celebrate the decline of America
Where is America? Like an old friend who hasn’t been in touch for years, you wonder if its silence is…
Eastern Europe's toxic relationship with Russia has left the EU divided
Joe Biden’s fatalistic statement this week that suggested a ‘minor incursion’ by Russia into Ukraine might be tolerated by the…
In the pipeline: would Germany side with Russia in a conflict?
Germany’s curious alliance with Russia
My new nickname for Putin
According to the new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Russians wish to ‘put at risk…
Haunted: the spectre of revolution is stalking Putin
The spectre of revolution is stalking Putin
Portrait of the week: No. 10’s garden party, Djokovic’s visa row and France’s vaccine protests
Home Boris Johnson admitted to attending evening drinks for about 40 staff in the garden of 10 Downing Street on…
Was the Kazakhstan uprising an attempted Jihadi takeover?
The Kazakh uprising is over. The stench of burnt-out vehicles and bombed out buildings in Kazakhstan’s most populous city and…
What the Russians thought of James Bond in the 1960s
Last year I wrote a piece about James Bond for the ‘Freelance’ column of the Times Literary Supplement. All true…
The genius of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker score
The enduring appeal of The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score is nothing less than the sound of Christmas
Is Vladimir Putin really willing to invade Ukraine?
Is Putin preparing to invade Ukraine? It certainly looks that way, with western intelligence agencies estimating this week that around…
The battle for Ukraine has already been lost
Forget the ‘commitment‘ of the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Ukraine’s sovereignty, the EU’s ‘firm and decisive’ support, and…
Britain's duty to the Black Sea
With Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s borders, the Black Sea is looking choppy. While that may seem to have little…
