Russia
Steve Witkoff is wrong to see peace in Putin’s eyes
Kyiv ‘It doesn’t surprise me that they’re abolishing the Ministry of Education,’ my old friend Dima told me. ‘Judging by…
Trump wants Putin to win
It is meet, right and our bounden duty to begin any column about Ukraine with a vigorous expression of the…
Why Putin could reject a ceasefire
With all the good news coming out of the Jeddah talks about a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, there is only…
The MAGA movement is wrong on Ukraine
How can the right be so wrong? Or at least portions of the right – especially the American right –…
The weakness of Donald Trump
Forgive the mordant tone, but this article was written in a desolate post-industrial nightmare girdled by diversionary roads going nowhere…
The engagement vs isolation debate returns
British foreign policy has always oscillated between isolation and engagement. The division has shaped Conservative thinking over generations. The archetypal…
Donald Trump is utterly wrong about Ukraine’s leadership
The Anti-corruption Action Centre, the NGO I chair, is probably one of the loudest watchdogs in Ukraine that is monitoring…
Who lost Ukraine?
In the America of the 1950s, one question dominated foreign policy: ‘Who lost China?’ The Communist victory in the Chinese…
Portrait of the week: US and Russia talk, Chiltern Firehouse burns and Duchess of Sussex rebrands
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said that, to guarantee the security of Ukraine, he was ‘ready and willing’…
How has Brexit affected ferry travel?
Meeting expectations Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had a telephone call prior to US and Russian officials meeting in Saudi…
The US and Russia must not force Ukrainian elections
After four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian and American negotiators have reportedly come up with a three-stage plan to…
Europe cannot be surprised by Trump’s approach to Ukraine
There’s something about Donald Trump that sends Europeans mad. The President and Vladimir Putin agreed last week to commence talks…
There’s only one way to end the war in Ukraine
Donald Trump has told Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. ‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war!’ he…
A mole in the CIA: The Seventh Floor, by David McCloskey, reviewed
McCloskey’s latest thriller is well written and tautly paced, but we feel so little connection with the suspect agents that the eventual unmasking of the mole is an anticlimax
Give Trump’s realism a chance
In one place at least, the reaction to Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal has…
Portrait of the week: Reform’s rising membership, peerages and an 11lb puffball
Home Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said that the party now had more members than the Conservatives. On…
Ed Miliband doesn’t understand how energy pricing works
Are we about to find out the full foolishness of Ed Miliband’s policy of blocking licences for new oil and…
Where have Russia’s Zs gone?
A social media post on 30 December: photographs of admittedly-splendid new year decorations in Moscow, archly captioned ‘back to 2021.’…
Vodka and the Beatles on a New Year’s Eve in Narva
Narva, the northern Estonian city right on the border with Russia, has been much in the news of late. Not…
Why Ukraine killed Igor Kirillov
Another one down. This morning, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of RKhBZ, Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops, was heading…
‘Carried away by those Russians’ – the dreadful fate of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters
The queen’s repeated warnings to Alix and Ella of the danger of marrying Russians were ignored, and both Princesses of Hesse would die appalling deaths at the hands of revolutionaries
Is Ukraine heading towards a Korean-style demilitarised zone?
It is the strangest place, the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates South Korea from North Korea. It is simultaneously a…
The deepening unpopularity of Zelensky
Perhaps all political careers must end, inevitably, in failure. But few politicians have had careers as meteoric, as surprising, as…
How to negotiate with Russians
Russians are notorious for an aggressiveness at the negotiating table. In 2017 I met a group of diplomats from eastern…
Russia’s sabotage campaign against the West
When a DHL cargo plane crashed while approaching Vilnius airport on Monday, killing one of the crew, it looked like…
