Russia
St Petersburg: now's the right time to visit Russia's rebel city
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
Putin has shown the West up as a paper tiger
On 17 November 1813, Marshal Ney, the bravest of the brave, had been the last to march out of Smolensk…
An unqualified triumph: Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera reviewed
The Royal Opera has bitten the bullet so far as Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov goes, and opted to stage the original…
Kit-car Chekhov: Uncle Vanya at the Almeida reviewed
Director Robert Icke has this to say of Chekhov’s greatest masterpiece: ‘Let the electricity of now flow into the old…
Farty, smelly and in love with Putin? You must be middle-aged
There are things that happen when you grow older — bad things, harbingers of death and decay. Past the age of…
Putin’s winning in Syria – but making a powerful new enemy
In Syria, the Russian leader is on the verge of his biggest – and riskiest – coup yet
The next immigration crisis
There has been an influx of 2.5 million Syrian refugees, and almost as many again are expected. At this rate, Turkey’s migrant problem is set to become Europe’s
‘Russia’s Mississippi’ — or China’s — just keeps rolling along
In 2014, Beijing and Moscow signed a US$400 billion deal to deliver Russian gas to Chinese consumers. Construction of the…
Conductor and orchestra played as if in love: Royal Opera’s Eugene Onegin reviewed
It’s scene five of Kasper Holten’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Michael Fabiano’s Lensky is alone with a snow-covered…
War & Peace is actually just an upmarket Downton Abbey
Gosh what a breath of fresh air was Andrew Davies’s War & Peace adaptation (BBC1, Sundays) after all the stale…
Why did a Russian ballet dancer throw acid in his boss’s face?
The 16th June 1961 and 17th January 2013 are two indelible dates in the annals of Russian ballet. Two events…
Silent strongman Sergey Shoigu is the real force behind Russia’s military aggression
Sergey Shoigu is the real force behind Putin’s military aggression
It is time to join the fight against IS in Syria
The Islamic State is as monstrous an enemy as we have seen in recent history. It crucifies and decapitates its…
How to defeat Isis, by a retired British commander
Military action against Isis needs a coherent strategy, says a former senior commander in the British army
Obama's weakness has helped Putin – and Isis
The principal strategic objective in the war on terror has been a failure. Ever since 9/11, the aim has been…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, outlined four changes he sought in Britain’s membership of the EU. He wanted to…
It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport
Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…
Islamic State is making its threats a reality
Isis could be on the brink of creating a terrifying new world order
Seb Coe is a fine man... who deserves to feel uncomfortable
So Smiley was right all along: the bloody Russians were the baddest of the bad. The Pound report on the…
Theatre and transgression in Europe’s last dictatorship
Juan Holzmann goes underground in Minsk with the Belarus Free Theatre
Portrait of the week
Home Two groups were launched, one in favour of remaining in the European Union and the other in favour of…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, told the Conservative party conference in Manchester: ‘We need a national crusade to get…
How Putin outwitted the West
His cynical statecraft in Syria has run rings around Britain and America
Why I’ve finally given up on the left
I cannot be part of a movement run by half-educated fanatics
Where the wild things are: in the woods and (worse) in the plumbing, according to the latest best children’s books
In the Californian town of San Bernadino, children are going missing; smiling faces grace a gallery of milk cartons. One…
