Russia
No, Putin didn’t plot to invade Ukraine. But now he might have to
Further Russian military intervention would be a disaster. But Putin might have to do it anyway
Portrait of the week
Home The British economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, disappointing hotheads who’d expected 1 per cent. It…
Vladimir Putin knows what he stands for. Do we?
Possibly because his oratory is no match for his much-displayed pectoral muscles, the speeches of Vladimir Putin are seldom reported…
Don't call him an oligarch - meeting Dmitry Firtash
A rare interview with billionaire Ukrainian power broker Dmitry Firtash
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that inheritance tax ‘shouldn’t be paid by people who’ve worked hard and saved…
How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb
Just as every child now thinks he’s going to die of global warming, so those of us who grew up…
Let Putin have Crimea – and it will destroy him
Losing Crimea will be the making of Ukraine. And gaining it might well destroy the Russian president
Putin is making the West's Cold Warriors look like fools
Russia is making the West look posturing, weak and divided
Cicero would have agreed with Putin
Last September Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a ‘unipolar’ world, saying that the national revival of Russia was in…
Crimean notebook: ‘They’ll have to break all my bones to make me a Russian citizen’
Vladimir Putin still swears that there are no Russian troops in Crimea, so their mission is to say as little…
Where to open your brothel: an international comparison
The best places to open a brothel The Commons all-party group on prostitution has called for a Scandinavian-style law where…
Leave Ukraine to the Russians
‘You can’t always get what you want,’ chorused Mick Jagger, ‘but if you try some time/You just might find/You get…
Any other business: Britain’s chaotic energy policy puts us in Putin’s hands
To have written last month that the headline ‘Kiev in flames’ looked like a black swan on the economic horizon…
Europe's 'new world order' is letting Vladimir Putin run riot
Putin has now broken the post-Cold War consensus for good. But Russia may not enjoy the results
The Edward Snowden scandal viewed from planet Guardian
Last summer a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor called Edward Snowden leaked a vast trove of secret information on the…
If Ukraine’s protests were a revolution, why wasn’t the Stop the War march?
It’s ages since I last went on a decent demo and had a bit of a dust-up with the pigs.…
Watching car crash compliations with my grandson
My boy was downstairs cooking Sunday roast. Earlier, I had been clambering about on a woodpile, stepped awkwardly, and twisted…
Spectator letters: Wind and bias, and the Scots at war
Caution over wind Sir: While the broadcast media have assailed their audiences with simplistic yet blanket coverage of the floods…
Any other business: The friends of Putin taking home gold from the Sochi Olympics
Imagine if the BBC’s excitable commentators had been asked to cover the building of Sochi’s facilities, rather than the Winter…
Vladimir Putin's new plan for world domination
Russia is returning as an ideological force in the world – to champion conservative values
Ian Buruma’s notebook: Teenagers discover Montaigne the blogger
Bard College in upstate New York, where I teach in the spring semester, is an interesting institution, once better known…
Putin: ‘Oi, Europe, you’re a bunch of poofs’
Sochi 2014 is the least wintry Winter Olympics ever. Yes, there’s a bit of downhill shimmying going on in the…
Why doesn't Stephen Fry boycott the Saudis as well as the Russians?
Call me sentimental, but I’ve never seen a better opening ceremony than the Sochi one, evoking Russia’s great past in…
'She's the most important Jewish writer since Kafka!'
Ian Thomson on the turbulent life of Clarice Lispector
Why doesn't Russia have a Yad Vashem for the gulag?
Why is there no gulag museum to compare with Yad Vashem?
