Russia
For Putin, the World Cup is not about football but global respect
Authoritarian regimes love grand international sporting events. There’s something about the mass regimentation, the set-piece spectacle, the old-fashioned idea of…
The time is right for an Erté revival – a new hero for our gender-anxious times
Erté was destined for the imperial navy. Failing that, the army. His father and uncle had been navy men. There…
Faulty connection
There’s no doubting her passion for the programme of which she is now chief of staff. Talking to Roger Bolton…
High life
When the Germans smuggled arguably the world’s most evil man into Russia 100 years ago, they did not imagine the…
Trump’s eastern front
Kiev There is no lavatory paper to be found in government buildings in Kiev. Plan ahead, locals advise, if you…
Yes sir, we can boogie
It’s dance — but not as you know it. A giddy mass of flying limbs, sashaying hips and pouty faces.…
Moscow rules
Moscow To the Union Jack pub on Potapovsky Lane for a US election night party. The jolly Muscovite Trump supporters…
Nothing quite adds up
Whimsy, satire and deadpan humour: welcome to the world of Andrey Kurkov. If you know Kurkov’s work, The Bickford Fuse…
The power of song
You might not think that the Eurovision Song Contest (screened live from Stockholm tonight) could have any connection with how…
Literary lap dance
Great excitement for play-goers as a rare version of a theological masterpiece arrives in the West End. Doctor Faustus stars…
Old masters
The Fitzwilliam Museum is marking its bicentenary with an exhibition that takes its title from Agatha Christie: Death on the…
St Petersburg
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
High life
On 17 November 1813, Marshal Ney, the bravest of the brave, had been the last to march out of Smolensk…
Original sin
The Royal Opera has bitten the bullet so far as Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov goes, and opted to stage the original…
Kit-car Chekhov
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 getting middle-aged
There are things that happen when you grow older — bad things, harbingers of death and decay. Past the age of…
Putin’s great game
In Syria, the Russian leader is on the verge of his biggest – and riskiest – coup yet
Turkey can’t cope. Can we?
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
A separation of powers
In 2014, Beijing and Moscow signed a US$400 billion deal to deliver Russian gas to Chinese consumers. Construction of the…
Double trouble
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…
Coming up for air
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…
Military action against Isis needs a coherent strategy. . . . here it is
Military action against Isis needs a coherent strategy, says a former senior commander in the British army
