Russia
Russia with love
They’re doing fantastic deals on five-star hotels in St Petersburg the weekend the Francis Bacon exhibition opens at the Hermitage.…
Putin’s grand strategy
The Russian President has been trying to draw a new Iron Curtain across Europe
Swan’s way
Ismene Brown unpicks the great enigma of ballet theatre
There will be blood
LBC likes to tell us it’s ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’, though in the case of weekday pre-lunch presenter James O’Brien you’ll…
Soviet smoke and mirrors
‘We all know there will be no real politics.’ A prominent Russian TV presenter is speaking off the record at…
Friend or foe?
One fine day in June 1896, a lone Russian nihilist visited Leo Tolstoy on his country estate. Come to hear…
Diary
Moscow Here we go again. The rouble slides, then tumbles, and slides again. For those of us who remember the…
Beckett plus Seinfeld — plus swearing
‘Fucking hell. You twat. Fuck off. Fuck. Fuck.’ These dispiriting words are the opening line of Tree, a newish play…
Back to the front
Germans are beginning to recognise that they will not always be able to stay out of military conflicts
Russia falling
Will Putin’s people still love him when the money dries up? He’s about to find out
Yesterday’s hero
The unforgettable moment a quarter of a century ago when the Berlin Wall came down was the most vivid drama…
Russian revelation
Anyone who thinks opera singers and orchestral players are overworked should spare a thought for the Mariinsky Opera on its…
Portrait of the week
Home The last British combat troops turned over Camp Bastion in Helmand to Afghan forces and withdrew from Afghanistan after…
Mis-en-Mars
You have to hand it to the Russians. They beat us into space, beat us to sexual equality, and a…
Surviving the Soviets
Ismene Brown talks to the Russian super-couple Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin about ballet, opera and the KGB
Bear market
The West will have to drop sanctions on Russia – or face another global economic crash
Letter from Donetsk
For what is technically peacetime, there’s a lot of shelling going on round here. Donetsk airport is still held by…
Europe vs liberty
Václav Klaus, the former Czech president, on David Cameron, the EU, Russia — and the end of free speech
Barometer
Not in their name The BBC decided to start calling the Islamic terror group Isis by the acronym IS instead.…
More war for oil
You can’t understand any of the world’s crises without understanding petropolitics
Gaudy notebook
As the BA flight from Warsaw landed at Heathrow, I felt a little tremor of anxiety, though it wasn’t anything…
High life
Can somebody tell me when America last got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places…
World disorder
The old cliché that ‘nothing happens in August’ has again been brutally disproved. From the centenary of the outbreak of…
My summer advice for graduate job-seekers: try the City last, and steer well clear of PR
August is the season for conversation about career choices. Every holiday party seems to include new graduates or next year’s…
Sanctions rarely work, but they might make oligarchs whisper in Putin’s ear
‘Sanctions,’ said Kofi Annan, ‘are a necessary middle ground between war and words.’ Neither the EU nor the US will…
