Russia
Watching the next war
Nato’s beefed-up military exercises are impressive – and ominous
The real theatre of war
The history of ‘great events’, Voltaire wrote, is ‘hardly more than the history of crimes’. Physically, the war in Asia…
The hardest man of all
From the unpromising and desperately unforgiving background that forged his iron will and boundless ambition, Temujin (as Genghis Khan was…
Portrait of the week
Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in…
Calling all British tourists – Ukraine needs you!
Kiev ‘What the hell’s going to happen to your poor country?’ I ask the man in the flea market not…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…
Servants of the super-rich
There is a huge industry catering to London’s foreign plutocracy
The roots of the matter
British people buy £43 million worth of human hair a year. So who’s selling?
Stage fright
The smash hit Matilda, based on a Roald Dahl story, has spawned a copycat effort, The Twits. Charm, sweetness and…
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Switch over to the Greek debt drama: the final episode must be coming shortly
Bored with the election? Switch over to the Greek debt drama. In this week’s cliffhanger, silver-tongued finance minister Yanis Varoufakis…
Crossing cultures
For an Indian woman to make a dancework about La Bayadère is a promising prospect. This classical ballet of 1877…
James Bond
For fans of the franchise who remain unconvinced by Daniel Craig’s time on her majesty’s secret service, the stories leaking…
Exit, pursued by a bear
In the 1984 US presidential election, Ronald Reagan came up with an effective way of embarrassing his rival Walter Mondale…
The empire-builders
For Nato and the EU as much as for Putin, Ukraine is a question not of virtue but of power and land
Notes from a ceasefire
Ukraine’s war goes on – in some places now, and soon everywhere
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
