Russia

How Ukrainians are making the lives of even anti-Putin Russian artists impossible

3 June 2023 9:00 am

Zoe Strimpel talks to the anti-Putin Russian artists who have been cancelled since the invasion of Ukraine

Lithuania’s PM: ‘If Russia is not defeated it will come for somebody else’

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Lithuania’s Prime Minister on what a Ukrainian victory would look like

Portrait of the week

13 May 2023 9:00 am

Why the economic war against Russia has failed

13 May 2023 9:00 am

There was much mirth in the West this week when Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade through Red Square included just…

Letter from Ukraine

13 May 2023 9:00 am

Should Ukrainians stop speaking Russian?

16 April 2023 5:00 pm

A young woman called Lyudmila walks into a cafe in Odessa, the southern Ukrainian city. Her phone is switched on…

Can we brainwash our enemies?

6 April 2023 4:49 am

Disinformation is on the rise, and Britain’s spies are on the back foot. Our intelligence leaders warn about election meddling,…

China is playing the long game over peace in Ukraine

20 February 2023 5:00 pm

At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi announced that his country was currently in…

Why Putin needs Prigozhin

24 January 2023 6:30 pm

It’s been a tense couple of weeks for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the businessman and founder the of Wagner Group of mercenaries.…

Ukraine needs more than tanks

16 January 2023 12:57 am

What weapons will Ukraine get next? It’s a crucial question that matters perhaps more than anything else for understanding how…

Why Putin won’t take Hitler’s way out

15 January 2023 9:30 pm

The last time Europe fought a major war, there was no shortage of planning. We knew what peace meant. Winston…

How many Russians have fled?

7 November 2022 4:44 am

Ever since the war in Ukraine started there have been reports about Russians emigrating, either fleeing conscription or simply dismayed…

A Soviet version of Martin Parr: Adam Curtis’s Russia 1985-1999 –TraumaZone reviewed

29 October 2022 9:00 am

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone – even the title makes you want to scream – is Adam Curtis’s Metal Machine Music: the…

Portrait of the week: Sunak in No. 10, pasta gets pricier and Russia hits Ukraine’s energy grid

29 October 2022 9:00 am

Home Rishi Sunak, aged 42, became Prime Minister. At the weekend Boris Johnson had flown back from a holiday in…

Is Putin preparing a nuclear strike?

26 October 2022 1:49 am

Russia is peddling implausible tales of Ukrainian ‘dirty bombs’. Kyiv and the West are embarked on a campaign to counter…

What does Russia really want?

22 October 2022 7:00 pm

The question of ‘why’ Russia invaded Ukraine has been forgotten amid war’s fog. Greed and malice partially explains it. History, geopolitics…

The US knows the main threat is China

22 October 2022 4:00 pm

China’s President Xi Jinping opened the CCP’s 20th party congress by doubling down on four key issues: no let up…

Portrait of the week: Truss says sorry, Hunt reverses mini-Budget and Kanye West buys Parler

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Home Liz Truss said in a BBC interview as Prime Minister that she wanted to ‘say sorry for the mistakes…

Tsar Vladimir brings in martial law

20 October 2022 3:10 am

Martial law can arrive with a bang: tanks on the streets, Swan Lake on the TV. It can also creep…

A house-price crash won’t be the only effect of the Kwarteng calamity

15 October 2022 9:00 am

Where next for house prices? Clearly, they’re going down as mortgage rates go up – and my forecast in May…

How should the West respond to Putin’s threats?

8 October 2022 9:00 am

How should the West respond to Putin’s threats?

The deathly malaise that’s crippling Russia

8 October 2022 9:00 am

Now is a difficult time to empathise with Russians – which is why we need Maxim Osipov. We need him…

What Elon Musk doesn't get about peace

8 October 2022 2:58 am

The power one person can hold should never be underestimated. They can take people’s lives, as Vladimir Putin does, or…

Putin at 70: How The Spectator has covered his life

7 October 2022 8:00 pm

Vladimir Putin turns 70 today. Since he became Prime Minister of Russia in 1999, some of The Spectator’s greatest contributors…

Why did North Korea fire a missile over Japan?

5 October 2022 1:09 am

It was a new dawn, a new day, and a new North Korean missile test. The land of the morning…