Russia
Is Putin preparing a nuclear strike?
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?
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
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
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
Martial law can arrive with a bang: tanks on the streets, Swan Lake on the TV. It can also creep…
A house-price crash will be just one effect of the Kwarteng calamity
Where next for house prices? Clearly, they’re going down as mortgage rates go up – and my forecast in May…
Nuclear options
How should the West respond to Putin’s threats?
A deadly vacuum
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
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
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?
It was a new dawn, a new day, and a new North Korean missile test. The land of the morning…
Does Ukrainian exist?
After six months of war in Ukraine, most observers agree that the roots of Russian aggression lie in the country’s…
Diary
Moscow A week of somewhat mixed messages from the Kremlin. One day Vladimir Putin opened Europe’s largest Ferris wheel…
Will Nato accept Ukraine?
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky made an offer to Vladimir Putin. Ukraine would drop its ambition to…
Europe’s descent into deindustrialisation
The rapid economic collapse that Britain is facing is simply an accelerated version of what the whole of Europe is…
Did Russia sabotage its own pipelines?
It almost seems worthy of the opening scene in a Bond film. Vital Russian gas pipelines running beneath the Baltic Sea close…
Life among the Russian refuseniks
Yerevan, Armenia It was getting dark outside Yerevan Airport when I arrived, but there were still a dozen flights from Russia…
The ultimate gamble
This is an important and topical book. Mary Sarotte traces the difficult course of Russia’s relations with Europe and the…
The bonus cap was boneheaded but is this the moment to scrap it?
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng – keen to sharpen the City’s competitive edge, we’re told – wants to remove the legislative cap,…
What’s behind Putin’s no-show?
Has Vladimir Putin carried out a cynical stunt, or ducked out of a seismic decision? That’s the debate among Kremlinologists…
More mad than Vlad
Putin’s most dangerous opposition comes from Russia’s ultra-nationalists
On the front lines of Europe’s newest war
Sotk, Armenia A group of Armenian soldiers stand guard on the road towards the village. ‘It’s not safe to go…
I’ve become a war addict
It is an almost unquestioned orthodoxy that war is hell, and that every needless death in a needless war diminishes…
Portrait of the week
Home Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister, said in a speech outside 10 Downing Street: ‘Boris Johnson delivered Brexit, the…
Why the Baltics fear Russia
In the historic heart of Riga, Latvia’s lively capital, there is a building that reveals why the Baltic States remain…
