Russia
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…
Insult Macron at your peril: we may need his electricity
‘The jury’s out’, was Liz Truss’s pert response to the question ‘Macron: friend or foe?’ at last week’s Norwich hustings.…
The humanity of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev, the final President of the Soviet Union who died last night, was remarkable both as an international politician…
Gorbachev was no saint. But he was a kind of hero
Mikhail Gorbachev is dead at the age of 91, and in a way I feel orphaned. I became fascinated by…
It’s time to kickstart North Sea oil
It is reported this morning that one of Liz Truss’s first acts as prime minister, assuming she wins the Conservative…
Ukraine stuns Russia with a counter-offensive in Kherson region
The southern city of Kherson, which fell to Russian forces in the first few days of the war, is one…
Why Crimea could be key to Ukraine winning the war
Over the six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the ambitions of President Zelensky and his compatriots have only grown. From…
Letters
Overhaul the GMC Sir: Max Pemberton’s cogent criticism of the GMC (‘Unfit for purpose’, 20 August). is one of the…
How high will energy prices go?
When dozens of energy companies started going bust in 2021, the government knew it had a crisis on its hands.…
Daria Dugina has become a martyr for Putin
There was something menacing yet vaguely absurd about the Tuesday memorial service held to commemorate the life and fascist times…
The stalemate in Ukraine won’t last forever
Addressing the vexed question of who is winning the war in Ukraine, six months on, is a task to challenge…
The strange morality of sponsoring weapons
Forget fund-raising concerts donating spare clothes and offering your spare room to a refugee family. There’s a better way of…
How Ukraine is sabotaging Russia’s army
Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) or possibly partisan fighters have conducted successfully attacks on three significant targets in occupied Crimea…
The realpolitik of Saudi oil profits and that infamous fist-bump
How outraged should we be that Saudi Aramco has reported a world-record quarterly profit of $48 billion, representing a giant…
Men under fire
On its posthumous publication in 1980, Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate was widely compared with War and Peace. For all…
There’s no such thing as an ‘ordinary Russian’
There was a whiteboard in the BBC Baghdad bureau for noting down phrases we hoped to ban from the airwaves.…
Putin’s grand illusions
Sanctions are working — whatever Russia says
More Russian escapism
Vladimir Sorokin, old enough to have been banned in the Soviet Union, flourished in the post-Gorbachev spring, and he fled…
Is war brewing between Serbia and Kosovo?
Serbia and Kosovo are close to conflict. Of all things, a dispute over car number plates is threatening the fragile…
Power struggles
During the eurozone crisis, southern European states had to go cap in hand to Germany to stave off national bankruptcy.…
