Ussr
When Britannia ceased to rule the waves
The final volume of N.A.M. Rodger’s magisterial history documents the gradual decline of Britain’s naval power as the empire disintegrated
The Soviet spectre haunting Afghanistan
As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix…
Why the far-right flourishes in East Germany
A spectre is haunting Germany — the spectre of the AfD. Having come to prominence on a wave of anti-migrant…
A nuclear crisis is closer than you think
It has long been widely accepted as orthodoxy that the world was saved from nuclear war during the Cuban Missile…
Spare me the encomiums for John le Carré
In Absolute Friends, one of John le Carré’s lesser works, the central character explains his rebirth as a left-wing firebrand,…
Transnistria: a breakaway republic of a breakaway republic
Transnistria is not an area well-served by travel literature or, really, literature of any kind. The insubstantial-seeming post-Soviet sandwich-filling between…
The crash of the ruble — and what's next for Russia
Will Putin’s people still love him when the money dries up? He’s about to find out
It's not just Putin who misses the Soviet empire. President Bush did, too
In the latest – and best – of the books on the end of the USSR, Victor Sebestyen finds that the only good thing about the Soviet empire was the manner of its passing
No, Putin didn’t plot to invade Ukraine. But now he might have to
Further Russian military intervention would be a disaster. But Putin might have to do it anyway
Leave Ukraine to the Russians
‘You can’t always get what you want,’ chorused Mick Jagger, ‘but if you try some time/You just might find/You get…