Vladimir Putin
How Russia wins
It is still too early to predict the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Russia has certainly solidified its position…
Does Putin have blood cancer?
Suddenly, we are all diagnosticians. Clips of a puffy Putin slurring his words, his hands twitching or clutching a table…
The real reason for Putin’s intelligence shake-up
It has been reported this week that Vladimir Putin is shifting responsibility for covert operations in Ukraine to a different…
Putin’s cult of war
This idolisation of the Soviet military is Russia’s modern tragedy. Not least because it is crucial to Putin’s way of…
Read: Vladimir Putin's victory day speech in full
The following is The Spectator’s translation of Putin’s speech for victory day 2022. Most respected citizens of Russia, dear veterans,…
Is Putin in pain?
Is Vladimir Putin in pain? Until now, there has been plenty of chatter about the wellbeing of his minister of…
The age-old story of strongmen
The only good news, after the massacres in Ukraine, is that so many ugly behemoth super-yachts have been seized and…
The view from Ukraine: world war three has already started
I saw the first Russian bombs land from my balcony in Chernivtsi. They hit a military depot 50 miles away…
Viktor Orbán is no friend of the West
Viktor Orbán‘s victory speech in Budapest on Sunday night took a curious turn. Speaking after a fourth landslide win, he…
The rouble's astonishing recovery
The tank columns are stalled; one or two towns captured from the Ukrainians have been retaken. Russia’s war effort has…
Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine, liberalism and identity politics
This week, Sam Leith spoke to Francis Fukuyama – the author of ‘The End of History and the Last Man’ and…
Putin and the Muslim world
Several thousand Muslim Chechen fighters are reportedly massing on the edge of Kiev. Syrian volunteers, filmed this week holding assault…
What happens if Russia defaults?
Well down the list of things to worry about as the ghastly Ukrainian tragedy unfolds is the high probability that the…
The joy of wigs
I thought, or anyway hoped, that once I’d finished the chemotherapy I would spring back to vitality. Seven weeks on…
Don't make war in Ukraine about Putin’s mental health
There was a time when supposedly serious commentators on world affairs used to at least feign historical knowledge. They might…
What's behind Russia's new Z symbol?
National symbols are usually proudly emblazoned for all to see. That’s the point of them. One, though, seems rather to have…
Putin is bored
At the beginning of this year, Vladimir Putin was sitting comfortably in the Kremlin: his legacy so far a steady…
Russia’s war on Ukraine: the lessons so far
The sheer complexity – and horror – of Russia’s war on Ukraine makes it difficult to distil the essential points. To take…
How close is Russia to collapse?
Russia is now as closed off to the world as the Soviet Union was before Mikhail Gorbachev made his first tentative steps…
Do Russians support Putin’s war?
Everyone is calling the conflict in Ukraine Putin’s war and insisting that it has nothing to do with the Russians…
The downfall of Russia’s oligarchs
The normal justification for sanctioning oligarchs is that doing so will cost them money, causing them to put pressure on…
No-fly zones won’t work, but what about aid to Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin’s forces are encircling the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, and a 40 mile-long convoy of Russian armoured vehicles…
'Staying Switzerland' on Ukraine is impossible
The striking thing about the financial sanctions on Russia is not their severity, but just how many countries are joining…
Viktor Orbán has played a perfect game with Putin
On 3 April Hungarians will have their ninth set of free parliamentary elections since the collapse of the communist dictatorship…
Now Lebedev turns on Putin
Looks like this war isn’t going terribly well for Vladimir Putin. The Russian dictator now finds himself something of an international pariah, with…
