Vladimir Putin
Was the Kazakhstan uprising an attempted Jihadi takeover?
The Kazakh uprising is over. The stench of burnt-out vehicles and bombed out buildings in Kazakhstan’s most populous city and…
Glasnost merely confirmed Russia’s deep-seated suspicion of democracy
Thirty years ago the Soviet Union was guttering to its close. Those of us who were there remember the exhilarating…
Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine?
I can still hear the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Just a mile or so from us, thousands of Russian troops…
The mystery of Vladimir Putin’s mistresses
There’s an odd thing about 18-year old Luiza Rozova’s instagram feed. You can see photos of her breakfasts (sliced exotic…
Ella Pamfilova and the dismantling of Russia’s democracy
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is hardly known for its free and fair elections. But a purge of the field ahead of…
Why Joe Biden’s Russia-bashing is a tactical mistake
You might not think that Geoff Norcott, the self-proclaimed conservative comedian, has something to contribute to western relations with Russia,…
Inside a dictator's playground
Armed soldiers guard the barbed-wire compound. Helicopters buzz around the parameter, drifting above families on tandem bicycles. Groups of giggling…
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…
The Kremlin's plan to destabilise the West
On Sunday, Russia releasedits new National Security Strategy. In many ways, it picked up from where the 2015 version left…
Biden and Putin have left Britain out in the cold
It would probably be wrong to say that Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin got on like a house on fire.…
Why sanctions against Putin and his allies don’t work
Sanctions against Putin and his allies don’t work
Putin and Biden need one another
Does Joe Biden think that Putin is a killer? asked ABC host George Stephanopoulos. ‘Mmm-hmm, I do,’ answered the President.…
What does Belarus's opposition leader want?
There is an assumption that those fighting tyranny must instead want Western-style democracy, that the arc of history bends towards…
America's Russian sanctions are futile
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to approach Russia and its irascible President Vladimir Putin with a new…
Everyone suddenly believes Vladimir Putin
For four years, Vladimir Putin’s meddling in Our Democracy™ has been the all-consuming political obsession of the entire Washington/New York…
The power of disinformation is that it’s so readily believed
On 27 November 1960 African and Indian diplomats visiting the UN in New York opened their mail to find a…
The war for your mind
The romantic plans of a Kazakh bodybuilder named Yuri Tolochko have become one more casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. He…
Trump’s autocratic antics risk becoming the new normal
It is easy to forget the abnormality of Donald Trump’s presence in the White House. Before his election it would…
Putin plans to make the West destroy itself
There’s only one person who’ll be genuinely pleased with the UK Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia report, finally revealed on…
Dear dictators: don’t lecture the US on how to treat its people
If you’ve been watching the news, you would think the United States is a third world nation on the verge…
Crude tactics: Russia and Saudi Arabia are at war over oil prices
It all started at what everyone thought would be a routine meeting between Opec and non-Opec nations in Vienna. There…
The hunt is on for Putin’s successor
Putin does like to spring a surprise. The first hour or so of his state of the nation address yesterday…
Robert Mueller pursued every avenue to dispel the collusion myth
If the report released Thursday proved anything, it was that Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors had an extremely…
Does Putin intend to go to war with Ukraine?
On Europe’s eastern borderlands, trouble is brewing. Two headstrong leaders — Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko —…
To avoid knowing the distasteful origin of ‘scumbag’, look away now
President Vladimir Putin of Russia remarked of Sergei Skripal, whom his agents tried to kill, ‘He’s simply a scumbag.’ Scumbag…
