Russia, behind the headlines as well as in the shadows. This podcast is the audio counterpart to Mar
Can one draw meaningful parallels between the Soviets' 1979-88 war in Afghanistan, and the Krem
Is there a post-mutiny purge of the military going on? What can we learn from the apparent dismissal
There still seems no escaping the fallout from Prigozhin's mutiny, whether we're talking a
A shorter episode, because there is still so much about the causes, course and consequences of Prigo
Prigozhin's mutiny... or, 36 hours of what-the-hell? It's too close for a really judicious
After the usual quick run-through of war-related news, I consider the rise of mysticism and occultis
After the inevitable quick look at the Ukrainian counter-offensive (too little to say really about t
A spat between Wagner's Prigozhin and Chechnya's Kadyrov provides a good opportunity to lo
Bakhmut has (probably, kinda) fallen and Belgorod raided. The first is hardly a real defeat for Ukra
As a change from the usual, I look through the top six news items currently on the website of Rossii
It's an easy journalistic shorthand to hall Putin a new tsar (I've done it myself), but wh
News that gas corporation Gazprom appears to be sponsoring a mercenary unit in Ukraine prompts me to
Even loyalists seem in some cases to be taking a step back, not for a moment standing against the Kr
What can we learn from the massive trove of US secret documents recently and incautiously leaked? An
Something for everyone? What we may conclude from the murder of milblogger 'Vladlen Tatarsky&ap
Spinning off from a recent piece for the Spectator, I look at Dmitri Medvedev's decline and fal
Isn't it time to scrap the term 'oligarch'? In Russia - as perhaps, not in Ukraine -
Why did Budapest 2023 remind me of Moscow 2007? Are Hungary or China 'pro-Russia'? What ca
Putin has finally set a date for his annual address to the Federal Assembly, 21 February. He will li
The apparent hit on a Russian rightist, propagandist, and self-styled "swindler and mercenary&
