The analogy misleader
You don’t have to watch US cable news for very long before somebody asks about history and Trump. Can you find a comparison? A precedent? Or is Donald Trump so … Continue reading
Post-Soviet Eurovision and the singer in the wheelchair
Held in Kiev in May, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is an international incident waiting to happen. From selecting the Russian and Ukrainian entrants to calibrating the crowd’s response to … Continue reading
The Panama Papers: Soviet history lessons?
Are you any the wiser, or did you know it already? The massive leak of documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals — pause — that David Cameron inherited … Continue reading
Blair and Putin go to the pub, secure world peace
‘We have a joke in Russia — that when Russian men get together at work they talk about ladies,’ said Vladimir Putin after a session in the pub with Tony Blair … Continue reading
Vladimir Putin meets Neville Chamberlain?
For some people, Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler are never far away. ‘We run the risk of repeating the mistakes made in Munich in 1938,’ David Cameron apparently said (of Ukraine) … Continue reading
Victory Day: tanks on Red Square, Putin in Crimea
May 9, 2014: Victory Day, the annual celebration of the triumph against Nazi Germany. Powerful army formations and weapons of mass destruction parade across Red Square. President Putin receives the … Continue reading
A Europe whole and free? Russia, the West and Ukraine
Click here for my article on the Ukraine crisis in the Yorkshire Post. The article seeks to explain the crisis as the result of Russian opportunism and provocation, Ukrainian politics, and … Continue reading
The Jews of Ukraine and the Soviet past
When Jews came out of the synagogue in Donetsk a few days ago, they were met by men in black masks distributing leaflets. The terrifying message was simple: register with … Continue reading
Ukraine and Russia: sibling nations in the life of Nikita Khrushchev
Ukraine and Russia are ‘kin’, according to Andrew Wilson, a leading specialist from University College London, writing in 2005: they are ‘sibling nations rather than two parts of the same … Continue reading
