The "Silly Season" in Britain begins on 1 August when everyone has disappeared to the south of Spain confined to their hotels with the worst newspapers available to read. The tabloid press then has free rein to uncover for our delectation copious amounts of trivia. Now the Russians must feel they have to face the … Continue reading Steven Seagal and the Silly Season in Russia

If we ever needed a reminder, we now have one. As Paul Kennedy emphasised in his best seller, Great Powers depend upon economic strength for their political influence. As the United States takes aim at China to force it to play fair in trade according to World Trade Organisation standards, it threatens massive tariffs of … Continue reading Russia and Friends: Targets for Sanctions

The list of items put out to the Western media about what was discussed at the summit between presidents Putin and Trump covered the usual issues: Syria, Iran, Israel, terrorism etc. These need discussing and the issue of Syria and the issue of Iran's presence certainly need settling. So a Putin-Trump summit for those purposes … Continue reading Sell Out Ukraine?

Finally, yesterday, 14 July at least one newspaper in Russia has reported on the indictment in Washington DC of 12 GRU (Russian military intelligence) officers for hacking into the computers of Hillary Clinton's campaign from March through to November 2016. Without going into too much detail, the liberal Novaya Gazeta gives this as background to … Continue reading Russian Intelligence and The Election

Presidents Trump and Putin meet on Monday 16 July in Finland. When leaders get together one on one, their advisers and the bureaucracy that answers to them become extremely nervous; tetchy, even. When the Americans and the Russians get together without the Europeans, then the anxiety levels rise even further. And President Trump uses anxiety … Continue reading The Trump-Putin Summit

The appearance of an amazing new supercomputer, Summit, put together at the National Research Laboratory in Oak Ridge by the US Department of Energy places the United States well ahead in a field where China has predominated since 2013. And it does far more than that. Interviewed today in Vzglyad' ru by Nikita Kovalenko, Russian academician … Continue reading The Gap in Super Computers

Relations between the triad dominating most of Syria - Russia, Turkey and Iran - are unstable and have become more so as ISIS succumbed to overwhelming odds against it. Having agreed on a Syrian ceasefire in Kazakhstan, now the cracks in the coalition are showing through. Last week the Russians asked that the Iranians withdraw … Continue reading Iran Alienates Russia