The German Chancellor's ability to survive awkward political challenges has once again been severely tested and once more appears confirmed. Angela Merkel is reported in Vzglyad ru as having craftily evaded the pressure to cancel the Nordstream 2 pipeline by handing over the thorny issue to the EU as a whole, framed in terms of … Continue reading Merkel Saves the Russian Gas Pipeline

It was always to be expected that once they realised that the Americans under President Trump's leadership were serious about pulling out of Afghanistan - in the teeth of vocal Pentagon opposition - the Russians would be forced back in to take some responsibility for events. And, since the appointment of a new and dynamic … Continue reading Russia’s New Forward Policy in Afghanistan

      After opposition leader Naval'ny was taken seriously ill in Russia and the Russian doctors declared that he just had a problem with blood pressure, world opinion ensured that he got out and to the safety of Berlin where German military toxicologists discovered that he had been poisoned with a toxin from the … Continue reading Naval’ny Poisoned With Novichok

     The latest appalling news from Russia is the poisoning of the leader of the opposition, Aleksandr Naval'ny, by the administration of a deadly toxin to his tea at an airport. See Novaya gazeta's interview with his doctor, who said Naval'ny should of course be evacuated out of the country. The days of Stalin … Continue reading Naval’ny, Opposition Leader Poisoned

Having all but given up on Germany, the Trump administration has turned to Poland as its main anchor in continental Europe. And the United States is not the only European state in NATO that has doubts about Germany. The German government's insistence on plunging ahead with complete dependence upon Russia for natural gas, via Nordstream II, … Continue reading The US-Polish Axis: Against Russia or Germany?

The head of the SVR - Russia's main secret intelligence service - Sergei Naryshkin, a former classmate of the president, always says that Western partners should look to "the facts" in their rewriting of history. Nikolai Dolgopolov, himself formerly in operations and now a popular historian of the service, asked Naryshkin whether he had documents that … Continue reading Russian Intelligence to Release More Data

Yesterday in response to accusations from both the NSA and the FBI about a program called Drovorub (woodchopper),  Komsomol'skaya pravda denied flatly that Russia in the form of the military intelligence directorate is in anyway responsible for yet more hacking in the USA. 13 августа 2020 16:13 Неизвестная шпионская программа Drovorub наделала много шума в … Continue reading More Cyberwarfare from Russia

Yesterday the Defence Minister flew into Komsomolsk on the Amur in Siberia to save the Russian aircraft industry, which only managed to sustain itself in the 1990s with the aid of Chinese and Indian contracts for aircraft. On this occasion Shoigu was able to offer credits of 280 million roubles for future aircraft production, both … Continue reading Saving the Russian Aircraft Industry

The hardline Vzglyad ru has a headline for today (Russian time) which reads: "Biden has chosen the next president of America." It points out that half the time Democrat candidate Joe Biden has no idea where he is or what he has to say, so it is logical to suggest that if he wins the … Continue reading Biden and Russia

Today Izvestiya publicised the view of an American academic who believes that Biden will win the US presidential election. The article was reiterated in Nezavisimaya gazeta. This would seem to belie the notion recently spread in the United States that the Russians were hoping President Trump would win a second term. The article fails to … Continue reading Russian Official Newspaper Pro-Biden