The Russians under President Putin certainly pursue ruthless and risky policies in an effort to re-establish the status of the Soviet Union lost under Mikhail Gorbachev. But, in the belief that one has to be thankful for small mercies, at least they are consistent. And that matters in international relations as it makes for predictability, … Continue reading US Policy Towards Germany Simply Does Not Add Up

A while ago, in order to deflect emergent opposition from threatening the central authorities by winning elections at the federal level, the government instead suggested that these aspirants start at the bottom and focus their attention on local matters and gain election to municipal bodies. But this was a transparent ruse. The opposition did not … Continue reading More Repression in Russia

The Russian Government is threatening to block all Twitter access to the entire country if it does not accept censorship. Twitter has been given one month to comply with the demand, which comes from Roskomnadzor. Роскомнадзор заблокирует "Твиттер" в РФ через месяц, если сервис не удалит запрещенную информацию Версия для печатиОбсудить на форуме 15:12 16.03.2021 Источник: Информационное агентство … Continue reading Twitter Faces Russian Censorship

In contrast to what Russian commentators imagine, the subject of Soviet spying to obtain the secrets of the atom bomb has never been ignored in the United States; nor, indeed, in Britain, where the role of Klaus Fuchs showed the intimate interconnexion between Soviet espionage cells on both sides of the Atlantic. After all, it … Continue reading Russia’s Atomic Espionage: A New Revelation

The sudden rise in world oil prices, due not to increased global demand but to the massive drop in global supply, comes as a windfall welcomed by Russia. Not only were the Americans finding it uneconomic to work their shale deposits at low oil prices and reduced demand, but now the Biden administration has sent … Continue reading Russia’s Sudden Oil Windfall

It is most unusual for a Chinese ambassador to write an official letter of complaint to a foreign newspaper. It seems particularly inept to do so on a subject that Beijing would rather see buried than highlighted: namely mass human rights violations. It would appear that the government in Beijing protested to the authorities in … Continue reading Russian Newspaper Receives Complaint from China

No one has actually said that an alliance between Moscow and Beijing is on the cards. The previous alliance forged in 1950 paved the way to the Korean War and effectively broke up in the autumn of 1962. It never worked well because the new Communist China rejected Soviet leadership. The Soviet Union was always … Continue reading China Rejects Russian Alliance

The United States Department of the Treasury today itemised those, other than the President himself, directly responsible for the maltreatment of Alexi Naval'ny, including the attempts to poison him, his sentencing and his detention in Russia today. They are banned from holding assets in the United States or doing business with any American citizens. The … Continue reading Who Plotted Naval’ny’s Removal?

The Biden administration has returned to the Obama administration's policy of appeasing Iran, allowing it time off to develop nuclear infrastructure provided it delays building the bomb. Peculiar reasoning, but then not unlike the US policy of printing endless amounts of paper debt in the hope that the long term never ends. The Kerry policy … Continue reading American Amateurism Has Consequences

World commodity prices have been rising at an alarming rate, which shows that all this money printing which has been going on for the past decade is fundamentally destabilising. It is finally having an impact, but not exactly the kind of impact the Central Banks wanted or anticipated. The Russian economy is not doing well, … Continue reading Nervous About Inflation? Moscow Annoyed at Bloomberg