The SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, is exceedingly proud of its Soviet heritage. After all, the Soviet Union did not collapse because they were incompetent. It collapsed because the command economy quite simply could not keep pace with the market based economies of its enemies in NATO and its population did not believe in the … Continue reading Mr Philby

It has been known for some time that during the interregnum after Stalin’s death in 1953 the Russians conducted a field test of an atomic bomb, thereby subjecting soldiers to radiation in simulated battle conditions. Its purpose was the determine how soldiers would react psychologically. No interest at all was paid to the physiological damage … Continue reading Irradiated and For What?

The German press has recently been ridiculing the tit-for-tat exchanges between Moscow and Washington as trifling. Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova’s hysterical outbursts about the supposed outrage of American intrusions into the properties now deprived of diplomatic status - largely in San Francisco - have led to comparisons between her and the characters in Angry … Continue reading “Kids, let’s all get along with one another”

Today, 8 September, as the new Russian ambassador handed in his credentials to President Trump, a curious lull is apparent in the war of words between Washington and Moscow. In the United States less is heard about Syria than before. Here one tends to focus on Vladimir Putin’s policy of keeping President Assad in place … Continue reading “Cleaning Up” in Syria