One of the crucial sources of tension and conflict in relations between the Soviet Union and Communist China was the issue of the unequal treaties concluded between the weakened Chinese empire of the 19th Century and the expanding empire that was tsarist Russia. As soon as the relationship completely broke down in the autumn of 1962, … Continue reading China Wants Sakhalin Back

President Trump of course had no alternative but to deny emphatically that C.I.A. agents had been arrested and detained in Iran. But the Iranian secret services have a high reputation and the Iranian news agency, FARS, not only lists the agents' recruiters and handlers, it also published colour photographs and, in some instances, of their … Continue reading Iran Rounds Up C.I.A. Agents

        Organised opposition against Vladimir Putin's régime grows slowly but steadily. What reaches the headlines is insignificant compared to what is actually going on throughout the country. Having heard a detailed description of the Fabian tactics pursued by Putin's young opponents, one comes away impressed and then cheated by the absence of … Continue reading Moscow Protests: 1373 Arrested

In the bad old days, Soviet "youth' (roughly anyone under 45) used to lament the fact that foreign travel was not possible. If anything it was the greatest complaint among the apolitical mass of the "middle class". But they did not think of going and not returning. Now, young people - more sensibly defined by … Continue reading Emigration Tempting Russian Youth

President Putin has always highlighted the United States as the major security threat to Russia. In turn the United States has invariably focused on Russia, the old enemy, as the main adversary; as though interfering in the domestic affairs of the other side was a novelty worthy of withering indignation. Somehow the obvious seems to … Continue reading China Also Threatens Russian Security

The poisonous fall-out from Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections of 2016 continues. It also underlines the fact that the United States no longer has a unitary foreign policy but several: that of the deep state, that of President Trump and that of the Congress. An innovation in the conduct of international relations that … Continue reading Yet Another American Attack to Cripple the Russian Economy

Yesterday's Nezavisimaya gazeta appeared with a piece on Syria's fuel crisis. Entitled "British Marines Have Left the Syrian Army Without Fuel", Vladimir Mukhin points out that the seizure at Gibraltar on 4 July of the Iranian supertanker Grace 1 carrying 2 million barrels of oil  by the British authorities was surreptitiously planned from London and Washington. … Continue reading The West Puts the Squeeze on Iran and Syria. Russia Wants Talks.

In the old days of the Soviet Union, the taxi driver was one of the few that could be counted on to say what he thought. It always seemed that foreign intelligence services would wisely employ them along with barmen and hairdressers as useful sources of information. Prostitutes have of course always been recruited.  It … Continue reading Russians Expect a War

It is a saw in international relations that states should not make threats against others that they are incapable of carrying out. If international credibility is a currency, then it is rapidly devalued by trying to fight above one's weight and gaining the reputation of being a blow hard, which the U.S. President's new National … Continue reading Russia and U.S. Threats to Iran

At a time when the Russian economy is heading for a severe recession, not least because of the heavy burden of NATO sanctions; after vast sums of money have been squandered on a failed foreign policy focused on prestige in Ukraine and Syria, with precious lives lost and ill-afforded outlays of military expenditure wasted; and … Continue reading The Russian Military Goes into the Movie Business