I thought I had seen some bizarre press coverage in my time but this really takes the biscuit. Maria Berk (can that name be real?) writes an entire article devoted to A.O.C., as she is known, the young socialist congresswomen who is supposed to have studied international relations with economics at Boston University but has … Continue reading Russians Bat for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez

The hardliners in Russia are beginning to celebrate their good luck. US Secretary of State Pompeo appears to some to have launched a Cold War against China. The newspaper Vzglyad.ru has a headline declaring "Russia Has Lost its Status as the Main Enemy of the USA." And specialists on defence matters have warned the Americans … Continue reading USA and Russia: The Best of Enemies?

Whereas for Russia Syria is not even what they call "the near abroad" - the former republics of the USSR which constitute a potential defence cordon around the homeland - for Israel Syria is and always was a threatening neighbour. Thus, as they say, when push comes to shove, the Israelis will always go further … Continue reading Israel and Russia: A Delicate Balance

It is without doubt true and easily demonstrated that the Russian security organs have meddled in Britain in a manner unimaginable during the Cold War. The murder of Litvinenko and the attempt on the life of Skripal' - see previous blog entries - are all one needs to confirm that fact. But now there is … Continue reading Russian Subversion and Great Britain

When Vladimir Putin first took power at the end of the 1990s and consolidated it in the new century, one crucial weapon that lay to hand was the brazen way in which oligarchs swepped up the shareholdings distributed to factory workers in return for chicken feed and then, not without the threat of violence and … Continue reading Russians Protest Injustice, Not Poverty

Vladimir Putin and his entourage are fiercely engaged in a once and for all attempt to monopolise effective political power and propaganda in Russia into the indefinite future; something that only Stalin succeeded in doing, spilling rivers of blood to achieve and sustain it. As in contemporary Africa, Putin is also aiming at life long … Continue reading Russia: Mass Unrest in Khabarovsk

Repression of journalists in Moscow for daring to cover foreign and defence policy in depth with some objectivity gives one the top end of a process that has been burgeoning under President Putin for some considerable time. In the provinces out of sight of foreign eyes the repression is equally apparent in the punishment meted … Continue reading Toe the Putin Line or Else!

It is unusual to see such accurate and objective reporting of the American scene. But Zvezda television, a Deep State channel that covers war, the history of war and secret intelligence as much as current affairs, with fast shooting journalists who often talk across one another, gave excellent coverage of recent riots in the United … Continue reading Russian Coverage of American Anarchy

               On 7 July a bland statement was issued by Russian counter-intelligence, the FSB, to the effect that counsellor to the general director of the state enterprise "Roskosmos", Ivan Ivanovich Safronov, had been arrested under article 275 for passing on state secrets to "one of the secret services of … Continue reading Russia Represses Journalists

In Shakespeare, Macbeth murdered the old king, Duncan, in order to obtain absolute power. But then he found that what he believed he had obtained was slipping away from him: "to have but not to hold", in the bard's immortal words. Instead of solving the problem, Macbeth found that he had just changed the nature … Continue reading Putin Wins: A Pyrrhic Victory?