On Sunday Emomali Rahmon won the presidential elections in Tadzhikistan with the kind of high numbers that only a de facto dictatorship can achieve. It might therefore be assumed that his main protector, President Putin, will ensure that Tadzhikistan remains securely within the Russian security orbit. Certainly if the Russians are to replace the Americans … Continue reading Tadzhikistan: East or West?

Politicians in today's democracies are incessantly under pressure from an ignorant, irresponsibly egocentric and moralistic media to strike colourful, melodramatic poses on issues of foreign policy. The problem comes when the journalists, with the attention span of a five year old, have disappeared down to the pub, drowning the business of the day in drink, … Continue reading Germany Flip Flops on Russia Yet Again

Whenever Afghanistan rears its head, I think of how the Sherlock Holmes' stories began, with poor young Dr Watson shot up fighting and then racked by disease on one of Britain's futile campaigns across the north-west frontier of India, where my grandfather once worked as deputy superintendent of telegraphs in Karachi, servicing the communications links … Continue reading Russia’s Afghan Optimism