Some of you may have missed it, but at the summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on 14 October the get together did not go well. It is obvious they have no liking for the big chief from Moscow. Putin had a very uncomfortable public moment when he was openly castigated for his high-handed … Continue reading Ukraine in Central Asia: More War Threatened

Putin is apparently surprised at the international reaction to his bombing civilian targets in Ukraine. Nezavisimaya gazeta says: "If the bombing was not simply a reply to the explosion on the Kerch bridge, then the attempt to exert pressure on the West, showing that the Russian leader is prepared to go to the most extreme … Continue reading Turkey Attempts to Mediate

While the cat's away, the mice will play. Unnoticed by most of the rest of the world, one of the former Soviet republics, Kirgiziya, has fallen out with neighbouring Tadzhikistan in a border dispute where drones were used resulting in the deaths of a dozen or so and hundreds wounded. Worse than that. Because the … Continue reading Russia Faces Trouble Out East: in Central Asia

No one in Russia is allowed to say that the war against Ukraine (or even that it is a war) has failed because, unlike Putin's war against Chechnya, it was wrongly conceived in terms of strategy and completely mistaken in its core assumption about the people it was intended to conquer. So, as under Stalin, … Continue reading General Sergei Surovikin Takes Charge

Contrary to what I wrote a few minutes ago, it appears an oil tanker exploded crossing the bridge that links Crimea to the (real) Russian mainland. The containers of fuel on a train following along a parallel line then ignited. But the girders of the bridge appear untouched. The psychological impact appears to be out … Continue reading Putin Panic at Fire on Crimea Bridge

The hardline Vzglyad newspaper often has more interesting comments from readers than the articles it publishes. Today a piece appeared suggesting that in Russia's chain of allies there were "two weak links". The two are Iran and Serbia. A disgruntled reader promptly wrote in to say: "What allies? Where are those who think like us? … Continue reading Putin’s Lies Openly Challenged

When at the outset of this war retired Colonel General Ivashov declared that a failed strategy could not be rescued by any amount of tinkering in the field, the evidence that this was the case with the war against Ukraine had yet to emerge with as much force as it has in the past week. … Continue reading The “Special Operation” Unravels