Holding court

A hundred years after the Russian revolution, Russia has a tsar and a court. Proximity to Putin is the key to wealth, office and survival. The outward signs of a court society have returned: double-headed eagles, the imperial coat of arms, the cult of Nicholas II (one of whose recently erected statues has ‘wept tears’), an increasingly wealthy and subservient Orthodox Church. In 2013, ‘to strengthen the historical continuity of the Russian armed forces’, the main honour guard regiment in Moscow was renamed Preobrazhensky, after the oldest regiment of the Imperial Guard, founded by Peter the Great in 1683.

A statue of St Vladimir, founder and Christianiser of the Russian state after 980, was recently unveiled outside the Kremlin by the new ‘Vladimir the Great’, President Putin. The fact that St Vladimir was Grand Prince of Kiev, in Ukraine, and never visited Moscow, makes the statue an even more telling symbol of Russian aspirations.

Philip Mansel and Ben Judah discuss the new courts:

On the other side of the Atlantic, another republic has voted for another form of court. The US has had political dynasties before —Adams, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush. Under President Trump, for the first time, a First Daughter has an office in the White House and is an official assistant to the President, a constant presence by his side. Her husband, Jared Kushner, is a senior adviser in the White House, with more influence in some areas of diplomacy than the State Department. As in many modern republics, including Syria, as well as in traditional court societies, personal relationships can trump written constitutions. That might also explain why Trump looked so at home in Saudi Arabia last week.

Ivanka’s brother Eric defends the power of families: ‘You trust the people you are closest to.