Russia

Cindy Yu

Why Beijing is wary of a Russo-North Korean alliance

56 min listen

There have been reports that some 11,000 North Korean troops are present in Russia and preparing to take part in the Russian invasion. While not acknowledged by either country, if true, this would mark a historic milestone: the first East Asian state to send troops to Europe since the Mongol Empire.  And yet, both countries’ most powerful neighbour and ally – China – has remained suspiciously quiet about this new development. Beijing’s silence may well express a deep distrust and unease that actually characterises China’s relationship with its so-called allies. To get into the recent developments and what we can learn from the history of the relationship between these three countries, the

What does Trump’s win mean for America’s allies – and its enemies?

When Donald Trump won his first-ever election in 2016, the world woke up the next morning in a collective state of shock and disbelief. Washington’s allies in Europe were caught completely unprepared; all of a sudden, they had to contend with a leader who relished needling them for all kinds of sins, real and perceived. America’s allies like Japan and South Korea, whose defence policies depend almost entirely on a stable alliance with the United States, were now forced to deal with a man who threatened to use those alliances as leverage to extract greater defence spending in Tokyo and Seoul. Latin America didn’t know what to believe, and frankly

Svitlana Morenets

Ukrainians brace for Trump’s return

‘Donald Trump is like the light at the end of the tunnel’, an American told me last night at the only Washington DC bar throwing a pro-Trump election party. For many Ukrainians, though, he’s more like the end itself. Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir Putin. He said ‘Ukraine no longer exists’ and that ‘even the worst deal [with Russia] would be better than what is now’. Ukrainians got the hint and hoped for a Kamala Harris’s victory. But Americans have chosen, and now Kyiv will bend over backwards, trying to convince its biggest military backer not to abandon Ukraine.  Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir

Lisa Haseldine

Why is Putin not congratulating Donald Trump?

It’s long been assumed that Donald Trump is Russian president Vladimir Putin’s preferred opposite number in Washington. So it might come as a surprise to learn that the discussion in the Kremlin this morning has been whether or not Putin should congratulate the new president-elect on his victory at all. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters he had no idea whether the president planned to send his regards to Trump. Whether or not he did, Peskov said, would have little difference: ‘It is practically impossible to make things worse; relations are historically at their lowest point.’ America, he reminded the press pack, was still an ‘unfriendly country that is

Donald Trump’s win marks the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war

Donald Trump’s election victory heralds the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war – and is likely to leave Vladimir Putin in control of most, if not all, of the territory he has seized in nearly three years of bloody conflict. To many Ukrainians, such an outcome will be a betrayal of their struggle, a stab in the back by the West that will sow decades of anger and resentment. To others, though, a swift end to the conflict before more land is lost and tens of thousands more young Ukrainians die represents the best hope of actually salvaging a decent future for their country before their infrastructure, economy,

Meet the western conservatives moving to Russia

Tofurious Maximus Crane was sitting in a barber’s chair in Moscow when he received the greatest news of his life. It was 19 August, the day Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing foreigners to immigrate to Russia. Now, the 46-year-old native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, could finally achieve his life’s dream of remaining in Russia for ever. ‘For me, the decree is the best thing that ever happened in my life besides, you know, family and children,’ says Crane, a charismatic bear of an American who sports a long Old Testament beard and perfectly coiffed hipster hair. ‘I got the notification about the decree, and I jumped up out of

Russia is creeping towards stagflation

The Central Bank of Russia raised its benchmark rate to a twenty-year high of 21 per cent on Friday – and has indicated that it could go even higher. Even Vladimir Putin, a notorious serial boaster, won’t be caught bragging about this tell-tale sign of a not-so-healthy economy. The writing is on the wall: Russia is getting closer to stagflation – a no-growth, high-inflation economy.  An interest rate this high is unprecedented. In February 2003, still fresh in his job, Putin launched reforms to kick-start the Russian economy after the 1998 financial meltdown; the central bank brought its refinancing rate to 20 per cent and has kept it below that level ever

Mark Galeotti

Can Russia really ban smoking?

The UK isn’t the only place which has been toying with the idea of introducing a ‘generational’ tobacco ban. Rishi Sunak’s bill that would ban sales to anyone born after 1 January 2009 was taken over by Labour following the election, but now it is Russia that is debating a similar measure. The Ministry of Health is reportedly close to proposing a ban on the sale of tobacco and other nicotine-containing products to everyone born after 31 December 2009. A draft bill has already been circulated and has been adopted by the New People party, one of the government’s tame pseudo-opposition factions, although it has not yet been reviewed by

Svitlana Morenets

Is North Korea joining the war in Ukraine?

In Russia’s far east, North Korean soldiers are reportedly being trained to fight in the war against Ukraine. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, has said that more than 10,000 North Korean troops will not only assist and train Russian forces, but also fight alongside them – starting next month. At least 2,600 of these troops could be deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, to free up Russian soldiers to join Vladimir Putin’s offensive in the Donbas. Zelensky said this means North Korea has ‘effectively joined’ the war South Korea’s spy agency reports that North Korea is sending 12,000 men from four brigades, including elite special forces, to join the war in

Mark Galeotti

The Novichok inquiry raises some big questions for MI5

The inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess as an innocent victim of the attempt to murder Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal in 2018 has begun, a mere six years after the event. The question is, what can it tell us that we don’t already know? Britain’s love affair with lengthy, expensive and tardy inquiries continues with, in this case, a brief to ‘ascertain… who the deceased was; how; when and where she came by her death’, to identify ‘where responsibility for the death lies’ and to ‘make such recommendations as may seem appropriate’. On one level, all the inquiry can offer is a snapshot of what happened in what seems

Mark Galeotti

Why MI5 is so worried about Russia’s GRU

Ken McCallum, head of the Security Service (MI5), has warned of the serious threat to Britain posed by the Russian and Iranian intelligence agencies. McCallum said in a speech yesterday that the Russian GRU was on a mission to generate ‘sustained mayhem on British and European streets’, deploying ‘arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness’. That the GRU is being highlighted demonstrates both how the threat to the UK is evolving, but also the changes underway in Russia’s intelligence agencies. Officially, since 2010 the GRU has been known as the ‘GU’, but everyone from Putin down still uses the old name. The GU, or Main Directorate of

Lisa Haseldine

Without Navalny, Russia’s opposition is tearing itself apart

Since the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony in February, Russia’s opposition movement has found itself in disarray. Instead of Navalny’s death uniting those exiled Kremlin critics campaigning for a democratic future for Russia, the past eight months have seen the opposition movement fracture into bickering factions, unable to collaborate on anything much at all. Now, that fighting has broken out into the open – and risks putting the cause of a future democratic Russia in jeopardy. Last week, Latvia’s anti-corruption bureau announced they had begun an investigation into allegations made by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) that Latvian law enforcement officers had had a hand in organising a

Mark Galeotti

Vladimir Putin’s 72nd may have been his unhappiest birthday yet

Happy birthday, Mr President? With Vladimir Putin turning 72 on Monday, this has become an opportunity for the Kremlin’s spin doctors to present their ideal notion of the septuagenarian sovereign. Ambitious courtiers have been competitively performing their sycophancy, as if in an over-the-top production of King Lear. Posters were anonymously pasted up in Kyiv, vowing that ‘Putin will come and restore order’ The ponderous official paper of record, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, offered up a portrait of the diligent chief executive: ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin will celebrate his birthday in a working environment. On October 7, the head of state will meet with CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States‘) leaders who will arrive

Putin’s cannon fodder: an anthem for Russia’s doomed youth

Many were killed. Others hid in the fields, forests and basements, sometimes for days, before surrendering to the Ukrainian forces. Frightened, ill-equipped and with very little – if any – training, hundreds of Russian conscripts (prizyvniki) have been captured in the two months since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region began. Yet another of the innumerable tragedies of Putin’s criminal war, the plight of conscripts is a window into Russia’s ability to conduct a ‘long war’. When neither the army’s relentless press-ganging nor its exorbitant sign-up bonuses and soldiers’ salaries appear to attract enough men to make up for the staggering casualties on the front, it is these boys who

The secret behind Putin’s booming war economy

Russia’s spending on its war in Ukraine continues to grow. Somehow, despite tightening sanctions and increased global isolation, two-and-a-half-years in to the conflict, it appears Moscow can continue to splash the cash on its army – for now. Spending on president Vladimir Putin’s military is set to increase by more than a quarter to 13.3 trillion roubles (£107 billion) next year, according to a draft of the Russian state budget for 2025 revealed this week. This colossal sum – which is nearly double the 6.4 trillion roubles (£52 billion) spent last year – is roughly twice the size of the amount spent by Britain on its own defence. Russia’s government

Is a Russian threat floating off the English coast?

It is a little unsettling that the merchant ship MV Ruby is anchored off Margate, carrying 20,000 tonnes of Russian ammonium nitrate. This is seven times the amount of ammonium nitrate that caused the Beirut explosion in 2020, which killed 218 people and injured 6,000. While ammonium nitrate is usually sold as plant fertiliser, it can also be used in explosives. Some worry that there is a bomb a third of the size of the one detonated over Hiroshima within striking distance of London. Since leaving the White Sea port of Kandalaksha in July, the 23,760-tonne MV Ruby has exhibited unusual behaviour. Sailing under a Maltese flag, she was grounded during a storm, damaging

Putin’s frightening fascination with the occult

Wearing a long white scarf, military khaki pants and holding a drum and stick, Vladimir Putin smiles as he watches a shaman – a combination of a psychic and spiritual healer – play an acoustic guitar for a traditional ritual. It is 2007 and the Russian president, his close friend Sergei Shoigu, now head of Russia’s national security council, and the shaman are sitting by a fire in Tuva, a remote area of Siberia on the border with Mongolia. Known as ‘a place of power’ where shamanic traditions are strong, this region is home to Shoigu, a native Siberian Asiatic, who in his former role as defence minister played a

How Wagner mercenaries abused HSBC and JP Morgan

Whatever happened to the Wagner Group, Evgeny Prigozhin’s shadowy army of prisoners and mercenaries? In the wake of Wagner’s abortive mutiny in June 2023 – and of Prigozhin’s own not-so-mysterious death two months later in a plane crash near Moscow – most of the Russia-based units of the group were rolled into the Kremlin’s official armed forces. In Africa, however, where Wagner built an empire not only of guns-for-hire but also of murky mining and oil concessions, Prigozhin’s former henchmen continue their bloody and lucrative business. And according to a new report by the US-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) part of that business relied on the unwitting assistance of international banks

Lisa Haseldine

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Putin must not be allowed to win in Ukraine

‘Whatever happens, Vladimir Putin must not be allowed to win the war in Ukraine’. For the first time since being released from a Russian prison in August, the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza arrived in London this week for a series of high-profile meetings to discuss Russia’s future.  Kara-Murza, who holds both Russian and British citizenship, was sentenced for 25 years in Russia’s penal system last year for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. He was set free alongside the journalist Evan Gershkovich and US marine Paul Whelan last month in the largest prisoner swap held between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. ‘We have no

Britain is losing the spy game to Russia

Russia’s decision to kick out six alleged British spies in August prompted a strange sense of deja vu. After the Salisbury nerve agent attack in March 2018, I sweated for a week in the British Embassy in Moscow, waiting to hear if I’d be kicked out in the diplomatic tit-for-tat. We need a better plan for Russia expertise if we really want to outsmart Putin Russia’s announcement was timed to embarrass Keir Starmer as he travelled to Washington last week for talks with Joe Biden. It was also a blow to the critically small pool of Russia experts in the British government. In the hostile goldfish bowl of UK-Russia relations,

The sneaky way that Russia is still evading western sanctions

The leaders of the European Union can give themselves a pat on the back. They have, on the face of it, delivered on a promise made following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to end the export of European goods, machinery and parts critical to Russia’s war effort. Yet things are not quite as straightforward as they seem. Exports from the bloc to Russia in June plummeted to a mere €2.4 billion (£2 billion) – a third of the €7.5 billion (£6.3 billion) shipped during the last peacetime June of 2021 before the war, according to data from the EU’s statistical body Eurostat. The figure for June this year is the lowest

America’s Russian influence media scandal is unlikely to be the last

Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern aren’t household names, but they each have enormous, dedicated followings online. Their podcasts and videos all promote similar narratives: liberal values are destroying the West, Ukraine is America’s enemy, Covid vaccines are harmful and pointless and that Donald Trump, though flawed, is the United States’ last hope before it becomes a Communist murderdome ruled by trans Venezuelan drug gangs. When these influencers came together in November last year to launch Tenet Media, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Each already had their own brand and platform. How would this new media company benefit them? RT is awash with cash despite

Joan Collins, Owen Matthews, Sara Wheeler, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Tanya Gold

30 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Joan Collins reads an extract from her diary (1:15); Owen Matthews argues that Russia and China’s relationship is just a marriage of convenience (3:19); reviewing The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light, Sara Wheeler examines the epic history of the sport (13:52); Igor Toronyi-Lalic looks at the life, cinema, and many drinks, of Marguerite Duras (21:35); and Tanya Gold provides her notes on tasting menus (26:07).  Presented and produced by Patrick Gibbons.