Dr Robert Seely MBE is the author of The New Total War and a former Member of Parliament.
Predicting Russian behaviour is a fool’s errand. As a young ‘stringer’ in Kyiv during the dying months of the Soviet Union, I was bemused by the analysis of Western journalists from their elite compounds in Moscow, who saw a very different world to that experienced by those of us in the ‘sticks’. This deal is
A dangerous truth is emerging from Ukraine. Kyiv is slowly starting to lose the war against Russia because it is running short of ammunition, in large part because promises made by the EU and the USA are not being honoured. Concurrently, Russia has moved to a wartime economic footing, with 40 per cent of government spending
Is it time that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became plain Mr and Mrs Windsor? They seem so full of anger for the institution that gives them their status, why not do the decent thing and renounce their titles? If not, shouldn’t parliament give them a helping hand? First, a declaration. I am not
Can this really be happening? Sadly, the answer is yes. President Putin has just reiterated his threat to use nuclear weapons and announced that Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory will become part of the Russian Federation. Is nuclear weapon use likely or certain? No, not by any means, and we should speak with a sense of proportion
A reply by the Isle of Wight’s MP to Freddy Gray’s: Is the Isle of Wight really the best place to launch a tracing app? Dear Freddy, You have written disparagingly about the Isle of Wight, its tech and a little bit about its identity. You said the internet was ‘rubbish’ and that we live
Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is back in the news. Ten years ago, it was said to be in a state of terminal decline. Since then, it has become the ‘go-to’ agency for the Kremlin because of its flexibility, aggression and ‘can-do’ attitude. It is president Putin’s one-stop shop for global subversion. But it may
When I lived in the Soviet Union in my early twenties, I developed a personal hostility to socialism. I saw the misery it had visited on that society – the political, spiritual and economic harm. I understood at first-hand how the secret police corrupted personal and public life, how state propaganda denied freedom of thought and how
As 66-year-old former Russian Military Intelligence Colonel, Sergei Skripal, and a companion lie critically ill in a Salisbury hospital. The familiar question is asked: is this another Russian assassination attempt? We don’t yet know if Col. Skripal was deliberately targeted, or by whom – the cause of his illness may be entirely innocent – but
