Putin’s democratic facade shouldn’t fool us any more
February 29th, 2004
Today, President Vladimir Putin of Russia is expected to announce the name of his country’s new prime minister. Read on »
Again, we’ll say we never knew
February 15th, 2004
In recent years, we have all grown accustomed to speaking with deep incomprehension of the indifference that the world displayed during the years of the Nazi Holocaust. Read on »
Putin arrested Russia’s richest man as a warning to the others
November 2nd, 2003
I first met Mikhail Khodorkovsky several years ago, just after he had embarked upon his amazingly rapid conversion from shady, highly-suspect oil billionaire to famous, philanthropist oil billionaire. The location was the Moscow home of a Russian friend who might be best described as a democracy activist, and the occasion was Khodorkovsky’s first meeting with Richard Perle, a member of the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board. Read on »
When the stage was set for war
September 14th, 2003
The use of culture as a tool of national rivalry is as old as national rivalry itself. European princes competed with one another for the services of court musicians, Renaissance magnates vied to commission the best painters, Versailles was constructed in order to display the power of the French king. Read on »
This call for help is about re-election, not Iraq
September 7th, 2003
To outsiders, it might seem odd that the American Administration went to the United Nations last week to ask – so far unsuccessfully – for the Security Council to place its seal of approval on the US military operation in Iraq. Read on »
You Brits have not been cheated by the US
July 13th, 2003
Tony Blair arrives here in Washington next week, an occasion which is sure to spark an outpouring of emotion. The British press will be awash with poodle cartoons. Read on »
Why do you British think that Bush is as bad as Stalin?
June 15th, 2003
‘Do you see any parallels between the security state that George Bush has created in America since September 11 and the Soviet Gulag?” For a moment, the question struck me dumb. Read on »
Bush risks his father’s fate
April 13th, 2003
‘The Regime has gone,” the White House told Americans at the end of last week. Iraqis too heard President George Bush’s voice on the radio and television last week, promising not to stop fighting until the whole “corrupt gang” is gone, promising to keep order, promising freedom. Read on »
It’s make-your-mind-up time, Prime Minister
March 30th, 2003
When the fog of war eventually lifts, how different will the post-war landscape really be? Baghdad will be transformed, whatever happens. The rest of the Arab world might be altered too. But whether the war lasts six days or six months or six years, the international stalemate – the diplomatic quagmire – will still be there when it is over. Read on »
George’s big mistake was to listen to Tony
March 16th, 2003
Practically nobody is willing to say it, so let us be as frank as possible: the decision to conduct the invasion of Iraq in consultation with the United Nations – a decision taken by President George W Bush partly to mollify his friend Tony Blair – has been utterly disastrous. Read on »