The latest spat between Britain and Russia is largely a newspaper creation. The refugee oligarch Boris Berezovsky told the Guardian (13 April) that ‘he is planning the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain’. The Russian government was predictably, and understandably, annoyed. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman, said Russia would be … Continue reading Russia can beat Berezovsky with better PR
Category: Journalism
Essay: Putin’s Patrimony
When asked about the effects of the French revolution, Zhou Enlai is famously supposed to have said: "It is too early to tell." After only 15 years, post-communist Russia is still near the start of a film which clearly has a long time to run. Official and editorial commentary from the west takes the form … Continue reading Essay: Putin’s Patrimony
Coming Out Negative in the Balance
Russia’s temporary halt to oil supplies through the pipeline crossing Belarus earlier this month was the latest in a sequence of public relations disasters for the Kremlin. The West’s romance with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia ended with the Yukos affair and since then Russia has generally gotten bad press, even when it had a good … Continue reading Coming Out Negative in the Balance
Shell vs. Russia: the balance is negative
Russia's temporary halt to oil supplies through the pipeline crossing Belarus earlier this month was the latest in a sequence of public relations disasters for the Kremlin. The West's romance with President Vladimir Putin's Russia ended with the Yukos affair and since then Russia has generally gotten bad press, even when it had a good … Continue reading Shell vs. Russia: the balance is negative
Opinion: A peace deal for the whole of the Middle East
The endgame is in sight in the Middle East. It has been brought into view by the growing recognition that Syria and Iran have to be involved, not just in negotiating an Iraqi settlement, but in underwriting peace in the Middle East as a whole. It is increasingly accepted that the American-British-Israeli policy of reshaping … Continue reading Opinion: A peace deal for the whole of the Middle East
Could the poisoner be from Prince Putin’s court
THE POISONING in London of the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko confirms what we already know: that it is dangerous to criticise the Kremlin. It comes less than a month after the shooting in Moscow of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who tirelessly exposed Russian atrocities in Chechnya. Paul Klebnikov, another crusading journalist, was shot dead … Continue reading Could the poisoner be from Prince Putin’s court
Clustering on the Hi-Tech Bandwagon
By Robert Skidelsky and Pavel Erochkine Economists have started to become interested in the economics of clusters. Why do many industries concentrate in one or two locations? Why do some countries, regions and districts grow much faster than others? In the past the answer was obvious: What determined industrial location was climate or proximity to … Continue reading Clustering on the Hi-Tech Bandwagon
Drawing a Dog in Iraq
The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq by Rory Stewart Harcourt, 396 pp., $25.00 1. The British governed Iraq under a League of Nations mandate, and with some success, between 1920 and 1932. They returned to southern Iraq in 2003 as a junior member of the US-led coalition … Continue reading Drawing a Dog in Iraq
Hot, Cold and Imperial
1945: The War That Never Ended by Gregor Dallas Yale University Press, 739 pp., $40.00 Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors by Charles S. Maier Harvard University Press, 373 pp., $27.95 The question of how the world should be run, and America's part in its running, is the subject of much academic and political … Continue reading Hot, Cold and Imperial
Book Review: John Bull’s Small Ideas
Review of Absent Minds by Stefan Collini Oxford University Press, £25 This ambitious work is about British attitudes to intellectuals. Specifically, it is about why the British have been so reluctant to admit that they have intellectuals. Collini calls it the "denial" or "absence" or "exceptionalist" thesis. The claim to immunity from intellectual influences is … Continue reading Book Review: John Bull’s Small Ideas
Robert Skidelsky 