War in Ukraine

Russian opposition to the invasion of Ukraine is giving Putin cause for alarm.

— The Russian president has already shown he will come down hard on domestic opposition to the war in Ukraine. We will see a doubling down of repression, including to prevent any cascade of dissent that might shake the very foundations of Putin’s regime.

War in Ukraine

As Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, here are 5 genuine nuclear dangers for us all.

— Experts around the world have been warning nuclear weapons are increasingly being seen as ‘usable’ by the political and military leaders who wield them.

War in Ukraine

Ukraine’s military is outgunned but can still inflict a great deal of pain on Russian forces.

— The last thing Putin wants is a protracted war, with bloody urban combat and echoes of Chechnya – which is what Ukrainian forces are likely to give him. Ukraine can call on a highly motivated citizenry to fight a prolonged insurgency against occupying forces.

War in Ukraine

Sanctions can still make a difference – but only if done right.

— Economic warfare only works if it really hurts. If Putin’s inner circle and the Russian elite begin to see that their financial and political futures are better secured without conflict, they might seek to abandon it or try to negotiate their own defections.

War in Ukraine

It’s time to fight Putin! – Garry Kasparov.

— How to checkmate Vladimir Putin, according to the former World Chess Champion, political activist and harsh critic of the Russian president.

COMMENT

For Russia, it’s all alt... even its tsar.

— Russia is now in an alternate universe where Vladimir Putin recreates the Russian empire.

COMMENT

Russia, Ukraine, Schrodinger’s cat and our interconnected world.

— Vladimir Putin may have deliberately created a crisis in Ukraine in which everything is possible at once, including global food supplies being affected.

Brexit

All too predictable.

— A key rule of politics is that you need to ‘be in the room’ and Brexit Britain isn’t, at least metaphorically and sometimes literally.