May
- Opinion
- Foreign relations
China and Russia have one bed but different dreams
Russian weakness has enabled China to emerge as Eurasia’s dominant power. But it also limits the partnership of the two.
- Geoff Raby
March
- Analysis
- Russia-Ukraine war
Putin’s transformation into the new Stalin is now complete
This is a red-letter day for Russia’s leader after his grotesque pretence of a free election. The country’s Stalinist past is looming over the present.
- Daniel Johnson
Putin cements hold on power in election with no serious opposition
Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 1999, easily won a new six-year term that would make him Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.
- Anton Troianovski and Nanna Heitmann
June 2023
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Kakhovka dam shows Russia can’t win
Destroying a civilian dam is not a win-at-all-costs act of brutality. Instead, Putin has admitted he is now playing not to lose.
- Misha Zelinsky
March 2023
Russia dusts off Stalin-era tanks as war arsenal runs low
Russia appears to have pulled 1940s-era tanks out of storage in the latest sign of serious armoury shortages in its army fighting in Ukraine.
- Francesca Ebel
November 2022
Ukrainians remember suffering inflicted by Stalin, Putin 90 years apart
The prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania, and the Hungarian president, met with Volodymyr Zelensky, for an ‘international summit on food security’.
- David L. Stern and Francesca Ebel
September 2022
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Ukrainians have shown they can fight; they just need more weapons
As Europe steels itself for a winter with emergency energy market interventions, the sooner Ukraine wins the war the better.
- Updated
- Misha Zelinsky
August 2022
- Analysis
- Obituaries
Mikhail Gorbachev, who steered Soviet breakup, dead at 91
He won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent later years collecting accolades from around the world. Yet he was widely despised at home.
- Jim Heintz
June 2022
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Farewell to Russia and to the Sinatra doctrine
Officials used to joke that liberated states ‘were doing it their way’. Thirty years later, Vladimir Putin has taken Russia back to the imperialism of the Soviet period.
- Updated
- Gideon Rachman
March 2022
Senior commander’s arrest ‘sign of division in the Kremlin’
One of Moscow’s most senior military commanders has been arrested after Vladimir Putin promised to “purify” Russia of traitors.
- James Kilner and Dominic Nicholls
February 2022
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s resentful leader, takes the world to war
The war in Ukraine marks the culmination of a slide into a paranoid autocracy that earns comparison with Russia’s most brutal rulers, writes Max Seddon.
- Max Seddon
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Putin is trying the same thing that Stalin tried
The Soviet dictator failed to destroy Ukraine through brutality. The West has to keep its nerve and make sure that Vladimir Putin fails as well.
- David Von Drehle
January 2022
- Opinion
- Investing
Why Russia might appeal to dividend hunters
Investors targeting dividend yield in some of the biggest Russian companies will find their interests may be aligned with those of Vladimir Putin and his finance ministry.
- John Dizard
November 2021
- Opinion
- Inside China
Xi Jinping’s Nixonian paranoia can only end in one way
Richard Nixon opened the West’s door to the People’s Republic. Half a century on, it’s China’s current leader who is showing the worst traits of the former US president.
- Misha Zelinsky
July 2021
Netflix’s How to Become a Tyrant is like a YouTube manual
This six-part show reminds us that the alternatives to democracy aren’t as appealing as we might think.
- John McDonald
- Opinion
- Inside China
China’s communists guard their future from the past
As they celebrate their party’s centenary, China’s leaders remain obsessed with the fate of the Soviet Union and its political reforms. They study history to avoid a repeat.
- Peter Cai
December 2020
For some in Russia's elite, Putin's future is again a hot topic
Some around the Kremlin are speculating that President Putin might try to engineer a move to a new post that would allow him to retain the reins of power without the day-to-day burden of the presidency.
- Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik and Ilya Arkhipov
October 2020
Brittan was an intellectual giant of British liberalism
Samuel Brittan, who has died at the age of 86, wrote columns in the Financial Times that were essential reading for anyone who wanted to understand economic policy.
- Alan Budd and Andrew Hill
July 2020
Russians grant Putin right to extend his rule until 2036
The Central Election Commission said 77.9 per cent of votes counted across the world's largest country had supported changing the constitution.
- Andrew Osborn and Vladimir Soldatkin
April 2020
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Why this crisis could cement the strongman virus
The world’s hard-line rulers often made a weak impression in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis. But I fear they will turn it to their advantage in the long run, writes Gideon Rachman.
- Gideon Rachman
