Montenegro has not followed the line of most EU countries and recognised its neighbour Kosovo as an independent state. Why not? Because doing so is "not high on its list of priorities": Everyone understands our positive distanced and considered views on Kosovo independence. Odd, that. Positive? Hard to say – […]
This is a sharp account of one serious Russian view on Russian energy issues: Mr Chubais has spent the past 10 years masterminding the break-up of UES, the Russian electricity monopoly, which will cease to exist next week after selling off its generators in the biggest liberalisation of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. His […]
Were/are all the horrors across former Yugoslavia driven by ‘age-old ethnic hatreds’? Or was/is it all more about gangs of criminals wanting to steal TV sets? Misha Glenny, brilliant Balkan analyst, has the answer. Buy the analysis here.
If you have been beaten up by someone for nearly fifty years, does that ‘cloud your judgment’ about the beater? But however clear-eyed Lithuania’s decison-makers claim to be about today’s Russia, many seem myopic about their own country’s past. Anger over 48 years of Soviet occupation clouds their judgment about […]
Imagine you are the Foreign Office in London. A bit of a wildcat in your youth. Yet still squeaky keen to show Relevance and Cleverness. Egad! An idea dawns. Let London lead the praise for the sybaritic delights of latter-day Western personal freedom! British Embassies should all fly the LGBT […]
You may well be wondering how many countries have formally recognised the independence of Kosova (or Kosovo as HMG call it). Here is what looks like a pretty comprehensive list. Thus as of the end of May 2008 Kosovo’s independence has been recognised by (only?) 42 out of 192 UN member […]
Following my post about Russia’s dire demographic trends along comes this sad story about suicides in the Russian armed forces. All armies have these problems and do their best to play down the problem. The British Army in Bosnia had a significant number of suicides. One theory had it that […]
A report by Russian experts under UNDP auspices makes grim reading on Russia’s demographic problems. Basically, Russia has a uniquely dire set of trends combining to reduce fertility rates and increase mortality rates, leading to a notably shrinking – and ageing -population: demographic ripples from the massive loss of men […]
Back in February I wrote about Communism and Nazism as the two vampires, asking which was worse. Ayn Rand back in 1946 through the words of Ellsworth Toohey, uber-collectivist, explains it all in a brilliant passage: Remember the Roman Emperor who said he wished humanity had a single neck so […]
Rupert Cornwell in the Independent gives a glowing tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy’s life and achievements. Maybe he should have included his thoughts on the evidence from the KGB archives that Kennedy tried to work with the Soviet Communists to stop President Reagan being re-elected in 1984? A stunning story, so damning […]
