A month ago I was asked by a retired U.S. lieutenant colonel in a private email correspondence whether Vladimir Putin would be announcing general mobilization in his State of the Union address on 21 February. I answered with full confidence that this was unfounded...
Now that www.smotrim.ru is back up and running, I have been immersing myself in Russian news, which in the past couple of days has included an assortment of separate items, or faits divers as the French would have it, which are frankly ominous when taken all together....
Before analyzing what was newsworthy in Vladimir Putin’s annual address to Russia’s bicameral legislature yesterday, I wish to devote some attention first to the circumstances surrounding its transmission to the world inside and outside Russia.In the past,...
I returned to Brussels on Sunday after a month of travels in exotic and warm lands south of the equator. The re-entry shock upon arrival in Belgium was a lot greater than the 27 degree Centigrade drop in outdoor air temperature. After a month of only very limited...
This is the headline in the latest online edition of The New York Times.The article goes on to say:“The dismissals included governors of several regions in the biggest upheaval in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government since the Russian invasion...
This is the advice which social media say the U.S. Government is today giving to the Zelensky regime in Kiev. It follows by a day or two the public release by German intelligence operatives of their own assessment of the latest course of the war, saying that the...
News about the impending removal of foreign forces from Syria that you will not get…from Western mainstreamHappy New Year 2023 to one and all. With some luck we may all make it through the next 12 months intact.My purpose in violating the sanctity of New...
One of the first questions put to me by a reader via the Comments function with respect to Monday’s report of my initial impressions after arriving in St Petersburg was: and what is the general mood of people? I begged off answering, saying that I would have to speak...
On these pages, I have frequently made reference to the country’s premier political talk show, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, and to its premier news and analysis show Sixty Minutes for their indicating the thinking of Russia’s political and social elites and thereby...
In a new 25-minute live broadcast devoted to the war, Iran’s Press TV showcases key issues from this week’s developments on the front lines, including the latest bombardments of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and the missiles which fell on Polish...
