Fake news – Putin has been pushing it for some time before Mrs Clinton noticed
From Observer (not the leftist UK newspaper, but another site): The Washington Post reported this week that Kremlin-backed websites pushed “fake news” regularly portraying Hillary and the Democrats in...
View ArticleBellingcat chronicles the Russian war against Ukraine
The investigative reporters at Bellingcat have produced a very interesting report on the Russian war against Ukraine, including many incidences of the Russian army firing artillery across the...
View ArticleThere has never been a greater day, than this.
So said Churchill on VE Day, but in its own way, 25 years ago, 25th December 1991 was a yet greater day, the day when the Soviet Union collapsed with Gorbachev’s resignation as President of the USSR,...
View ArticleFilm Review – Bitter Harvest (Stalin’s Terror Famine)
Today I went to the cinema, Cineworld, a round trip of some 100 miles, to see the film Bitter Harvest, a film about the Stalin’s Terror Famine in the Ukraine in 1932/3. The film takes the form of a...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
Finally, on both sides of the Atlantic our citizens are confronted by yet another danger; one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles: the steady creep of...
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A trip to Venice
Last month, the Sage of Kettering and I went to Venice for a few days, marking decades of friendship. The visit to the Most Serene Republic, home to distrust of government that lasted for over 1,000...
View ArticleBondi – beyond the Pale! And ‘Judenrein’?
In the deep Australian winter, comes a chilling judgment from the New South Wales Land and Environment Court, a plan to build a synagogue is refused by a planning authority, partly on the ground that...
View ArticleThe Death of Stalin
Not late news, but a film review. The Death of Stalin opened recently across the UK. It is an excellent black comedy, 5 stars. The film opens with a musical performance for Radio Moscow, Stalin likes...
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The government of Romania versus the Adamescu family
Last Wednesday, I attended a meeting at the Frontline Club, which is near Paddington Station in west London. The meeting was devoted to the memory of the great Romanian businessman and...
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Film Review – Hurricane
Hurricane opened recently, I went to see it with the Sage of Kettering. The film tells the story of the Polish 303 Squadron in the Battle of Britain. The film starts with Polish pilots working their...
View ArticleSamizdata retort of the day
Mr Putin said people living in Donetsk and Luhansk who considered themselves Russian were entitled to Russian passports. On Saturday, he said: “We’re considering providing a simplified procedure [of...
View ArticleWhat if the Berlin Wall hadn’t come down?
I have always been interested in the What If? question that consists of asking how the world would have been different had the Berlin Wall not fallen and had the USSR just blundered onwards...
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Epic trolling by the Czechs!
Prague renames square in front of Russian embassy after slain Putin critic Boris Nemtsov Ok, that is pretty damn good. But this… The Russian embassy in Prague did not respond to a request for comment,...
View ArticleCome to think of it, comrades, I do want Jones back
George Orwell, Animal Farm: “Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?” Once again this argument was unanswerable. Certainly the animals did not want Jones back; if the holding of debates on Sunday...
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Weakness and lies beget horrors of every kind
Anyone who cares about our liberty and security (the two are deeply entwined) needs to work tirelessly to ensure the future does not belong to tyrants, be they tyrants in Russia, China, or much closer...
View ArticleThe Americocentric delusion
I am seeing a phenomenon being floridly expressed today, but it is something I have observed for many years: nothing happens in the world, at least nothing good, unless the malign USA is driving it....
View ArticleVlad the Mad?
I’ve seen this idea expressed a couple of times in the last day. Here’s Nigel Farage: I always thought that we were dealing with somebody who was actually very logical. But I now begin to wonder...
View Article“If he were killing a mouse, he would know how to make it seem like a dragon.”
I offer two bits of the anglosphere’s past to help us understand two bits of the Russian present. Firstly, “I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. … The fact...
View ArticleTrump Derangement Syndrome is writing a job description for Trump and not...
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing for the people who report to Putin to read that Westerners are outraged by what they’re seeing—outraged to the point of recklessness. Just as we’re wondering if Putin is...
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