This week I was in Chechnya, on which more soon. For now, this week's clutch of articles, beginning with a leader about how undemocratic Russia is. Re-reading...
Here, after being held for a long time, is the outcome of a trip I took this summer along the land that divides Russia from the new EU. Borders are always...
Russia seems to be descending into a surreal parody of itself, as if to prove that the madcap Moscow that Bulgakov described in "The Master and Margarita"...
And where was I while Russia was being rocked by the Yukos affair? As you may remember from last year's theatre hostage crisis, I make it a policy to be in the...
One problem with The Economist's analytical style is that it doesn't create any motivation to be on the spot when epoch-making events are taking place. All...
On Monday, a suicide bomber triggered her half-kilo of explosive fifty yards from the Duma. "Excuse me, where's the Duma?" she reportedly asked people on the...
I came back from holiday doubtless carrying an assortment of Mexican viruses, but I am still trying to work out how one of them could have made the species...
"Is that Chanel?" a Russian friend asked when he first saw me wearing it. "No," I said, a bit puzzled. "I got it in a market in London for forty pounds." After...
Thanks to all those who told me that my role model should be Gogol, not Pushkin, and to read his story "Shinel' " (The Overcoat). I did, and can now reply that...
Writing about a presidential election in which there is only one real candidate and none of the others even pretends to want to win is, to put it gently, a...
The last bulletin drew some comments to the effect that it was an unfair and superficial comparison of Russian with American politics: America clearly does...
I've been late in sending out last week's article partly because, to be honest, I felt a bit ashamed of it. I had written before on this mailing list about how...
This is for everyone who thinks that working for The Economist is a relaxed job in which I get to ruminate over things for days before tapping out a few...
A number of investment banks and political analysts have been putting out their lists of whom Putin is likely to choose as his next prime minister, and I...
Writing long, philosophical ruminations about how an deep desire for oppression and dictatorship is at the heart of the Russian soul is a favourite pastime of...
Even since this was published I think I may have changed my mind. Fradkov's latest announcement is that he will merge nine ministries into two mega-ministries,...
Next time you turn on a tap, pay attention to how the water comes out as you slowly open the valve. At some point the flow will switch from a smooth, quiet...
What a strange election day. Up at 7.30 to head off into the "glubinka", the depths of the Russian heartland, with four colleagues - two Russians, two visiting...
Milochka, I've just gone out shopping - it might take a while. If I'm not back in time, please help the girls. They're rehearsing a history play and I promised...
Sorry for the silence of the last couple of months: partly because I've been strangely uninspired to write, and partly because (or maybe they're linked) I've...
Secrecy, I learned this week, is the oil of diplomacy, the fuel of conspiracy and the lifeblood of the bureaucracy. Igor Sutyagin, who was convicted of spying...
As inspired by the impending destruction of Yukos and my mood about Russia in general: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of the ...
It has been nearly half a year since my last confession and my sins are too many to recount. Good thing I'm not a Catholic... anyway, over the next few days or...
So here we go again - an old-new experience. Starting from scratch in a place of which you know very little, in a job that requires you to feign knowing very...
Someone in Washington tells me that there is a lot of optimism there about the Palestinian election and the future of the peace process. Perhaps, he notes,...
I've been having trouble writing these bulletins since I got here, for reasons on which more another time. But tonight's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv dispels...
I had a dilemma about whether to go to the Gaza strip. I have relatives who are being, as the euphemism goes, disengaged. Yes, people of my own flesh and...
I had gone for dinner at the house of some foreign friends who work in Gaza, and after the long hours of talking were done they offered to put me up in the...
I've been turning this story over in my mind for a couple of weeks, wondering whether to bother with setting it down. I think the time has come, because there...
[Tap]. [Tap]. [Throat-clearing]. Hello? Er... is this thing still working? Some while ago - nearly three years ago, to be exact - I promised to explain to all...
