Russia’s long slide into pariah status

Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of its long slide into the diplomatic abyss. Only Eritrea, Belarus, North Korea and Syria voted against the UN resolution condemning the attack.

Russia’s slide into tyranny

After Soviet communist dictatorship collapsed, Russia’s brief flirtation with democracy descended into autocracy as an ever more powerful President centred absolute power in his own hands.

Putin’s people – How the KGB took back Russia then took on the West

Catherine Belton’s book “Putin’s People” explains how the Russian dictator and his KGB cronies snuffed out democracy in Russia and began to rebuild the Soviet Empire to entrench themselves in power.

Why Russia’s church backs Putin’s war

Patriarch Kirill’s support for the bloody and unprovoked invasion of a country where millions of people belong to his own church underlines how Orthodox leadership have usually been little more than an arm of the authoritarian state.

Russia slides into the red

While Vladimir Putin cowers in his bunker, increasingly isolated from reality and the rest of the world, the devastation his troops are wreaking on Ukraine is being equaled by the desolation and isolation of his own fiefdom as Western sanctions begin to bite.

Counterpoint by Mark Nicol – For the sake of Russia

Mark Nicol offers an imaginative vision of the past, present and perhaps future of mother Russia.

A century on: remembering the Australians who fought in the Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War killed as many as 10 million people and the Bolshevik victory gave a bloody birth to the Soviet state. Small numbers of Western forces fought the communists, including a handful of Australians in the wake of the Great War.

Bringing Russia to justice over MH17

Those involved in the shooting down of a Malaysia airliner – and the deaths of 283 passengers and 15 crew on board – during Russia’s proxy invasion of Eastern Ukraine may yet be brought to justice.

The Rise of Russia and the next “American Century”

Have we really seen the end of the "American Century"? Have we entered the "Chinese Century" as our leaders would have us believe? Should we ignore that biting bear nipping at our knees?

Have we really seen the end of the "American Century"? Have we entered the "Chinese Century" as our leaders would have us believe? Should we ignore that biting bear nipping at our knees?