BY EFFIE DEANS When the clocks change each year in Scotland each spring, I am able to see more of it. The weather may vary, but the daylight doesn’t and by June we have so much light that it is possible to go almost anywhere and get back in the same day. I take my own coffee and buy sandwiches in a supermarket so the … Continue reading Peace and Prosperity
BY EFFIE DEANS The war between Russia and Ukraine is essentially about different forms of nationalism. It is for this reason that it is relevant to Scotland. This is why the SNP is trying to create a narrative which it hopes will be helpful to its goal. After all Ukraine is the result of a successful secession movement. But it is also the victim of … Continue reading What Ukraine Teaches Us About Scottish & Irish Nationalism
BY DANIEL JUPP Mainstream: Russian security concerns are a paranoid fantasy. Putin is delusional. The idea that Ukraine could be used as a staging post for regime change in Russia is absurd. Johnson: Putin must fail! Biden: For God’s sake this man must go! The thing about the stupidity of the puppets selected to pretend to be leaders is that one of them is a … Continue reading Puppet Masters
BY ALEX STORY The Russian invasion of Ukraine has revealed a great deal. The West can bark but lost, seemingly, much of its teeth. The alliance, whatever that means, is strong on words but feeble in deeds. And it is, as the Good Book reminds us, “by their deeds” that “you shall know them”. We have wagged our finger at the Russian Bear with gusto, … Continue reading By Their Actions
BY MEG LEE CHIN It seems some of the events in Ukraine may have been misinterpreted by our Western media. Our typical warfare style is to immediately storm the capital city and kill or seize the leader. Although this allows us to claim a swift victory for our folks back home, it tends to leave a messy power vacuum as we scramble to install a … Continue reading The Zelensky Meme
BY NOEL YAXLEY It looks like people will be forced to undergo a bizarre act of compliance if they are to play at this year’s Wimbledon. Judging by the press coverage coming out, this certainly appears to be the case for Daniil Medvedev. The world number one tennis player and Russian native is being pressured to openly denounce Vladmir Putin in order to grace the … Continue reading Horseshoe Politics?
BY IAN MITCHELL Some years ago when I lived in Moscow, I remember being startled by a comment a friend of mine made about Russian chauvinism. I was—and still am—good friends with a youngish, smart and very self-possessed Russian lady, who had spent a long time in the United States and understood both Russian and Western ways of managing interpersonal relationships. I was sitting one … Continue reading Vladimir Putin as a ‘Real Russian Man’
BY STEWART SLATER What is the iconic image of WWII? It probably depends where you come from. If you are British, it is likely St Paul’s, standing proud, wreathed in smoke and flame. If you are Russian, it is probably a Soviet soldier flying the hammer and sickle from the top of the Reichstag. For an American, it is surely the Marines raising the flag … Continue reading The Image of War
BY EFFIE DEANS It is difficult to write about a fast-moving conflict with limited information and much disinformation. But it is impossible to write about anything else as every other topic looks trivial. I am uninterested in the domestic politics of the UK and cannot bring myself even to notice whatever Nicola Sturgeon might be saying about it or anything else. The key with news … Continue reading Putin the Terrible
BY STEWART SLATER In one of those ironies of which history seems so fond, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man celebrates its thirtieth anniversary just as war in Europe adds to the list of events which seem to invalidate its thesis. Like The Great Gatsby and the roaring twenties, or The Bonfire of the Vanities and the go-go eighties, Fukuyama’s work, … Continue reading Can the Last Man Restart History?
BY EFFIE DEANS Ukraine as a truly independent state has already ceased to exist. It may end up as a Russian vassal or it may largely be absorbed into Russia, but it is hard to see how it can truly regain control over its territory in the near future if ever. The Russians have taken over the second largest country in Europe. They cannot take … Continue reading We Must Defeat the USSR Again
BY JIM WEBSTER Russia and the Ukraine have been vying for the position of the world’s largest grain exporters for some time. This is the Moscow times from 2019: “Russia has been the global grain exporter top dog for the last three years, but as the agricultural marketing year ended on June 30, it looks like Ukraine has snatched the title back from its rival.” … Continue reading Environment Comes Second to Food Security
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and healthy. I hope that Your families are likewise well and that You are enjoying a peaceful Sunday. Alas, the same cannot be said for Ukraine. It comes as little shock that Vladimir Putin has taken up the role of Hitler of our age. The widespread international condemnation will hopefully morph into … Continue reading A Prayer for Ukraine
THE CITY GRUMP The invasion of Ukraine should have provided the perfect scenario for Boris Johnson to attempt to escape from all those currently and potentially demanding his resignation. As the gangster Putin calls for the “denazification” of Ukraine, here is the PM’s chance to cast himself in the role of the 21st century’s version of his idol, Churchill. What do we get instead? Yes, that’s … Continue reading Freeze All Russian Assets
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The 1944 Soviet Military Encyclopaedia refers to: “means of securing combat operations and the daily activities of forces; a complexity of measures, directed to mislead the enemy regarding the presence and disposition of forces.” Russian military deception, known as maskirovka (Russian for ‘disguise’), contributed to major Soviet victories including the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk. In both these cases, … Continue reading Maskirovka
BY IAN MITCHELL Kamila Valieva and Vladimir Putin – the link between ice-dancing and killing. Here are three apparently unrelated questions which are connected and explained by a simple story: First, why Kamila Valieva (the teenage Russian ice-skater who has been in the news at the Beijing Winter Olympics) was given performance-enhancing drugs, probably without her knowledge? Secondly, why her coach treated her with such … Continue reading Valieva & Vladimir
BY EFFIE DEANS Scottish nationalism depends on the idea that nothing much would change if Scotland left the UK. It would merely involve Scottish MPs ceasing to sit on green benches in Westminster, instead of which they would go to Holyrood. Instead of being First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon would be Prime Minster, perhaps President or even Tsarina of all the Scotlands. We would no longer … Continue reading Leaving Шотландия (Scotland) Defenceless
Chava Boroda now lives in Los Angeles. However, her family was among thousands of people from the USSR, whose story of moving to the United States as political refugees is inspiring. Chava’s family was among those “Refuseniks” who proved to the world how willpower can triumph over even the strictest regime in the world. The world has slowly forgotten emotional and powerful stories of “Refuseniks”. … Continue reading Refusenik
BY EFFIE DEANS In Moscow Lavrentiy Beria, Head of the NKVD, used to cruise around in his limousine looking for cute girls. When he found what he was looking for he would point her out and have her brought to his dacha. There would be wine and food and afterwards he would sleep with her. On departure the girl would be given a bouquet – … Continue reading Scotland Becoming Russia
BY PAUL NEWALL Why is it that when faced with certain failure politicians these days scream “Russia”? The Democrats in the US tried and failed to oust Trump with their Russian collusion antics and now losers like Dominic Grieve are forced to pull the Russian collusion card over here. Recent tall tales in obtuse publications about the owner of the Evening Standard, Evgeny Lebedev, being … Continue reading It’s the Russians!
