A growing confluence of problems created by Putin left him with few options going forward. An expanded conflict with Ukraine was the best way to stave off disaster… — How fears of a bloody & chaotic succession post-Putin, are driving the Russian agenda? “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into contact with the overwhelming majority of the population…(Liberals) cannot dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to over the recent decades.”

As India reaches the ripe old age of 75 is it all that it was meant to be? Is it all that it could be? — On the night of 15th August 1947, at the stroke of midnight, India gained its independence. Jawaharlal Nehru said at the state’s first ever parliamentary meeting as a sovereign nation, that India had ‘a tryst with destiny,’ and so it was. …

The up & downs of climate change in rural Spain. — “Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees fireflies innumerous spangling o’er the vale, vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies; with flames so numberless throughout…

Part Two. Stalin & Putin bring the terror to Ukraine… — “The great mass of men, the common stuff of humanity, exist on earth only in order that at last, by some endeavour, some process, that remains as yet mysterious, some happy conjunction of race and breeding, there should struggle into life a being, one in a thousand, capable, in however…

Part One. Lenin’s just desserts… — Attributed to Genghis Khan, the title quote was found underlined in a book in Stalin’s library after his death. The significance to Stalin remains unknown, but it could just as easily be a mantra for almost every post-revolutionary Russian leader. History is important because it helps us to understand the…

How Trump co-opted Putin’s totalitarian messaging to win America. — “Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain…

How a shifting truth, poor treatment of the Russian military & people, & tunnel vision with respect to the West is undermining Putin’s war. — Burning the bridge… “Dear God, who art in Heaven, save, forgive and deliver me.” A quote by Count Nikolai Rostov at the burning of the bridge. Taken from ‘War and Peace’ by Lev Nikolayevic Tolstoy, or Leo Tolstoy, as he is known in the West. Rostov, who is living through a baptism of…

Hey! Yes, I agree. But I didn't at any stage say US actions justified Russia's actions. This is not a democracy vs autocracy war as some suggest; NATO is defending its borders and that is best done by giving Ukraine all the military help it needs. Putin would undoubtedly seek…

Russia has been rightly condemned for its brutal invasion of Ukraine, but isn’t Russia doing just what the US did before in Iraq? We examine the legal facts… — Twisting the legal basis & accepted norms underpinning the territorial integrity & sovereignty of a state. “We agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited. We chose to follow the rules of the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Charter, not because our borders satisfied us, but because we wanted something greater, forged in peace.”