It’s a question which is being asked in Moscow more and more often nowadays: who is really in charge in Russia? Because it is getting more confusing by the day. One moment everyone concludes that it is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who is calling all the shots and then, all of a sudden, something happens and people start to wonder whether it is a good idea to write President Dmitry Medvedev off with such haste and whether he might not [...]

I always find it strange to see large street crowds cheering and celebrating election results or downfalls of regimes. I can never really understand how is it exactly that all these people expect to benefit from the forthcoming changes? Are they all close friends of the new president or prime minister and expect to gain some advantages under the new leadership? And do they actually know for sure whether the political changes that they so energetically welcome would be for [...]

Isn’t it remarkable? Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan acknowledges that the Bush administration resorted to an aggressive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people and everyone in Washington behaves as if he has revealed something that no one knew anything about. Of course it was all about propaganda and spin, what else could it have been about? All those satellite photos and charts and intelligence reports that were supposed to prove that Iraq [...]

(This article has been provided by a leading expert on international relations.) Last week President Dmitry Medvedev paid a visit to Beijing in his new capacity as Russia’s new head of state. It was his first foreign trip and he had chosen to go to China to underline the importance of the relations between the two countries. It was a calculated slap in the face for the West. However, it is now becoming clear that the main reason for the [...]

Here we go again. Another space probe touches down on Mars and everyone gets all excited about the possibility of finding signs of life on the Red Planet. The Phoenix space probe has already sent back photographs of the barren surface of the planet, covered with rocks and pebbles, but that did not seem to dampen the hopes of NASA scientists at mission control and of the many enthusiasts who get all excited at every mention of life, but not [...]

I have read Cherie Blair’s autobiography. All the glorious 407 pages of it, excluding the index which covers an impressive 14 pages. And this is what I would like to ask: how on earth did people like Tony and Cherie Blair ever end up at 10 Downing Street? How in the world has this double act managed to occupy the prime minister’s residence for ten long years without having been caught out as the simpletons and opportunists that they both [...]

It will probably surprise a lot of people to learn that China has been big in Latin America since the 17th century. A Spanish cleric remarked in 1669 that one ‘cannot think of an exquisite article in a house which does not come from China’. Along with the goods came many Chinese and they wasted no time in settling down and opening businesses. At the same time as the priest was admiring Chinese jade, barbers in Mexico City were petitioning [...]

Dan Majestic writes: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is sticking to his election promise and trying to sort out the mess in Naples. By ‘mess’ in this case I mean real mess – tonnes of garbage lying on the streets of the city since last Christmas. Mr Berlusconi honoured his pre-election pledge and brought the whole cabinet for a meeting at the Naples central police headquarters, an impressive building that, as I was told, had been actually housing the Ministry [...]

I thought it was sad, that royal wedding in the Hello! magazine. Did it seem sad to you? I thought it was very sad. What I personally find amazing myself, apart from the fact, of course, that young minor royals have to go to the press to earn a quick buck, is how common many of the guests looked. You know, very, very common indeed. No style in them, no class, no pedigree. None at all. Take that Zara Philips, [...]

I honestly think that Manchester United should sell Christiano Ronaldo to the highest bidder. It was embarrassing to hear him say immediately after the Champions League final in Moscow that he is staying at the club and then, an hour or so later, to find out that he had suddenly changed his mind and said that he could not give any promises about staying on. What is wrong with this guy? What’s he playing at? He has won a double [...]