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Luis Suarez: Football players and expectations of loyalty 8 Aug 2013 | 11:48 pm
Although there is stiff competition from the sagas around Gareth Bale and Wayne Rooney, by far the most protracted, boring transfer epic over the close season has involved Luis Suarez. Will Arsenal’s...
Fragile Empire by Ben Judah - a review of the latest book about Putin 3 Aug 2013 | 12:21 am
‘If you read twenty five books about foreign policy this year, make one of them Ben Judah’s Fragile Empire’. Not exactly the words of Foreign Policy magazine, and the book, subtitled How Russia fell ...
Ukraine ten years on 1 Aug 2013 | 01:00 am
In 2003 I travelled to Ukraine with supporters of the Northern Ireland football team, a trip that cemented a long-standing interest in the countries of the former Soviet Union. I was with a group of ...
Gaol term for Navalny will be counterproductive 23 Jul 2013 | 12:00 am
The media’s reaction to the 5 year prison sentence handed to Russian opposition activist, Alexei Navalny, after his trial for embezzling timber, is familiar. The editorials read very much like any nu...
Shia Revival 3 Jun 2013 | 11:30 pm
The Iranian author, Vali Nasr, has written an interesting book called The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future. Its argument is exceptionally pertinent at a time when Europe...
The Russia Debate 8 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
Anatoly Karlin, who writes one of the most interesting and thought provoking blogs about Russia, has just launched a new forum for people wishing to indulge in 'Russia related discussions'. It's call...
Smashed in the USSR - a brief review 18 Apr 2013 | 12:00 am
I picked up a book over the weekend called Smashed in the USSR and felt obliged to write a short review, simply because it is very good but appears to have been largely ignored, if the lack of mention...
A sad day as Northern Ireland plays Alex Bruce 9 Feb 2013 | 02:00 am
Wednesday was another dark day for international football in Northern Ireland. Michael O’Neill’s side drew 0-0 with lowly Malta, a team made up of part-time players, meaning that the manager has yet ...
Lamenting USSR's break-up isn't 'rewriting history' 2 Feb 2013 | 12:31 am
As an occasional newspaper columnist I understand the pressures of coming up with an instant opinion on something .... anything. Still, an article in The Times today by Ben Macintyre is a particularl...
Standing up for big spending football clubs isn't egalitarian 17 Jan 2013 | 11:22 pm
There is a perverse article in The Times today by Stefan Syzmanski, which argues that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules are elitist. I’m afraid I can’t link the article, because the newspaper ex...
