Superpower politics: President Putin meets Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao (Takuro Yabe/PA)
Moscow, brown skies. The Tajik and Uzbek underclass sweep the streets. Those who work for oil break through traffic jams with blue-alarm lights or the flick of an FSB pass. Those who work hard curse them from behind the wheel. The paint peels on the walls of the Russian State University for the Humanities as Kremlin intellectuals pull up their chairs for a meeting of the John Locke Club, for thinkers supporting United Russia — the party of power. Fickle-faced students and pale blondes, bathed in iPad glows, ignore the discussion. Yellow lighting. The smell of institutional Russia: wet clothes, wafts of canteen boiled meats and cheap cleaning fluids. The professors wait for their turn to speak, texting under the table, then lecturing on in their lacklustre way on the theme of the day: "How to make United Russia a real political actor."
A prominent pro-Kremlin dean takes the floor. Scant attention is paid.
"But of course United Russia can't be a real political actor. There is only one political actor in this country, and we all know his name." A ripple of surprise, then nervous laughter turns to murmurs of quiet agreement.
"The trouble with this regime — despite being here for so long — is they have not managed to institutionalise anything of their system," confides the dean afterwards. "The parties are plastic. Politics has no meaning here any more."
- Beirut: Hariri — An Assassination Too Far
- New York: A ‘Post-racial’ American vs an Old Coot
- Pristina: Kosovo's Liberal Islam
- Oslo: Courage and Cowardice in Scandinavia
- ONLINE ONLY: Washington, D.C.: It's Not Rocket Science!
- La Hague: Recycling the French Model
- Jerusalem: No Via Media for Anglicans
- ONLINE ONLY: Beirut: Blood Holiday
- Rome: Arrivederci Roma
- Darfur: Panic at the Palace
- ONLINE ONLY: Letter from Bamian
- Caucasus: Diary, August-September, 2008
- ONLINE ONLY: South-East Asia: The Demons of Ignorance
- New York: Diary
- Ypres: Never Say Never Again
- New York: A Cousin in the White House
- Caracas: Chávez's Secret Fan Club
- Prague: Diary
- Park City, Utah: Movie that Pulls Aside the Veil
- Beirut: Blood on the Streets
- India: Tariq Ali's Plan for Pakistan
- Berlin and Cologne: A Tale of Two German Cities
- Mumbai: On the 'Slumdog' Trail
- Budapest: Screwed Left, Right and Centre
- Paris: Mayhem in the Marais
- Stanford, CA: Intellectual Life Under Obama
- Colombia: A Nation Reborn
- Paris: Prisoner of the Barbarians
- United States: The Path to Rome via San Francisco
- ONLINE ONLY: Black Russian
- South Africa: The ANC'S Health Lesson for Obama
- Lisieux, France: Relics of Thérèse
- Germany: Heidegger - Being, Time and Place
- Moscow: Putin's Empire Strikes Out
- Connecticut: My Battle Against Google
- Montana: Home From Home on the Range
- Siberia: In Search of the Gulag
- Rio's Heart of Darkness
- Mogadishu: Armageddon on Steroids
- Havana: The Castros Will Not Be Absolved
- Kaliningrad: Russia's Outpost in Europe's Heart
- Bishkek: Bloodsoaked Revolution
- Bishkek: Downfall of a Dictator
- Oslo: Signing OFF on Human Rights
- Bajaur: A Talk with the Taliban
- Bahrain: Women Drivers Welcome Here
- Tajikistan: In Search of the Yeti
- ONLINE Only: Ankara's Proxy
- Johannesburg: Hard Pressed
- Istanbul: Press Freedom Alla Turca
- Xinjiang: Taming China's Wild West
- The Lesson of Oz
- The Surge is Working — So Far
- A Tale of Love, Bulls and Goats
- Old-order Collapse
- Egypt's New Dawn Chorus
- From Carthage to Kasserine
- After Gaddafi: A New Libya Emerges
- To the Polo Saddle Born
- The Settlements: Life Between the Lines
- Exposed: Carnita's Cover Story
- "At last, I feel proud to be Libyan"
- Books Do Furnish a Little Freedom
- Fat Chance for Christie—This Time
- Easy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown
- Putin's Chinese Whispers
- Cain Isn't Able and Newt Defies Gravity
- The Ten Years' War against the Taliban
- We The People Say: Get Out of The Way
- Wanted: A New Ronald Reagan
- Time to Crunch the Numbers
- Who's Really Supreme?
- From Art as Life to Blood and Soil
- Talking Tactics
- The Wagner Family Soap Opera Rolls On
- Winning the Veepstakes
- Romney Takes a Risk with Ryan
- Window Brothels Get the Red Light
- Can Romney Spring an October surprise?
- Canada's Crusader for Conservatism
- No-Go Areas on the Campaign Trail
- Republicans Must Avoid Civil War
- Norway's Problem with Anti-Semitism
- Turks, Arabs and Jews: The Middle East in Crisis
- Nations United in Hypocrisy
- Siberia: Shamans, Spies and the Secret Police
- Barracked by Obama's Oratory
- Women Come Last in Syrian Refugee Camps
- The Dawn of Obamageddon
- Americans Know Her True Worth. Do We?
- Hapless Hollande’s French Farce Flops
- Save the NYPD So It Can Save the City
- Obama's Secrets Start Unravelling
- Syria Isn't Bosnia: Don't Arm the Rebels
- Who Can Stop Hilary in 2016?
- Teaching China's Anglophiles
- On Pilgrimage with the Hasids
- From Eastern Europe to the East End
- True Grits
- The Rise and Rise of Marine Le Pen
- Cold Comfort On Global Warming
- Hunting the Lynx with the Old Believers
- High-tech Israelis Aim For The Moon
- The Russians Are Coming
- The Turbulent Minister is Right
- Bad Times for Good Samaritans
- This Expat Paradise is a Woman’s Nightmare
- Two Generations Lost to Communism
- Strangers in their own Holy Land
- The Isles are Full of Big Noises
- The Kurds: Israel's not so Improbable Allies
- Islam and Innocence: Canada’s Predicament
- The Fifth Republic’s Darkest Days?
- Let's Make Putin's London Cronies Sweat
- The Global Politics Of Netanyahu's Victory
- A Grim Prospect For South Africa's Jews
- No End In Sight To The Exodus From Libya
- Undeterred, Erdogan Usurps Ataturk's Legacy
- Gaza Withdrawal Symptoms
- Red Flags Flying Over Parliament Square
- Mutinous Talk In The Highlands
- Our Principles Are All We Have
- Why The Swedes Have Had Enough
- Canada's First Nations Come Last
- Islam and the French Republic
- Unconventional Convention
- The Dying Days Of Zuma's South Africa
- Capitalist rebirth of Hoxha's hellhole
- Cyril Ramaphosa's poisoned chalice
- Trump's big gamble on North Korea
- Catalan myths must now confront reality
- Is South Africa about to fall apart?
- Refugees are big business for the UN
- Saving Europeans isn't the Italians' job
- Enter the Professor, Putin's Balkan stooge
- The Merkel era ends in angst and anger
- Midterm madness — or Trump's last stand?
- City where history is still being made
- I'm Not Antisemitic, But...
- The ELM, Dispatches and Awlaki
- A Larger Than Life Predator
5:12 PM