Russians have a pragmatic approach to politics | Letter
There has never been a real rebellion for the Kremlin to squelch, writes Mergen MongushTo an old Russian like me, Rafael Behr is as wrong as sin, because he is watching (and describing) the smoke without seeing the fire (To understand the threat to our real democracy, watch Putin’s fake one, 16 September).In their unqualified admiration for your democracy, our leaders have done a lot to emulate it: in 1861, Alexander II abolished serfdom; in 1905, Nicholas II allowed the creation of our elected parliament; in 1917, Kerensky allowed women to vote; in 1990, Gorbachev reintroduced a multiparty system; he, Yeltsin and Medvedev resigned in 1991, 1999 and 2020 respectively (like your Wilson, Thatcher, Blair, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Starmer in 1976, 1990, 2007, 2016, 2019, 2022, again 2022, and 2026 respectively). Continue reading...
Europe frets about Trump. But soon he could be the least of our problems | Mujtaba Rahman
The US relationship is stabilising, but how will Europe face up to Russia and China if President Le Pen is in power?I addressed a group of more than 100 European ambassadors recently on the big challenges facing the continent this year and next. My main point to these senior diplomats was that, perhaps counterintuitively, Europe’s biggest external challenges over the next 12 months will come from Russia and China, rather than the US.Europe’s relationship with Trump’s America remains difficult. The US president has weakened confidence in Nato, raised new transatlantic trade tensions and introduced uncertainty into everything from US support for Ukraine to his territorial designs on Greenland. Yet paradoxically, and notwithstanding Trump’s latest tariff threats over the EU’s outreach to Canada, the transatlantic relationship is becoming the more stable part of Europe’s external environment. Not stable, but more stable.Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm Continue reading...