At The Frontline Club in London: 25 Years of Putin
Russian soldiers in Grozny. Chechnya, March 2000. © James Rodgers Are you in London on March 26? If so, please join us at the Frontline Club for a discussion marking 25 years since Vladimir Putin was first elected president of Russia.On 26 March 2000, I was reporting for the...
Latest Radio Interviews on Russia and Ukraine
This week I have given a number of radio interviews on President Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. My take essentially is that Russia and Ukraine remain too far apart for a ceasefire to work. With the United States having temporarily suspended arms supplies and intelligence...
By Train Through Former Battlefields In A Newly Troubled Europe
War memorial at the Gare de L’Est, Paris. This post is an extract of my latest article in The New European. It’s published in the current issue, and reflects on a train journey through some of Europe’s former war zones at a time of fears for the future of...
Trump’s Ukraine Offer Gives Putin The Place He Wants in History
The White House, Washington DC, July 2024 © James Rodgers This piece was first published on the website of The Conversation on February 18, 2025. You can read that version here. The meeting in Saudi Arabia between senior delegations from the United States and Russia could be the first...
War and Memory in the Middle East, and West London
FOR TWO WINTERS I LIVED IN GAZA, 2003 and 2004. It was the time of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising against Israel. It was cold. Gaza did not get much rain, but winter was wet: and the houses were made to lose heat, not retain it. For a...
Chechnya: 30 Years Since The Start of Modern Russia’s Wars
The centre of Grozny, Chechnya, Russian Federation, spring 1995 © James Rodgers Thirty years ago this week, the Russian army began its assault on Grozny at the start of the Chechen War. In a world currently suffering several wars, including Russia’s war on Ukraine, it is not surprising this...
Football, Free movement: the future? A Bratislava Away Day
Tehelné Pole, Bratislava, Slovakia before the start of Slovan Bratislava vs Manchester City, 1 October 2024 This post is overdue. I am finishing my next book–on Russia and the West–ahead of publication next year so I have had less time than usual for this site, and other journalism. But...
My article in this week’s New European ‘Denmark’s Sounds of War’
An abandoned Second World War fortification, Fanø, Denmark © James Rodgers For this week’s New European, I wrote about a concert where the music brought echoes of Europe’s war-torn past. There’s an extract here, and you can read the full article here. FANØ, A TINY ISLAND off Denmark’s west...
A Rare Perspective On Orwell’s Era, and Our Own
BOOK REVIEW: GEORGE ORWELL AND RUSSIA BY MASHA KARP Red Square showing part of the Moscow Kremlin, March 2019 © James Rodgers This post is a review of Masha Karp’s George Orwell and Russia (Bloomsbury). The review is published in the current issue (25:10) of the academic journal ‘Journalism’,...
The Oakland Coliseum: Back to the Ballpark to say Goodbye
A stand at The Coliseum, Oakland, California, 4 July 2024, before Athletics vs Angels This is a rare post about sport, and about a sport, baseball, to which I am a newcomer. I do not pretend to any expertise, and apologize to any fans who find errors. This is...