The Return of Russia: new details of upcoming live events.
This post is an update on the latest live events planned about my new book The Return of Russia: from Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin. Between now and the end of May, I am due to be speaking in London, Birmingham, and Derby. Details below....
Misfits on the Frontline of Churchill’s Secret Propaganda War
A review of Believable Lies: The Misfits Who Fought Churchill’s Secret Propaganda War by Terry Stiastny (WH Allen, 2025) IN A CITY STUNNED BY DEFEAT IN WAR the government official I spoke to was clear, and defiant. He had used words, not weapons, when his country fought against a...
New Book ‘The Return of Russia’: Podcasts and Live Events
MY NEW BOOK, The Return of Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin is published in the US and the UK on January 27 as a hardback and eBook. I will be doing live events in the UK in the coming weeks, including at the...
Out Now: The BBC And The Challenge of Reporting from Cold War Moscow
I have written a chapter for this new book, Conflict Resolution and the Cold War: Media Encounters Across the Iron Curtain published on 22nd January. My contribution is called, The next most important British personage in Moscow? The BBC and Soviet Union during the early decades of the Cold...
Journalism in a world of more media and less freedom
This is my latest piece for The Conversation, reflecting on journalism’s enduring importance in a world where it is increasingly under attack. You can read the version on The Conversation website here. On December 10, the year 2025 reached a murderous milestone. In 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists...
The Jacket for My New Book: ‘The Return of Russia’
The jacket for my next book ‘The Return of Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin’ is ready.My thanks to the Yale University Press design team, and to Terry Stiastny, Andrei Soldatov, Precious N. Chatterje-Doody, and Professor Robert Service for reading advance copies, and for...
New Book ‘The Return of Russia’: Now Available for Pre-order At Special Price
MY NEXT BOOK The Return of Russia: From Lenin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin is currently available to pre-order. In the UK, Waterstones has a special offer until 23:59 on Friday 17 October: 25% off the cover price of £20. The Return of Russia by James...
New Books Network Podcast on ‘Assignment Moscow’
On 18 August, I spoke to Paul Starobin for his ‘America and Beyond’ podcast (part of the New Books Network). Paul and I spoke for almost an hour about Assignment Moscow, and more. We talked about the experiences of foreign correspondents in Russia during Russia’s revolutionary year of 1917,...
New publication ‘The Cold War’ from History Today
Illustration from the History Today website HISTORY TODAY magazine, where I am a member of the editorial advisory board, has just published a special edition, ‘The Cold War’. In the words of the editors, the special edition is, ‘a selection of articles taken from the archive of a magazine...
New Book: ‘The Return of Russia’ out January 2026
MY NEXT BOOK, The Return of Russia: from Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin, will be published by Yale University Press in January 2026. It is the result of four years’ work in the sense that I first proposed the idea in January 2022, the month...