Crimea 2014: the West’s ‘terrible mistake’. Was it the first? War in Ukraine, two years after 2022
A hoarding opposite the Russian embassy in Berlin, February 2023 © James Rodgers This latest post is an article I wrote for a special issue of Baltic Rim Economies, published in February 2024 to mark the second anniversary of the escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine. You can read...
Defying Putin: Remembering Navalny, and my Gift from Ukraine
Flowers laid in memory of the Russian opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov, at the site of his murder near the Kremlin in 2015. Photograph from March 2019 © James Rodgers THE DEATH IN PRISON THIS WEEK of Alexei Navalny, the highest profile critic of Vladimir Putin, has reminded the world...
Tucker Carlson and Putin: A New Chapter in the Kremlin’s History with western media
This post brings together some of my media commentary on Carlson’s interview with Putin, which was posted on Carlson’s website on 8th February 2023 ‘THE ANSWER WE GOT SHOCKED US,’ Tucker Carlson told viewers of his interview with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He was explaining his astonishment at...
At Henley Literary Festival, Friday 6 October
On Friday 6 October, I will be appearing at Henley Literary Festival, in conversation with Keir Giles about our books on Russia. Keir is the author of Russia’s War on Everybody, published, like my own Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin, by Bloomsbury. We will be...
Denmark: F-16’s to Ukraine for war with Russia; on holiday beaches, scars from WWII
The corner of a World War II German military bunker on the island of Fanø, Denmark, August 2023 My latest post is from Denmark, where I have been on holiday, on its decision to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine, and on its own history of being occupied during World...
Berlin: the Soviet Union and Germany; Russia and Ukraine; War and Peace
A detail of a mosaic at the Soviet War memorial, Treptower Park, Berlin, February 2023. © James Rodgers. This post is a longer version of an article I wrote for The New European, published April 19 2023. You can read the article here. ‘GLORY’, THE GILDED TILES that spell...
Journalism in the Russia-Ukraine War, and soaring sales of ‘1984’: recent podcast and radio interviews
THIS MONTH I have recorded two new podcast interviews, the first for Silicon Curtain with Jonathan Fink If you have not come across this series, do take a look at the other interviews, too. Jonathan gets excellent guests and the audience continues to grow. This time, Jonathan and I...
Russia and Ukraine: War And Media
This latest post is the text of an article I contributed to a special issue of Baltic Rim Economies on Ukraine and Crimea. You can access the whole issue here. It was written in the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and first published on 28 April...
REPORTING RUSSIA: LIVE BOOK EVENT AT THE FRONTLINE CLUB, LONDON, 10 MAY 2022
Russia’s war in Ukraine has put journalism on the frontline both in covering the fighting itself, and in the way that new laws have made independent journalism in Russia all but impossible. These are just some of the issues I will be discussing in conversation with Nanette van der...