You have got to hand it to the Russians. Some of us are now completely at their mercy. I refer not just to the ownership of London's Chelsea soccer club which I have supported since my youth.
No, everything in that department seems to be almost embarrassingly under control. No, I am more interested at the moment in Russian builders and the shot recently fired across Western Europe's bows by the Russian controllers of so much of the rest of Europe's supplies of natural gas.
First the builders.
In common with many Londoners we have got the builders in, doing essential renovations. This is London 2005-2006: the architect is Iranian, his assistant Italian, the master builder Russian. Most of the master builder's employees are Russian. They are brilliant craftsmen.
Most of the people who have visited the house recently -- sorry, I mean the site, have been seriously impressed by the quality of the work. Unfortunately this high quality work has been going on an unconscionably long time, our rental agreement elsewhere has run out, and we have had to move back to the site. When I dared to suggest to the foreman that, even by normal building standards it was turning out to be a long job, he replied "long -- but good."
I told this story to a friend, who commented "Yes, they took a long time over the Winter Palace."
At all events, our family has known for some time that we are at the mercy of the Russians, and we are now -- I fear predictably -- camping at the top of the house. What we didn't know until more recently was that we might be sharing dependence on the Russians with large parts of Europe, as the smooth supply of Russian gas became dependent on the outcome of a heated dispute between the Kremlin and Ukraine.
As I write, the immediate threat seems to have disappeared and, after much Christmas/New Year diplomacy, a deal has been agreed and the gas pipelines are working as normal.
But what is really interesting is that, on the verge, and indeed in the early days of the Kremlin assuming the 2006 presidency of the Group of Eight (the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Canada and Russia itself) Russia was to launch such a policy.
The adoption of "Wild East" capitalism after the collapse of communism may have severely weakened the Russian economy, and it is dubious whether, statistically, it deserves to rank as the eighth largest industrial democracy. It is also questionable whether it is a democracy. Indeed, it was the desire of the West to encourage Russia in the direction of "market economics" and democracy that lay behind the diplomacy that made it a member of the G8.
When he observes the behavior of the largest democracy in the G7, namely the US, President Putin must laugh heartily at lectures on democracy. It remains a huge scandal that the original election of US President George W. Bush in November 1999 was only achieved, after massive controversy over the way the state of Florida counted its votes, through a decision of the US Supreme Court. Nevertheless, that's the way it is in US politics and we can see the way it is in Russia, where authoritarian traditions die hard, as Putin's resigning economic adviser has recently reminded us.
The significance of the use of economic weapons as a political tool against Ukraine can hardly be overestimated. Russia may have a long way to go as a modern industrial power, but in a world where the writing is on the wall for long term supplies of energy, Russia sees itself as back in business as a major economic power.
So far from heralding the End of History the collapse of the Soviet Union, and almost everything that has happened since, points to the return of history and good (or bad) old fashioned political economy.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US