Russia

France's presidential election is shaping as the next and biggest test of the popularity of Europe's authoritarian right

The possibility of a cornered president lashing out cannot be discounted. If it happens, how should the West respond?

The shadow of Joseph Stalin hangs heavy over Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But is Putin actually more dangerous – if not statistically more murderous – than the former Soviet leader?

The Russian leader may be a war criminal, but getting him into the dock to face justice may never happen

Putin is rallying both Russians and foreign auxiliaries to a cause under one message - might is right

The establishment, where the Russian leader developed a liking for German beer, has now also taken down its shrine to the president

A superb new film may be disowned by its director – because it is set in Russia

The vicious conflict in Ukraine could lead to even more deaths from hunger far beyond the country’s borders as grain exports from the region grind to a halt and global food prices soar

If Hobbes is right, perhaps the only way to maintain peace is to have a powerful world organisation that can enforce international laws and punish states that break them

And, the West cannot risk letting the Russian dictator playing it

Xi Jinping once called Vladimir Putin his best friend. But is their relationship cooling as he realises how much his country stands to lose over Ukraine?

Too many Russians have fallen for Putin’s propaganda over Ukraine. It won’t stop his regime falling apart – but that could take years

It is now blindingly obvious that the EU must step up and take responsibility for its own collective security, argues one reader

The Godfather was hailed as a masterpiece from when it first aired 1972. And, it still is today

The observation that military force has become less important in how nations wield power was more credible pre-invasion

The Russian oligarch should have got out years ago - now the club I love is in limbo

DR ROBERT KRAMER, professor of psychoanalysis at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, explains the drive for immortality that brought war to Ukraine

Absolute power makes you think you can do what you like, where you like, how you like. It is a power no truly democratic leader will ever enjoy

Even a cursory reading of the Russians would have explained to many in the West why Putin was going to invade Ukraine, says WILL SELF

The Kremlin strongman is now an isolated, out-of-touch world pariah and increasingly unpopular at home. Could he be toppled?

Two 1990s films made by a future Putin ally explain the national obsession with humiliation that led to Ukraine

If we don't stop with sanctions and retool our economy, we will be even more complicit in the next atrocity we enable

While Putin's invasion challenges not only Ukraine's democracy but our own democratic system, we have found ourselves in a war between truth and lies

There is something troubling about many men at the moment, and it's about time someone said it

The meeting revealed a man more confident than autocratic, not the brittle and paranoid aggressor the world sees today

Putin must be seen by the world to lose. But, how this will happen and how long it will take remain difficult questions

Boris Johnson's posturing following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine hasn't distracted the country, or his own party, from his lies

A former military intelligence officer argues that Putin’s ambitions will not end here - and that we must recalibrate how we respond to agents of chaos

Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine is a watershed moment. But the democratic West's response has been encouragingly robust

The two men have such striking similarities that it's hard to decipher which rhetoric comes from which leader