Published on 2 Aug 2017 Video starts at 1:45. Footage outtake is from "I, Putin: a Portrait" a 2012 documentary by Hubert Seipel. In the 1990s, Russia underwent two brutal civil wars (1994 – 1996, 1999 – 2009) in Chechnya, where it was faced with those akin to Wahhabi radicals that Syria is facing today. Power hungry individuals, both within and outside the country, funded rebels on the ground and sent ideologically-warped Saudi clerics to recruit more people into their ranks. Mercenaries flooded the region from various countries, while weapons smuggling took palce under the disguise of humanitarian NGOs. The war cost many hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. In a rare exhibition of losing his cool, President Putin offers to circumcise a journalist for his inability to understand the largely manufactured enemy that Russia was facing, coercing the authorities to agree to the unjustified commands of a gang of criminals.

Published on 11 Feb 2018 Imagine if a US presidential candidate showed up in Russia to garner support – how successful would that candidate be back home? I struggled to sit through 1.5 hours of Ksenia Sobchak’s talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington. Not only were all the questions anti-Russian (besides the Chinese gentleman), but even the Russian-speaking journalists they invited were highly skewed in their points of view. Among the various topics covered, Sobchak suggested to remove a number of key points of power from Russia’s Presidential system of government (even though the likes of France has a very similar system), in order to turn it into a Parliamentary republic. On the question of Crimea, she openly admits that it was always Russian and the people who voted in the referendum were Russian – so what “issue” is there to solve? Beside NATO not obtaining access to the Sevastopol seaport, as planned with the Kiev government coup, there really is no other dilemma. Sobchak mentioned that she recognises that her chances at a presidential victory are tiny – but that is not her goal . Her goal is to raise her profile in order to become a deputy in the state Duma – in order to help the opposition in 2024, when “Russia will be at a key point in it’s history.” The prospect is truly scary – with Putin unlikely to run for a fifth term, there is little counterbalance to this contradictory woman.

Published on 3 Aug 2017 Video starts at 1:17. Footage outtake is from "I, Putin: a Portrait" a 2012 documentary by Hubert Seipel - this part of the film describes Putin's gradual rise with the Soviet and Russian political system. He describes the confusing time that was the collapse of the USSR and being friends with the 'democrat-revolutionary' Yeltsin, as well as being part of the KGB that supported the 1993 Putsch - an agency that was charged with protecting the state as it was. Having quit his role in the KGB, Putin gained employment at a University, but fate saw him reeled back into the world of politics; he went on to be the vice- Mayor of St. Petersburg, then the head of the FSB and Prime Minister. The legacy of President Yeltsin's uneventful career, was perhaps the favouritism of Putin to the candidacy of the President of Russia. Seipel's documentary features some rare black and white footage from the early years, as well as advice we could all use - "In a difficult situation, don't reveal all your cards."

Published on 5 Oct 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has not yet decided whether to seek re-election in March 2018, speaking from the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow on October 4th, 2017. Candidates are expected to announce their decision to run in late November or early December. Similarly, he doesn't believe that any of the opponents' allies are 'permanent' and that countries following their own specific foreign policy, which may be at odds with Russia's, is never a deterrent to try and build relations with them. Multi-vectored diplomacy 101.