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Articles by Andrew Foxall
Alexei Navalny’s big gamble
Alexei Navalny seems to undergoing a metamorphosis. Yesterday, we saw him attending another trial by video, looking gaunt after 24 days of hunger strike. But if anything, the more attenuated his frame, the more his moral certainty shone through it. An appeals hearing for a separate charge of insulting a World War Two veteran gave him a rare opportunity to speak to the outside world. Characteristically, he made a joke of his condition to his wife, Yulia, saying he now looked like ‘a creepy skeleton’.
The Kremlin's Strategy to Undermine Britain
Andrew Foxall & James Rogers Spectator April 15, 2021 The past week has seen the war in Ukraine, which has been simmering for the last seven years, once more come to the boil. According to Kiev, Russia has massed as many as 85,000 troops near its border, while Moscow has actively talked-up the possibility of full-scale war and warned that it ‘would mean the beginning of Ukraine’s end’. Read Full Article »
The Kremlin’s strategy to undermine Britain
The past week has seen the war in Ukraine, which has been simmering for the last seven years, once more come to the boil. According to Kiev, Russia has massed as many as 85,000 troops near its border, while Moscow has actively talked-up the possibility of full-scale war and warnedthat it ‘would mean the beginning of Ukraine’s end’. Is such a war likely? You can forgive Kiev for worrying so — Vladimir Putin is already getting his excuses ready.
Russian saber-rattling over Ukraine demands a different response
Russian heavy armor is on the move, and Moscow is making no move to hide it. Is this the prelude to a new upsurge in fighting in southeastern Ukraine, or especially brutal saber-rattling? The problem is that we don’t know — and this challenges our usual responses. The war in the Donbass — neither civil war nor straightforward foreign intervention, but a messy and toxic mix of the two — has tended to flare up at the end of winter. As thick spring thaw mud begins to dry, campaign season begins.
REVEALED: The Pentagon‘s an amazingly silly anti-Russia meme
After 20 years, a peak of one hundred thousand troops and trillions spent, the American military was unable to defeat the Taliban or even stop them from running half of Afghanistan. But that isn’t the only war America has been losing. We’re also losing the Meme Wars. That’s the lesson from a truly ghastly discovery by the intrepid reporters at VICE, who obtained 23 pages of internal documents from the Pentagon about an anti-Russia meme it deployed last October.
The truth behind Putin’s hit lists
If we are to believe the gossip, Vladimir Putin draws up death lists the way ordinary people jot down their shopping. And bang on schedule, as Joe Biden makes a point of labeling him a ‘killer,’ not one but two death lists materialize from parts unknown. This weekend the Daily Mirror — not, it has to be said, usually a Kremlinologist’s ‘must-read’ — claimed that Putin is ‘now beside himself with rage’ and is drawing up lists of would-be victims, saying ‘we have long arms.
The EU’s sorry excuse for sanctions won’t change Putin’s way
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been poisoned and then sentenced to two and a half years in prison. But never mind, the European Union is on the case and has decided to impose sanctions. Just not that many.
Alexei Navalny is CANCELED
In his fight against Putin, Alexei Navalny needs all the help he can get. The might of the Russian state is pitted against him. Having failed to kill Navalny, the Kremlin has achieved its aim, at least in the short term, of silencing him: by locking him up in prison. Navalny and his supporters have called on the west to assist him. So far, the response has been fairly measly: this week, the EU announced sanctions against a handful of figures in the Russian regime.
How a Roman emperor would handle Navalny
A Roman emperor would consider the tyrant Putin’s treatment of Alexei Navalny’s supporters as foolish but, looking at Russia as a whole, would not see Navalny as a danger to Putin’s tyranny. The emperor took a largely eirenic view of angry mobs. If they were asking for e.g. food in a shortage, he supplied it. Keeping the people happy was his job. In cases of sedition, as Seneca said, one punished only as a last resort.
Will Iron Felix scare Moscow’s protesters?
In the West, activists debate which statue to topple next — but in Russia the situation is rather different. Felix Dzerzhinsky — ‘Iron Felix,’ founder of the Bolshevik secret police — looks like he may be coming home, 30 years after his statue was pulled down from its place in front of the KGB’s Lubyanka headquarters.
Biden vs Merkel: the battle over Russian gas is heating up
Two months ago, a Russian pipe-laying ship called the Akademik Cherskiy left the Baltic island of Rügen to finish the last few miles of the most controversial gas pipeline in the world. Germany hopes that Nord Stream 2 will improve its access to Russia’s vast reserves of natural gas. In America, however, the project is seen as a way for Moscow to exert influence over Europe.
Can Navalny the martyr weaken Putin?
Yesterday Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny achieved his martyrdom, with a paneled courtroom packed with journalists and Western diplomats standing in for Golgotha. A Moscow judge turned an outstanding two-year, eight-month suspended sentence for fraud into a prison term on the grounds that Navalny had missed probation hearings — dismissing as frivolous his excuse that he was lying in a Novichok-induced coma in a Berlin hospital bed at the time.
Alexei Navalny is getting under the Kremlin’s skin
Only half a year ago the opposition leader Alexei Navalny was a non-person on Russian state media, and Putin’s opulent palace built on the Black Sea was largely unheard of inside the country. Navalny had his loyal base of supporters who followed him on YouTube, and the palace had been discussed in the West for a decade. But for the overwhelming majority of Russians, both were unknown. Today, Navalny is everywhere on the Russian media.
Navalny and Putin: the next chapter
‘Arrest me? Why would anyone arrest me?’ said Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny to reporters last week as he boarded a Moscow-bound plane. Four hours later he was in jail — but not before spending an hour circling above the Russian capital as riot police shut down the airport where 2,000 supporters awaited him and diverted his plane to another. Did Navalny truly believe he would not be arrested? Did anyone?
Russian 'Black PR': Examining the Practice of Ruining Reputations
“BLACK PR” — the Russian practice of using dishonest and manipulative public relations tactics to besmirch business or political rivals — is in widespread use in the UK, according to a new report. The warning comes in a think tank report entitled “Black PR: Examining Russia’s Practice of Misinformation Laundering” today published by the Henry Jackson Society.
It’s time for the West to ditch its Russian playbook
Russia World Western values and interests are not reconcilable with those of the Russian state We have been here before. Russia is at the center of an international crisis of its own creation. And we know how it plays out: briefly there is shock in Western capitals, quickly followed by outrage.
Andrew Foxall: Putin has no good options in Belarus
Andrew Foxall: Putin has no good options in Belarus Published Aug. 25 at 4:14 pm Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with his Belarus' counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi on Feb. 13, 2019. Photo by AFP In the six years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, commentators have speculated about what might lead the Kremlin into another military intervention in the eastern part of Europe. Read more here.
Why Putin might not be to blame for poisoning Alexei Navalny
Russia World Over the last two decades of being in power, Putin has blurred the boundaries between state, quasi-state, and non-state In news that should surprise nobody, the German government says there is a ‘certain likelihood’ Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition figure who fell ill while on a domestic flight last week and was evacuated to Germany on the weekend, was poisoned.
Britain’s Sanctions Will Hit Putin Where It Hurts
It’s rare for a Government minister to make an announcement that is universally welcomed in the House of Commons. But that’s exactly what happened on Monday, when the foreign secretary Dominic Raab introduced long-awaited sanctions against human-rights abusers. Raab’s announcement appeared on the Commons’ Order Paper under the rather mundane title ‘Introduction of the Global Human Rights sanctions regime’, but what he said will have far-reaching consequences. Read Full Article »
Coronavirus has spoiled Vladimir Putin’s coronation party
Russia World In the fight against the pandemic, one of the Kremlin’s biggest problems is itself Vladimir Putin’s traditional ways of dealing with crises don’t work with COVID-19. Unlike previous opponents he has faced, the coronavirus cannot be co-opted, jailed, invaded, bought off, forced into exile, or bullied into submission. And if this weren’t bad enough, it is fast becoming apparent that, in the fight against the pandemic, one of the Kremlin’s biggest problems is itself.
Coronavirus Pandemic & China: U.S. and the West Must End Dangerous Dependence on Beijing
Workers on a production line manufacturing masks at a factory in Shanghai, China, January 31, 2020. (Aly Song/Reuters) As the pandemic has made clear, the U.S., and the West as a whole, cannot continue to depend on an authoritarian rival state for strategically important goods. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I t is not necessary to agree with all of President Donald Trump’s foreign policies in order to agree with one of his foreign policies. His approach to China is a case in point.
Breaking the China Supply Chain: How the 'Five Eyes' can Decouple from Strategic Dependency
14th May 2020 By James Rogers, Dr Andrew Foxall, Matthew Henderson, and Sam Armstrong MEMBERS of the Five Eyes are dependent on China for 831 separate categories of imports – of which 260 service elements of critical national infrastructure (CNI) – according to a think tank report released today.
Andrew Foxall, Neil Barnett: The Kremlin’s coronavirus gambit
Vladimir Putin knows a thing or two about a crisis, having caused a number of them during his two decades in power in Russia. And with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading, Russia’s president is observing the adage that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. While the world’s attention is focused on halting the spread of the disease, the Kremlin is using the pandemic as part of its “political warfare” against the West.
Coronavirus Compensation? Assessing China’s Potential Culpability and Avenues of Legal Response
By Matthew Henderson, Dr Alan Mendoza, Dr Andrew Foxall, James Rogers, and Sam Armstrong Global lawsuits against China for “patent breaches” of the International Health Regulations over its handling of COVID-19 could run to at least £3.2 trillion (3,913,808,000,000 US) from just the nations of the G7, according to a newly released report.
The West’s disastrous inaction allows Putin to call the shots in Syria
“I know that the entire world is watching us”, declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the start of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday designed to end a standoff between the two countries over the last rebel-held enclave in north-western Syria, Idlib. Erdogan may have been overegging the pudding, but only just. The Syrian war, which has entered its endgame after nine hellish years, has destroyed the country.
Collapsing the Russian Tripod
Neil Barnett & Andrew Foxall The American Interest February 7, 2020 (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Successfully fighting disinformation and influence operations of authoritarian adversaries requires understanding how these efforts have been developed by—and are run out of—the intelligence services. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
Russian Kleptocracy And The Rule Of Law: How The Kremlin Undermines European Judicial Systems
The scale of Russian interference in the English judiciary is such that it now constitutes a “critical national security threat” according to prominent QC, Ben Emmerson. The remarks come in the foreword to a report on Russian interference in European judicial systems. The report concludes that the Kremlin has, on occasions, “turned [Western] judiciaries into tools of Russian foreign policy”.
NATO at 70: Moving beyond Earth?
On 4th December 2019, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will host a ‘Leader’s Meeting’ in London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance. This essay – which looks at NATO’s growing role in Space – is the second of a three-part series by Dr Andrew Foxall, Matthew Henderson and James Rogers, with a focus on NATO at 70.
Security & Defence
By Nikita Malik; Tom Wilson; Emma Webb In early December 2017, the Henry Jackson Society brought together leading experts for our very first Radical Islam conference, in… Read more
As many as 200 Russian case officers in London, handling up to 500 agents and 75,000 informants, report finds
A new report from the Henry Jackson Society think tank – endorsed by the former Director-General of MI6 – makes explosive claims about the scale of Russian espionage in the UK. The report is based upon confidential interviews with high-level dissident, defector, and intelligence sources and sets out both banal and brazen examples of what it says is Vladimir Putin’s ongoing menacing of our streets.
Analysis | Russia used to see itself as part of Europe. Here’s why that changed.
The European Union is expected to announce soon whether it will expand its economic sanctions against Russia. It first imposed sanctions in March 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea; they were expanded a few months later after Russia destabilized eastern Ukraine and following the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 by a Russian-made missile over territory controlled by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
Analysis | Russia is hosting this year’s World Cup. What could go wrong?
This year, the World Cup is being held in Russia — giving Westerners a chance to learn more about the host country in ways that go beyond stories about a new Cold War or reviewing evidence that Moscow interfered in Western democracies. The World Cup marks Russia’s first appearance on the international sporting stage since the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, an event tainted by Russia’s massive state-sponsored doping program.
Don't Give up on Moldova
Moldova—Europe’s poorest country—has struggled with the challenges of post-Soviet transition. This transition has become vastly more difficult as a result of the breakdown of Europe’s post-Cold War security order in 2014. It is now caught up in a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia and the West, and is at risk?of becoming Europe’s next security crisis, with potential consequences far beyond its borders.
Ukraine’s Stalled Revolution
More than three years have passed since Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution, in which protestors took to the streets and ousted their corrupt leader Viktor Yanukovych. But reform has been slow in coming. To be fair, President Petro Poroshenko faces a Herculean task: protecting Ukraine from Russia’s ongoing aggression in the east while reforming the country in a way that is in keeping with the ideals—democracy, transparency, and rule of law—that united Ukrainians during Euromaidan.
The Future of European Security Lies in London and Berlin
Under President Donald Trump, America’s commitment to NATO seems to be wavering. General H. R. McMaster, his national security advisor, may have restated this commitment, but Trump’s silence on the issue is creating unease in European capitals. The president has made clear his dissatisfaction with member states not meeting their commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, as well as his frustration that the United States continues to bear the cost of NATO’s commitments in Europe.
Putin's Paradise: What If Russia Had Chosen Prosperity When the USSR Collapsed?
Twenty-five years ago, in December 1991, the Soviet Union fragmented, ending the Cold War. Today, Russia and the West seem again set on an intractable conflict. Here Dr Andrew Foxall, an academic and Russia expert, imagines how things could have been different… It is remarkable to think, a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, that Russia’s relations with the West have come so far. Competition has been replaced by cooperation.
Now Russia's Grip on UK Politics Is Obvious. But It's Always Been There
On Tuesday, Boris Johnson raised more than a few eyebrows when he called for “demonstrations” to take place outside Russia’s embassy in response to the Kremlin’s war crimes in Syria. But the Foreign Secretary’s comments were soon overshadowed by the Labour Party’s official spokesman, who said that if the Russian embassy was to be picketed then so too should America’s.
Why Putin Loves Brexit
The European Union has lost one of the strongest supporters of its sanctions against Russia for the war Mr. Putin is waging in Ukraine. This will tip the balance of power in favor of those member states, including Cyprus and Slovenia, that are prepared to lift sanctions tied to compliance with the commitments Russia made in the Minsk II agreement, the Ukraine peace accord signed in February 2015.
Stick to Sanctions on Russia
LONDON — Ukraine and Russia are still at war. Since the Minsk II peace agreement came into effect on Feb. 15, nearly 400 Ukrainian soldiers and more than 200 civilians have been killed. Many more may die yet. As European Union leaders gather for a summit meeting this week, with the issue of whether to renew sanctions against Russia far from resolved, they cannot afford to ignore the continued violations of the cease-fire. The Russian president, Vladimir V.
Putin's Clampdown on Art, Film, and Dissent
Over a year and a half has passed since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Since then, Russia has waged a campaign of aggression against Kiev and, despite Western economic and political pressure on Moscow, Moscow has not changed its foreign policy stripes. Although many have focused on what Russia has done internationally, however, too few have paid attention to what has happened inside Russia, where President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism has become extreme.
Andrew Foxall: The Russian bear in sheep’s clothing
LONDON — Syria is being destroyed. The civil war, now more than four years old, has left the country in ruins. The implacable Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant controls vast areas of the north and east, and the barbaric regime of President Bashar al-Assad maintains its Damascus stronghold. The Western powers — the United States, Canada and Europe — have no good options to combat the Islamic State, but they can’t do nothing.
Don’t Trust Putin on Syria
LONDON — SYRIA is being destroyed. The civil war, now more than four years old, has left the country in ruins. The implacable Islamic State controls vast areas of the north and east, and the barbaric regime of President Bashar al-Assad maintains its Damascus stronghold. The Western powers — the United States and Europe — have no good options to combat the Islamic State, but they can’t do nothing.
Now the Czechs Have an Oligarch Problem, Too
Czech oligarch Andrej Babis, his country’s second-richest man and one of the most politically powerful billionaires in the world, is expanding his business empire into Prague’s corridors of power. Babis currently serves as finance minister, but his ambitions are far grander. The rise of Babis — nicknamed “Babisconi,” after Italian billionaire turned prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — marks a turning point in his country’s post-communist history.
To See Ukraine’s Future, Recall Crimea
LONDON — Just over a year ago, Russia annexed Crimea in the first major land grab in Europe since World War II. The world has paid little attention to Crimea since then, but developments on the Black Sea peninsula provide fearsome insights into both the folly of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, in Ukraine and his campaign of intimidation against Russia’s near neighbors.
The Woman Who Would Take On Vladimir Putin
On Saturday, Nadiya Savchenko began the eighth week of her hunger strike in a Russian jail. The world knows little about Ms. Savchenko, but her story offers a glimpse into Vladimir Putin’s brutal regime and its reckless disregard for human life. Since Russia annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine last year, Russia’s president has consistently shown that he views human life to be expendable.
Crimea, Chechnya and Putin's Double Standards
In his speech at last month's annual Valdai Club meeting, President Vladimir Putin accused the West of "double standards" in Ukraine. This is nothing new. Putin has habitually spoken of the West's double standards since he first came to power.
Yes, There Are Bad Guys in the Ukrainian Government
Vladimir Putin insists Russia invaded Crimea to protect the ethnic Russians who live in that southern Ukrainian territory. Ukraine, the Russian president contends, has come under the control of "neo-Nazis and Nazis and anti-Semites," and the country's Russian population is under threat. It is easy to dismiss Putin's rhetoric -- he is, after all, a serial fibber and fabricator who conflates gays and pedophiles and heads a state where Cossacks gas and whip punk rockers in broad daylight.
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