Location: Russia

In this week's Spectator (3 Jan), Robert Salisbury, reviewing Michael Stuermer's book "Putin and the rise of Russia" says "We have an interest in a stable and peaceful Russia and, even if we cannot hope to impose our own ideas of government…

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is yet again demonstrating the bleeding obvious that our Government manages to ignore because the big energy companies would rather look the other way. Our Government, opposition politicians, most…

The government of the cash-strapped Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and storms, is considering buying - from a "former fertiliser exporter and vodka salesman" - "floating nuclear…

Well, to me anyway.... In 2004, Ukraine was the fifth-largest importer of natural gas in the world. Belarus was the tenth-largest. In 2005, Belarus had dropped out of the top-10, not because it had reduced its consumption (net imports had…