Clippings from the press

Britain’s news cycle last week was almost comically dominated by Russia.

Here is Spectator‘s cover (by the way, what image from the shared cultural memory does the cartoonist allude to? I thought it’s winged monkeys from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but couldn't find a confirmation on google. and yet the image looks so familiar!)



And here’s the Times from last Thursday, which dedicated a large portion of the front page, and four other full pages — not to mention an opinion piece — to Russia:














I have only skimmed through the articles very quickly, so I may have missed the actual explanation of what made the journalists so excited; but if it’s the Russian from the front page that aggravated them so, then, according to the Wikipedia, he even has a biography of a "good" Russian. Managed Yukos for a bit, after Khodorkovsky was arrested; then jumped the fence and ended up in Britain. Allegedly politically persecuted. Been living in the UK since 2004 or 2005; got British citizenship in 2011; is on record speaking against Putin, in support of Ukraine, against Brexit, and against the Scottish Independence referendum. All in all, almost a poster child of Russian liberalism. The end of the Wikipedia article does tarnish him a bit though.