Tensions have been building for the best part of a year, serious skirmishes broke out in June – and America is nowhere to be seen.
From working with Lithuania to enable gas pipelines, to relaxing visas for Belarusians, there’s much we can do to put pressure on Lukashenko’s regime.
Plus: Russia’s opposition leader was poisoned, so now slap Magnitsky sanctions on Putin. And: Phil Collins’ ungracious departure.
We could give in to the leftist, isolationist Little England vision of a reclusive UK. Alternatively, we could make Global Britain a reality.
The opposition has already demonstrated their courage and fortitude. By all indications, for Europe’s last dictatorship, change is finally coming.
If Putin hoped that Brexit would detach us from our alliances, there’s no evidence of that happening so far, and much to the contrary.
The Chancellor should make further provision for them. But the vast though necessary expansion of state spending will need emergency powers-type checks.
Politicians are so uncomfortable talking seriously about our international role and relationships that instead we constantly engage in proxy battles.
“Sometimes you gotta let them fight, like two kids in a [parking] lot and then you pull them apart,” he said.
And: The Defence Secretary denies we need to pick empires. Plus: More publicans needed in politics – and the menace of the anti-meat lobby.
When there are genuine threats, foreign and domestic, our democracy needs better protection than this visibly failing organisation.
The Prime Minister deplores the “rancour and tribal bitterness” of modern debate, and criticises politicians “making promises you cannot keep”.
Our future Conservative Party leadership needs to address quickly and effectively the problems which have led to the latter’s rise.
What he detests is less liberalism than democracy, and the obstacle it poses to Russian foreign policy objectives.
Speaking to many donors at the Birmingham hustings on Saturday, I found that the Foreign Secretary’s quiet assurances were more attractive to them.