(or that will be the case soon anyway.) — There are some jokes, and perhaps some conspiracy nuts, who think my country, Australia, doesn’t really exist. Us Australians take this with good humor. We aren’t a religion, we aren’t going to make you believe in us. It could even be beneficial to us if you left us alone. Right…

Do yourself a favour.. — This is not something I typically write about but I just saw M3GAN and I think if you miss it in cinemas you will miss out on something special. This is not a film review full of spoilers and plot points. Many of you have seen the viral trailer for…

Should have been expected — One of the clearest examples of the russification of Ukraine can be seen in the Christmas tradition. Historically, on the 19th of December St Nicholas (Svaty Mikolay) would place presents under pillows for good children and a twig if the child had been bad. He wore religious garb like a…

The ever changing state of the Russian oil market — I have been paying attention to the rather novel ways Russia has been trying to avoid scrutiny, sanctions and price caps. We can see this in three distinct phases. Let’s begin. Phase 1 At the beginning of the war, oil and gas was not subject to sanctions and with prices…

and it is not just about the weather — It’s been a while I haven’t contributed to Medium since October, as I relocated from the Republic of Georgia to Australia. My wife and family are still over there and I continue to keep in contact with friends and relatives in Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Ukraine. I still work part…

Cue the benny hill music — We saw during the apartments bombings in the late 1990s, that Russian intelligence agencies certainly lack imagination when it comes to their cover stories and framing. Here we found “explosives” that were supposed to be a “training exercise” and “contained sugar” in Ryazan. …

The mobilzation chaos and lies — On the 23rd of September, I wrote my first article on Russia’s mobilization. It can be found here. This is a brief addendum as new information comes to light: One of my students with her husband was on holiday in Turkiye but had to change their plans for return because…

Ruzzia, you mad bro? — In my previous article I discussed the strike on the Kerch bridge. You can read about it here. After I published that, I spoke to one of my Russian friends who has fled Russia to greener and saner pastures. …

Say hello to my little friend — After the annexation of Crimea, a grand vision was for a road and rail bridge joining Crimea to Russia. It was an ambitious project, especially for Russia’s tendency for white elephants and money stolen through corruption. A 16km bridge would connect Crimea with Russia, the longest such bridge in Europe…