Keir Giles

CSRC publication "Pay and Allowances in the Russian Armed Forces: A Guidance Note "

For anybody reading this detailed account of Major General Roman Demurchiev's official earnings with mounting bewilderment, help is at hand: this, from almost 20 years ago, explains how Russian military salaries work (almost certainly not like yours does).

www.files.ethz.ch/isn/94468/07...

CSRC publication "Pay and Allowances in the Russian Armed Forces: A Guidance Note "

For anybody reading this detailed account of Major General Roman Demurchiev's official earnings with mounting bewilderment, help is at hand: this, from almost 20 years ago, explains how Russian military salaries work (almost certainly not like yours does).

www.files.ethz.ch/isn/94468/07...

Thank you for the diligent research! I’m glad you enjoyed the interview from a pub car park.

We are so far beyond “beyond parody” that parody risks becoming entirely redundant.

It is impossible to be a tankie without that level of determined imperviousness to experience, evidence and history. But perhaps they wanted to avoid everybody just boringly agreeing on the facts.

Weirdly, I am here for this.

fifdh.org/en/about-the...

Really? That's genuinely interesting. Thank you.

Ah, they have turned on the tap for the squirty thing. That’s nice.

Slightly odd how this keeps resurfacing as a new story when the basics have remained unchanged for over a year.

And in case anybody thinks this is a new problem, the book was written in 2021 about everything that was happening in the previous decade.

At the front desk I was greeted with a knowing smile and the biggest box of travel adapters I have ever seen in my life. Fancy that, I am not the first…

Swiss may. This Swiss hotel has declined so to do.

OK turns out I really did not do my research for this trip.

That’s terrible.

EasyJet!

This appears to be exactly what has happened and we are now boarding.

Balancing on a wheel to peer into the well. Probably perfectly ok.

My flight is scheduled to leave at 1530. It’s 1529 and a member of the flight crew has had his head in a wheel well for a few minutes. What do you reckon are my chances this time?

Ramsey potato farmer begins spud home-delivery service Luke Abblitt says he has so far delivered more than 25 tonnes of spuds to customers.

It’s Fenland’s answer to Bud the Spud.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Screenshot of a WhatsApp message asking people to keep dogs on leads because the lambs are in the field now.

Awe bleteþ after lomb. It must be Spring or something.

Me too. Let's find out.

Screenshot from linked article regarding Siil and potential British withdrawal of Challenger tanks from Estonia.

Combat in Ukraine won't be a blueprint for every future war. But no army can still fight as though it's 2021.

Will findings from the Siil / Hedgehog 2025 exercise in Estonia serve as a "catalyst for change" across the UK's land forces, as some defence experts hope? And if so, what kind of change?

Screenshot from linked article regarding Siil and potential British withdrawal of Challenger tanks from Estonia.

Combat in Ukraine won't be a blueprint for every future war. But no army can still fight as though it's 2021.

Will findings from the Siil / Hedgehog 2025 exercise in Estonia serve as a "catalyst for change" across the UK's land forces, as some defence experts hope? And if so, what kind of change?

Yes. It’s deliberate though (no time or inclination to get into debates with editors about whether it’s Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf, and they seem to prefer it that way too…)

I promise you, Iran has plenty of snow. But yes, this was Canada.

Trump’s war has exposed how unprotected we are from an Iranian attack As Iran’s foreign ministry warns the war could soon spread beyond its borders and affect Europe, conflict expert Keir Giles explains why we are wholly unprepared for what could happen and facing the s...

*not just Iranian.

(Once again, we don’t write the headlines.)

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...

Don’t forget you can alternatively move to an assisted living bungalow.

More evidence of Europeans happy to protect other partners but not Ukraine

Watch: British F-35 scores first recorded combat kill

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

You can hear the gritting of the Guardian’s teeth when it is forced to admit that something Trump has said is not “half-truth or no truth”, but actually true.

Sorry, I mean has “a nugget of some truth”, of course.

Screenshot of BBC News story with Trump saying "This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with".

Not exactly a revelation. Can I just point out that the phrase "Keir Starmer is no Winston Churchill" was explicitly and specifically cut from something I wrote 18 months ago on the grounds that it would alienate a core readership demographic of London lefties. Maybe now we're allowed to say it.

Screenshot from linked article saying precisely that.

The war on Iran impacts not just material balance but also the normative legitimacy of Moscow’s grand strategic conception, observes Grégoire Roos, Director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programmes at Chatham House.

www.chathamhouse.org/2026/03/iran...