CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
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Russia in the labyrinth of Middle East politics
This is a concise and timely handbook to Russia policy in the Middle East, writes GAVIN O’TOOLE
Russian ground support Sukhoi Su-25 at Latakia, Syria on October 3 2015
[Mil.ru/CC]
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip
Russian Foreign Policy towards the Middle East: New Trends, Old Traditions
Edited by Nikolay Kozhanov
Hurst £25
WHILE there is still no hard evidence that Syrian mercenaries recruited by Russia have arrived in Ukraine or started fighting there, there is no doubt thousands have signed up to do so.
Reports have proliferated since March that Moscow is using its close ties with the regime of Bashar al-Assad to source a new supply of potential cannon fodder for its Ukrainian adventure.
There is nothing new about Syrian fighters serving as mercenaries abroad in countries such as Libya on behalf of Russian foreign policy interests, often under the cloak of deniability and at low cost.
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TOMASZ PIERSCIONEK is intrigued by a the changing significance of its vast areas of forest to Russia’s history
Tehran retaliates with attacks on Israel, the Gulf Arab states and crude oil flows
