Predicting Russian behaviour is a fools’ errand. As a young ‘stringer’ in Kyiv during the dying months of the Soviet Union, I was bemused by the analysis of Western journalists from their elite compounds in Moscow, who saw a very different world to that experienced by those of us in the ‘sticks’.

Hopes of a deal are little more than a sophisticated Kremlin disinformation campaign

It is with some trepidation then that I write this. While I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the peace talks currently under way in Abu Dhabi , I fear that hopes of a ‘deal’ are little more than a sophisticated Kremlin disinformation operation, designed to hurt Volodymyr Zelensky when his popularity and battlefield morale are at a particularly low point.

Let’s look at the timing. The Ukrainian President is un

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