Elon Musk wants to be the Cecil Rhodes of space

tass.ru/ekonomika/26... Pretty sure that 20 years ago there were rumours that Miller was in ill health and about to retire.

Another episode in my substack on "Pluribus" and socialist economics and politics, this time comparing the sci-fi show with Hegel's "universal Reason": open.substack.com/pub/tomadshe...

Russia Services PMI is 53.1, up from 52.3 in December, the strongest growth level for a year, so signs that the economy is beginning to dig itself out of its hole. The rise in VAT is hitting prices, but companies seem to be able to pass this through to customers. www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/...

www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/... Kazakh services PMI up a bit at 50.5 after 49.5 last month, it's normally a leading indicator, and given that the weak Manufacturing PMI seems to be a one-off related to VAT, it looks like there's slow growth there. Sharp jump in input prices though.

www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/... Russia PMI numbers perk up, to 49.4 in Jan, from 48.1 in Dec. Still contractionary though - monetary policy is still tight, and industry is still hurting from crowding out by the military sector. So signs of recovery, but it's slow

Kazakhstan Manufacturing PMI numbers out: www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/... Number dips below 50, implying contraction, but this may be because demand was high in December because of anticipated price rises in January, which in turn were due to higher VAT.

Pure James C. Scott

This is reminiscent of the Russians refusing to believe that courts in the UK are independent and don't take orders from the government

New substack post about Pluribus, and what it tells us about the utopianism of the Arrow-Debreu model: open.substack.com/pub/tomadshe...

www.reuters.com/world/india/... I think this is the direction of travel for payments systems amongst the BRICS. There was already talk of this last year. China and Dubai developed the mBridge system to allow for easy exchange of CBDCs. The BIS was involved but withdrew under USA pressure 1/n

Now draw ME like a French girl

I implore everyone to read Operation KRONSTADT by Harry Ferguson - deserves to be filmed. I couldn't put it down - flimsy motor boats with giant engines depositing spies near Petrograd, and also raiding the Kronstadt base. Dukes plays a big part

This is a fantastic piece of work, really opened up my eyes

My latest on shower thoughts inspired by Pluribus, this time about Arrow's Impossibility Theorem: open.substack.com/pub/tomadshe...

I read Babel. I went into it having absolutely adored The Poppy Wars trilogy, and having been in an international postgraduate group in Oxford I was fascinated to see her take on this. Every single BookTok account I follow loved Babel. I'm glad that someone is pointing out the flaws BUT 1/n

Anything we can actually tinsel, we can afford to tinsel

In the Adshead family this is known as a kid-size bottle of wine

There are waivers from both the US and EU on fertilizers and food exports from Russia and Belarus, but previously potash exports from Belarus were not part of the waiver, because of the importance of potash revenues to the Belarussian state

On the other hand, if you've actually lived in Moscow,, the Rublyovka "area" (It's really a main road) is huge, it's like saying that the Hamptons are a gated community for NY's wealthy, or the Cotswolds are a gated community for wealthy Londoners

God forbid Rachel Reeves ever wears a tan suit

But Lord! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange.

I have a law on Russian politics which is that when there is an internal political fight within the elite, the first person to go public is usually the eventual loser. Maybe I should expand its application to all authoritarian systems

The Saudis subsequently bought an overpriced painting from Rybolovlev, so it's more likely the bribe was from them. No one who knows Russia would describe Rybolovlev as close to the Kremlin

First time I've seen someone in the thinktank world ask: "What is more important—a cooperative Georgia or a reform-oriented Georgia?" 1/n us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

I was fascinated by this post from Telegram: t.me/yurasumy/25457. It shows how Russian troops enter a town in the new reality of drone strikes. You need to wait for fog, and I guess the small cars and motorcycles make the target spread out. So this is how infantry tactics are changing on the ground.

It's not just McFaul (although he chooses to post about it) but most American "experts" on Russia are horrifyingly distant from their subject matter. (a) if you've spent time in Kyiv or Minsk in the last 20 years you will understand that it's possible to make good money there 1/n

www.reuters.com/business/maz... Mazda lets its buyback option expire in regards to its Russian assets. This is not surprising given the current state of sanctions, and we are likely to see a number of similar announcements in the coming months. 1/n

tashkenttimes.uz/national/162... Surprised there is not wider coverage of this, as only KAZ, KYR and TAJ are part of the CSTO. I doubt they are abandoning the latter, but it's interesting that the countries are working on an alternative defence structure. 1/n

"Kremlin-led" is such a weaselly adjective. The EaEU makes decisions unanimously, like the EU which it apes in many aspects of its work. Russia is the largest budget contributor, because it's the largest economy. If it's "Kremlin-led", why was Russia rebuffed when it wanted a single currency?

Since 2014, Western nations have hit Russia with a total of 26,655 sanctions (to mid-September 2025), with 23,960 coming after February 2022. The largest target group, with 13,611 sanctions, is state officials, business owners, and oligarchs. Bne IntelliNews

Looking at the countries I cover, it does feel like an omission for Armenia and the Kyrgyz Republic not to ratify the WTO Fisheries Agreement, since presumably the fact that they are landlocked means that they have no fishing industry to protect

Igor Rudenya moves from Governor of Tverskaya Oblast to NorthWest Presidential Plenipotentiary. Not really a rising star, and the local view is that he's chosen because he's not linked to any of the St Petersburg clans. Seen as a personal choice of Putin, someone who gets things done 1/n

I'm not sure I'm strong enough to be an Arsenal supporter

Just doing some work on Kozak's departure from the Presidential Administration. Lots of Western media saying that he spoke out against the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. I looked at the Security Council stenograph: kremlin.ru/events/presi..., and I don't see him against the recognition of the Donbass 1/n

Erm - thalidomide was withdrawn in 1961 and Farage was born in 1964, so when was he told it was safe? Also he does know that a whole new drug testing system has been built since then?

It just occurred to me that this was a feature, not a bug. The idea was that Trump would remember Mandelson from the Epstein parties

I was just thinking about this in regards to Russian oil. A lot of public strategic debate often suggests that only their side has agency. Why didn't the Biden administration go harder against Russian oil exports? They could have really hurt the economy. (1/n)

This is quite funny, because he's been such a Kremlin bootlicker. As far as I can see, he's collateral damage in the current problems with Azerbaijan. And those problems don't see to be strategic, but related to a relative low-level "nayezd" on assets owned by an ethnic Azerbaijani clan (1/n)

I feel like this should be getting more coverage. It's been coming for a while, but Kazakhstan's GDP per capita has passed Russia's to become the highest of the ex-USSR countries. Obviously, oil and gas prices are important here (Turkmenistan is third) (1/n)

Apparently Trump, Pashinyan and Aliyev will announce a Zangezur corridor called the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity". Why not the "Trump Route for International Peace and Efficiency?" Still a rumour, and it will be a tough sell for Pashinyan domestically, and will annoy Iran

My boss's annual "August is the cruellest month" piece, this must be the 25th or 26th by now

This is sad news - a fantastic artist. I will never forget his "H.G." exhibition, and "Einstein on the Beach" was formative. An Artist with a capital A

Chloe Kelly’s goal celebration face is the exact look my sister used to give me behind our mum’s back when I was being told off

HMG and the Royal Family should assign Prince Andrew to be Trump's main escort during his time in the UK

Dill is so ubiquitous in Russia that I developed a reflex of asking that any dish with chips be served without dill on the chips (без укропа), which would probably be interpreted as a political stance, post-2022

Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed

Uk political leadership for 20 years. i.imgflip.com/a0f05x.jpg

This is fantastic. The UK MOD should do one in the style of the old Battle Picture Library comics