Foreign affairs broadcaster and author; BBC presenter. Author @iconbooks *SHORTLISTS : BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE ; ORWELL PRIZE 2025* & PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE
London
Joined February 2010
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I started reporting on the Soviet Union in my twenties. Just a couple of years on I am thrilled that my first book about Putin, power and the Church is out on Thursday. Preorders: amazon.co.uk/Baton-Cross-Rus…
ALT With sculptor Lev Kerbel and outside a communal cell at Butyrka prison which dates back to Catherine the Great.
Lucy Ash retweeted
Beyond irresponsible. What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand? It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day. If the President wants to actually bring down energy prices, he can do it by solving the Iran problem, not by doing a solid for Vladimir Putin.
apnews.com/article/russia-sa…
Lucy Ash retweeted
Our extraordinary @Channel4News Inside Russia: Young people voting against Putin’s war in Ukraine. Produced by @MillyTeasdale
channel4.com/news/inside-rus…
Lucy Ash retweeted
Author @LucyAAsh says Russia has a long tradition of believing that the right religious object can change events on the battlefield. "In a way it may smack slightly of desperation."
By @Mike_Eckel
5/5🧵
rferl.org/a/russia-orthodox-…
Lucy Ash retweeted
A New York Times investigation has exposed the extraordinary scale of Russia’s operations to destabilize Moldova.
GRU-linked operatives allegedly trained pro-Russian Moldovans in Serbia, Bosnia and Moscow, teaching them how to break police lines, provoke unrest and set buildings on fire.
Moscow’s operation went far beyond street violence. Hundreds of Orthodox priests were reportedly paid and recruited to influence voters and spread Kremlin narratives, while vast sums were poured into an industrial-scale vote-buying operation.
Another coordinated Russian operation to subvert a neighboring democracy from within.
Lucy Ash retweeted
Huge pressure on Ireland to nationalise Russian-owned #Aughinish refinery after
European Parliament voted in favour of a proposal to ban alumina exports to Russia.
rte.ie/news/2026/0708/158239…
Lucy Ash retweeted
Death and the Kremlin
@irinaborogan and I reflect on Sergei Ivanov's career—and why it was always a mistake to look for a rational or less aggressive successor to Putin among the KGB ranks.
cepa.org/article/death-and-t…
Enhertu is a drug that could give people with metastatic breast cancer more time to live, but right now, it’s not available on the NHS. Help change that.
Sign the petition to @ASTRAZENECAUK, @DaiichiSankyoUK, @NICEComms and @NHSEngland #EnhertuNow
action.breastcancernow.org/s…
The Kremlin's scramble for Africa has run into the sand. My piece today for @theipaper Putin’s desperate fight for global influence is turning into a quiet disaster inews.co.uk/opinion/putins-f…
Lucy Ash retweeted
"I am ashamed, but I gave up. Please forgive me."
Those were the closing lines of a note left by Nina Litvinova, 80, before she stepped out of a window in Moscow.
🧵Read her story
An international group Libertas Dei which studies the weaponisation of religion made a flim about me and my history of the Russian Orthodox Church @iconbooks - check it out! facebook.com/reel/1596974471…
Lucy Ash retweeted
From The Orwellians podcast, @LucyAAsh on Russian Patriarch Kirill's KGB background, as observed by Swiss authorities. From her book The Baton and the Cross @iconbooks Full interview: youtube.com/watch?v=DYNaLOM-…
Lucy Ash retweeted
From The Orwellians podcast, @LucyAAsh describes the religious underpinnings of Russia's aggression in Ukriane. Full interview here: youtube.com/watch?v=DYNaLOM-…
carnegieendowment.org/russia… Russia’s entire state apparatus including the church, media and intelligence services is still trying to cover up Putin’s mistake in invading Ukraine but the cracks are beginning to show.
Lucy Ash retweeted
Новая скульптура Banksy. Установлена прошлой ночью в Лондоне и полна смысла для многих.
Really looking forward to talking to Mary Hockaday about power politics and the Russian church @camlitfest tomorrow. cambridgeliteraryfestival.co…
Lucy Ash retweeted
#OpEd Russia has become a country where torture and kidnapping children are part of a "holy war," but offending religious believers — such as by depicting an Easter cake with a hookah pipe or sex toy — is a crime, writes @LucyAAsh.
themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/2…
Lucy Ash retweeted
Vance says that stopping funding for Ukraine is one of his proudest achievements in this administration.
I’m watching this stunningly cruel speech from Ukraine, as Russia continues to kills us every day. Just today, they killed 8-year-old boy in Cherkasy and five people in Dnipro. Dozens more were injured.
The military assistance you are so proud of stopping was used to save lives in a war Russia started and continues every day by choice, in a war that only became possible after USA pressured Ukraine into disarming...
I do not know if Vance can fully comprehend the scale of the tragedy unfolding here: a brutal, illegal war of extermination by Russia, and the slow abandonment by our allies. There is nothing to be proud of. Absolutely nothing.
Lucy Ash retweeted
The man who invented "managed reality" for the Kremlin has allegedly fled. He's had to manage his own reality to stay out of prison. Vladislav Surkov, the grey cardinal. Architect of sovereign democracy, and non-linear warfare in Crimea, may have bolted. youtu.be/R0rCrAdPBok
Lucy Ash retweeted
Orban concedes defeat. The support of Trump, Vance, Putin, Lavrov, Weidel, Milei, Le Pen, Fico, Babis and many others could not overcome Hungarian anger at a stagnant, corrupt regime
theguardian.com/world/live/2…