Welcome to the Conversation
Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent is replying to your questions now. He has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine.
Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianShare
Updated at 08.16 EDT
Key events
Has Russia’s relationship with the UK changed?
Philippeblades asks: A couple of days ago the Russian ambassador to the UK was withdrawn after seven years. How much should we read into this?
Luke:
double quotation markRussia abandoned traditional diplomacy a long time ago. Its emissaries abroad operate as suit-wearing trolls. Their job is to repeat Kremlin lies – for example, that neo-Nazis run Ukraine – to an international audience. Relations between London and Moscow have been awful for well over a decade. Russian state TV calls the UK “Foggy Albion” and periodically threatens nuclear annihilation. I don’t think we should read too much into the ambassador’s departure. But Russia’s dislike of Britain is very real.
Andrey Kelin, Russian ambassador to the UK left last month as tenstions with have ratcheted up Photograph: Jeff Overs/PAShare
Who is your biggest journalistic influence?
leeabroad asks: The days of reporters like Robert Fisk and Marie Colvin going to places and breaking stories that make news around the globe are long gone. Patrick Cockburn is nigh on 80. Who was or is your biggest journalistic influence? Who are the journalists today whose courage and reportage you most respect?
Luke:
double quotation markWhat a wonderful question. I admire my Ukrainian colleagues who continue to document the invasion of their country, often at terrible personal cost. Several have been killed and injured. There are many brave international reporters in Kyiv too, who have become dear friends. In terms of influence, I would name two great correspondents, James Cameron and Ryszard Kapuscinski. Both were superlative writers and observers. Cameron’s books – among them An Indian Summer and Point of Departure – are literary gems. And Kapuscinski’s Imperium – about the fall of the Soviet Union – is a masterpiece.
Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski. His booke Imperium about the fall of the Soviet Union ‘is a masterpiece’. Photograph: Associated PressShare
Should the UK have taken the murder of Alexander Litvinenko more seriously?
sberney asks: Do you think the UK government should have taken the murder of Alexander Litvinenko more seriously and not have invited Putin to the 2012 Olympics in London?
Luke:
double quotation markYes. I covered Litvinenko’s case from Moscow and London and am good friends with his widow Marina. I also wrote a book, A Very Expensive Poison, which was adapted by Lucy Prebble into a successful stage play. Over the past two decades Russia has carried out various dark deeds. They include sending assassins to kill Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, shooting down MH17 and in 2014 annexing Crimea. Typically the west’s response has been unimaginative and lacklustre. After Litvinenko’s poisoning Gordon Brown’s government expelled a few diplomats and David Cameron – as you mention – invited Putin to watch judo at the London Olympics. All of this emboldened Russia’s leader. He thought Europe was weak. This led directly to his decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The grave of poisoned ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in Highgate Cemetery. Putin was emboldened by the west’s ‘unimaginative and lacklustre’ repsonse Photograph: Toby Melville/ReutersShare
Welcome to the Conversation
Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent is replying to your questions now. He has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine.
Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianShare
Updated at 08.16 EDT
