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From Our Own Correspondent: Russia and the UK

Russia and the UK

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Russia and the UK

Owen Bennett Jones with reflection from Steve Rosenberg in Moscow and Peter Day in London.

Owen Bennett Jones presents despatches from BBC correspondents Steve Rosenberg in Moscow (on whether Putinism is now showing its age) and Peter Day (on the raucous history of Britain's gin industry).

Owen Bennett Jones introduces personal insights, reflection and analysis from BHBC correspondents around the world. In this edition: Steve Rosenberg on unexpected protests in Russia and Peter Day on the raucous history and more genteel revival of the British gin industry.


Solid as a rock - or splitting at the seams?

For centuries, in Russia the general population has often been surprisingly willing to forgive its leaders their mistakes. Under the tsars, then under the secretaries-general of the Communist Party, and then under Boris Yelstin and Vladimir Putin, people have said over and over again "it’s not the leader's fault – his advisers are the ones to blame!". 

That attitude could lead to strong leaders - even those not popular abroad - being revered and respected for years, if not decades, on end within Russia itself. For a long while, Vladimir Putin seemed to enjoy such a hold on public opinion. But recent protests got Steven Rosenberg thinking about another enduring theme of Russian political  culture – popular revolt and the demand for change. 


Ice and lemon, easy on the tonic...

Regular BBC World Service listeners will know that Peter Day is a man who's clocked up an impressive number of air miles. But he is by no means hooked on planes - he’s also  been round London on his bike recently, investigating the revival of a traditional industry with a rather miserable past. They didn't nickname the product "mother's ruin" for nothing...

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