Declassified UK

3 days ago | declassifieduk.org | Mark Curtis

Two British prime ministers recognised Moscow’s fears over Nato expanding in eastern Europe – a major cause of the Ukraine war – files show. Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair have an aperitif in a beer garden in Moscow, November 2000. (Photo: LaPresse / Alamy)Declassified British files shed further light on the controversial question as to what assurances were made to Russia by UK officials about the expansion of Nato into eastern Europe.

1 week ago | declassifieduk.org | Kate Hudson

Labour is persisting with a “nukes plus NATO” defence policy that is likely to lead to further wars. A new independent report counters this disastrous narrative. Keir Starmer and John Healey on Salisbury Plain, August 2022 (PA Images/Alamy)Just days into his premiership, Keir Starmer announced the commissioning of a “root and branch” Strategic Defence Review (SDR).

1 week ago | declassifieduk.org | Mark Curtis

Declassified files shed further light on how the UK government courted Bashar Al-Assad at the beginning of his rule, before trying to overthrow him The Blairs greet the Assads at Downing Street in 2002. (Photo: Ammar Abd Rabbo / Alamy)Syrian ruler Bashar Al-Assad “would always be very welcome here”, Tony Blair told an Arab monarch in July 2000, declassified files show.

1 week ago | declassifieduk.org | Mark Curtis

British declassified files shed further light on the controversial question as to what assurances were made to Russia by UK officials about the expansion of Nato. The files show John Major, Britain’s prime minister from 1990-97, telling Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov in February 1997 that “if he were Russian he too would be concerned by the possibility that Nato might move up to Russia’s borders”.

2 weeks ago | declassifieduk.org | Mark Curtis

The British Empire is still with us, in the UK’s island outposts and military bases, in the plunder of other countries’ resources, and in UK officials’ imperial mindset. A British soldier kicks anti-colonial demonstrators in Yemen, 1967. Keir Starmer bombed the country last month. (Photo: AP / Alamy)There’s long been a debate over whether Britain’s Empire – the largest the world has ever known – was a good or bad thing. There’s another question though – did it really end?