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Lucy Ash

@lucyaash.bsky.social

920 followers 150 following 44 posts

Foreign affairs broadcaster and author BBC presenter Russia / Ukraine / Orthodox Church expert My new book The Baton and The Cross is now for sale Trustee of Jerwood Foundation lucyashjournalism.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Dec 7

I started reporting on the Soviet Union in my twenties. Just a couple of years on... I have written a book about Putin, power and the Church. It goes from Christianisation of the Slavs to the war in Ukraine. amazon.co.uk/Baton-Cross-...

Lucy with the sculptor Lev Kerbel and at the Butyrka Prison

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · 5d

Enjoyed meeting @jenstout.bsky.social about The Baton & The Cross at Wigtown Book Festival. We talked about how Patriarch Kirill glorifies Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Now going to hear George Robertson on NATO & future of defence.

Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · 13d

I have only just caught up with this brilliant film - a year of video diaries featuring the lives of people under fire in #Kharkiv. Hope someone makes Trump watch.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alrr...

Kharkiv War Diaries: Stories from a City on the Edge - BBC World Service Documentaries

YouTube video by BBC World Service

www.youtube.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · 13d

Charlie Kirk has become a poster boy for the ultra right Orthodox in Russia. Putin's 'confessor', Metropolitan Shevkunov, heaped praise on him as a Christian missionary who "dared to swim against the tide" when "the truth dies in a sea of political correctness." meduza.io/en/feature/2...

How Charlie became a Russian propaganda hero Pundits, spokespeople, and even Putin’s so-called ‘personal confessor’ warn of U.S. civil war, cannibals, and more in the wake of Kirk’s murder — Meduza

The assassination of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10 and the subsequent political fallout have dominated news headlines across the U.S. and reverberated globally. Kirk beca...

meduza.io

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · 18d

The many faces of Tikhon Khrennikov who controlled the Soviet Union of Composers for 42 years. On @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social I map his influence over decades of cultural control. Can music ever be apolitical in a dictatorship? Listen here from Sunday evening: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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Reposted by Lucy Ash

The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social · 29d

The British Academy Book Prize 2025 shortlist is here!

Each book offers a new perspective on issues of global importance, driven by rigorous research and an ability to tell powerful stories in an engaging and compelling way.

📖 Discover the full list here:

https://bit.ly/4glo8Jo

Promotional image for The British Academy Book Prize 2025 shortlist, featuring a diagonal divide with various book covers displayed on a teal and dark blue background.

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Sep 8

open.substack.com/pub/zygaro/p...
This is beyond creepy

Immortal Putin

How the Promise of Forever Became a Russian State Enterprise

open.substack.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Jul 15

open.substack.com/pub/zygaro/p... fascinating glimpse into the machinations which led to suicide of former Kursk governor.

A Bureaucrat’s Death

The Kremlin’s New Social Contract with Its Own Elite

open.substack.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Jul 5

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... on air now - the story of the notorious book published à century ago.

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, 100 Years of Mein Kampf

John Kampfner read the world’s most notorious book so you don’t have to.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Lucy Ash

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 19

He understood the church could bring a sense of dignity to these humiliated parts of Russian society but pretty soon there were icons appearing in the cockpits of bomber jets & every army division battalion would be named after a saint @lucyaash.bsky.social on Kirill tinyurl.com/jexnt8hk

Why is the Orthodox church so supportive of Putin's war? In conversation with Lucy Ash

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 17/06/2025 · 45m

tinyurl.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Jun 17

Great that @thetimes.com selected my edition of In The Studio on BBC world service as a must listen this week: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Reposted by Lucy Ash

Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · Jun 17

Why is the Orthodox church so supportive of Putin's war? This was a great conversation with @lucyaash.bsky.social about orthodoxy, Putin, Kirill, Ukraine, history and theology. tinyurl.com/jexnt8hk

Why is the Orthodox church so supportive of Putin's war? In conversation with Lucy Ash

Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 17/06/2025 · 45m

tinyurl.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · May 29

My dad was a pioneer of fibre optics - he would be so horrified to see how that technology is being used today. Great piece by @yogital.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

Fibre optic drones: The terrifying new weapon changing the war in Ukraine

The BBC reports from Donetsk where swarms of fibre optic drones give Russia the edge as Ukraine defends towns behind the front line.

www.bbc.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · May 27

Heartbreak on the Cote d'Azur: why are the courts siding with a rogue state against a French association that has existed for over a hundred years? www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...

Russia takes over a second Orthodox church in Nice

The courts have ruled in favor of Moscow, which claimed ownership of the French Riviera church that had been managed for more than a century by descendants of White Russian émigrés. Representatives of...

www.lemonde.fr

Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · May 25

Thanks Kriszta! It was a memorable trip…

Kriszta Satori @fulelo.bsky.social · May 25

Recommended read: Orthodox Christianity - Young US men joining 'masculine' Russian churches
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
By @lucyaash.bsky.social

Orthodox Christianity: Young US men joining 'masculine' Russian churches

A religion with traditions dating back centuries is attracting young American men.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Lucy Ash

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · May 16

The "TheoBros" are opening a church in Washington D.C.

The leader of this mission? Doug Wilson, a pastor known for saying that women should never have been given the right to vote.

A Christian nationalist TheoBro church is coming to DC

Its leaders see "many strategic opportunities."

www.motherjones.com

230 770 1.4K

Reposted by Lucy Ash

Christopher Miller @christopherjm.ft.com · May 17

Hours after the first Russia-Ukraine peace talks in 3 years, Russian forces attacked a civilian bus, killing 9 people and injuring 4 more, Ukrainian National Police report. Hardly a signal that Moscow is seeking an end to its war.

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · May 16

I am over the moon that my book on the Russian Orthodox Church has found its way onto the Orwell Prize shortlist in the company of some brilliant authors.
www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-p...

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · May 16

At a time when all the talk is of closing borders, Rotterdam opens a new art museum inspired by stories of migration. Definitely worth a visit. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

‘Migration is not always a story of suffering’: the Dutch museum telling the full story of global diaspora

Set to become a major cultural destination, Fenix Rotterdam shows the harsh realities of the migrant experience alongside esoteric art – giving a necessary and nuanced view of the subject’s fraught po...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lucy Ash

Oana Lungescu @oanalungescu.bsky.social · May 11

Russia’s orthodox church is converting Americans to the Kremlin’s view of the world. Some converts have hundreds of thousands of followers online & push narratives that Russia is the world’s last bastion of “true”Christianity. Hear @lucyaash.bsky.social podcast from Texas 🇺🇸

BBC Audio | The Documentary Podcast | Assignment: Russia's Church in Texas

The Americans converting to Orthodox Christianity in Texas...

www.bbc.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Apr 28

Why did "a soft, timid intellectual" call for Alexei Navalny’s murder ? What turned many smart, well educated and independent minded journalists of the 90s into Kremlin stooges? Read @andreisoldatov.bsky.social and Irina Borogan's brilliant new book about their former Moscow mates.

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Reposted by Lucy Ash

Constance Kampfner @constancekampfner.bsky.social · Apr 24

NEW: The woman thrown out of the Magic Circle for pulling off the ultimate illusion, disguising herself as a boy, has been found after The Times sparked a campaign to track her down

Sophie Lloyd was readmitted to the club

“A wrong was made right," she said

www.thetimes.com/article/456c...

Magic Circle welcomes back woman expelled for the ultimate deception

Sophie Lloyd was ejected from the society of illusionists for duping them into believing she was a man — its first female chair convinced her to come back

www.thetimes.com

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Apr 10

To be on the same shelf as Alexei Navalny took my breath away! Also feeling very honoured and grateful today for shortlisting my book on Russia's church and its embrace of state power down the centuries.

Reposted by Lucy Ash

IWM Vienna @iwm.at · Mar 18

Recognizing that the need to chronicle the war and its impact on Ukrainian society is as strong as ever, the IWM is very glad to announce that it will be continuing its Documenting Ukraine program, with the next application cycle beginning in June 2025:
www.iwm.at/news/documen...

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Lucy Ash @lucyaash.bsky.social · Mar 19

Hard not to feel that evil begets evil...my review of sinclair McKay's compelling history of the Leningrad blockade www.theneweuropean.co.uk/lucy-ash-the...

The horror that spawned Putin

The siege of Leningrad brought desperation, degradation and death – and a host of stories which shaped a future dictator