Russia
Economy & Business
Global reaction to Trump tariffs only reinforces his use of this tired and risky strategy
True to form, U.S. President Donald Trump disrupted global markets with a three-day surge of tariff announcements, border security negotiations and ultimately a 30-day...
Russia Sanctions
The Biden administration’s parting gift to Russia: Still more sanctions
Clearly working overtime to underscore the Biden administration’s desire to inflict maximum economic pain on Moscow and its coterie of Ukraine invasion supporters outside...
Russia Sanctions
Stringent new energy sector sanctions on Russia announced
On January 10, the U.S. Government released a massive new listing of over 200 entities and individuals involved in Russia’s energy sector for Ukraine-related...
Democracy & Human Rights
Biden administration takes final steps to counter global corruption and human rights abuses
Announcing a global grab-bag of new sanctions, possibly some of its last, the Biden administration took major steps on December 9 by authorizing new...
Democracy & Human Rights
Georgia’s political confrontation continues at low boil
It is difficult to find anyone other than current government officials from the “Georgian Dream” party that will claim the country’s October 26 Parliamentary...
Russia Sanctions
U.S. sanctions Russian banks, finance officials and securities registrars
The U.S. announced on November 21 new sanctions targeting Russia’s largest remaining non-designated bank (Gazprombank), as well as dozens of other financial institutions and...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Maia Sandu’s slim win: Moldova struggles between Europe and tradition
The results of Moldova’s recent presidential elections and referendum are final. President Maia Sandu won a re-election bid, while a referendum to cement the...
Defense & Security
Allies condemn the DPRK’s deployment of troops to Russia
The G7 countries, the EU as well as Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand on November 6 expressed "grave concern" over the deployment of...
Democracy & Human Rights
Georgia’s democratic election dream becomes a screamer
Georgia’s October 26 Parliamentary elections did not hold up as “free and fair” even under the lightest of scrutiny. Despite the presence of a...
Zero Tolerance
IMF pronounces victory over inflation while sounding debt and tariff warnings
The 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) took place in Washington D.C. from October 21...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The complex politics of Caspian gas
For the countries bordering the Caspian Sea, gas has always been a major economic resource and, in most cases, one of the biggest contributors...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Supplying Russia and Iran, Armenia emerges as a new sanctions black hole
For the past two years, Armenia has been attempting to demonstrate its shift towards the West, all the while maintaining its geopolitical role as...
Invasion of Ukraine
G7 Foreign Ministers condemn Tehran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized powers condemned on September 14 "in the strongest terms" Iran's sales and Russia's purchases...
Azerbaijan
Romania talks bring green power line deal for Caspian Sea – EU energy
At a meeting in Bucharest, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary reached milestone agreements on the establishment of a Green Energy Corridor, aiming at bringing...
Disinformation & Propaganda
Washington hits back at Russia’s covert influence activities aimed at 2024 U.S. elections
In a wide series of actions on September 4, the Biden administration froze Kremlin-run websites and charged two Russian state media employees in its...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The European Legion’s Activities in Libya
NATO seems to be seeking to intervene in Libya’s internal affairs and impose its control over the Libyan people’s oil and gas capabilities using...
Oil & Gas
Hungary, Slovakia sweetheart deal with Brussels keeps the Russian oil flowing through Ukraine
The energy crisis that has been caused by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine continued after Kyiv imposed in late June of this year a...
Energy
Russia failing to replace lucrative European gas deliveries with sales to China
Russia’s attempts to build the Power of Siberia 2 (PS-2) natural gas pipeline to China appear to be stalling despite repeated statements from Moscow...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Jeffrey Sachs: three times a traitor
An economist with an international reputation, Professor Jeffrey Sachs has increasingly raised his profile in the world media. A U.S. citizen, he accuses his...
Asia & Pacific
Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the U.S. condemn DPRK-Russia Cooperation
During his June 19-20 visit to Pyongyang, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty...
Invasion of Ukraine
G7 Summit focuses on Ukraine support and shattering Russia’s wartime economy
Despite last week’s expert punditry (itself almost indistinguishable from AI) on the latest G7 decisions as exhibited by the “instant experts” on global issues...
Disasters and Reconstruction Initiatives
Berlin Ukraine Recovery Conference
Although partially overshadowed by urgent Ukrainian requests for emergency help with its immediate air defense needs, as well as political shockwaves emanating from the...
China
Xi challenges a divided Europe
After the May 5-9 visit of President Xi Jinping to Europe most of the political analysts in Brussels who argued that the Chinese President's...
Interviews
Tackling new threats to critical energy infrastructure
The explosions that targeted the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia to Germany in September 2022 and the suspected sabotage of Baltic-connector pipeline, which supplies...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
EU-Armenia-U.S. High-level Meeting: A Critical Moment for the South Caucasus
On April 5, an EU-Armenia-U.S. trilateral meeting was held between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and U.S....
Nuclear
The influence of Russia’s nuclear industry steadily expanding in Turkey
Turkey's decision last month that Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom will build the country’s second nuclear power plant, most likely at a site...
Democracy & Human Rights
U.S. joins International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children
On March 7, the office of the spokesperson at the U.S. Department of State issued a media note, clearly meant to be circulated in...
Columns
Eyeing competitors, OPEC+ countries will keep cutting oil production
Several OPEC+ countries are extending additional voluntary cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day, aimed at supporting what they are labeling "the stability and...
Russia Sanctions
Russia sanctions remain a powerful tool to support Ukraine’s defense
Western leaders should not dismiss the two-year long sanctions campaign (as opposed to the 2014 Crimea sanctions) as unsuccessful simply because the Kremlin has...
Russia Sanctions
New U.S. Russia sanctions widen scope, adding 500 new targets
The U.S. State Department released a comprehensive list of new sanctions measures on February 23, clearly the culmination of months of preparation in order...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Moldova’s 2024 elections: Why it matters
Since the war in Ukraine commenced, the neighboring Republic of Moldova, led by President Maia Sandu, has strongly supported Kyiv. As the tiny, landlocked...
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, Romania push regional renewable energy projects
Bulgaria is working with its neighbors to boost energy security and collaborate on joint cross-border projects in natural gas and renewables, according to Bulgaria’s...
Disinformation & Propaganda
Kremlin disinformation efforts in Africa illuminated
The U.S. State Department released a report detailing Kremlin disinformation activities and operatives in Africa on February 12 entitled “The Kremlin’s Efforts to Spread...
Ukraine
Ukraine’s persecuted mayor
Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in post-Maidan and pre-war Ukraine was, and continues to be, the transformation of Ukrainian society along...
Armenia
Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia
Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....
Democracy & Human Rights
Meeting conditions for Georgia’s EU accession is a tall order for Tbilisi
The European Commission’s provisional endorsement of Georgia’s EU chances contained a not-so-subtle message couched in diplomatic jargon: Tbilisi must forge a stronger national consensus...
Economy & Business
New US actions against corruption and Russian malign influence in the Western Balkans
On November 16, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known by its acronym OFAC, designated eight individuals and six...
Democracy & Human Rights
On confronting evil in the modern world
Now is an appropriate time to morally clarify the underlying narrative of what is happening in Israel and Ukraine.
Survivors of the last century’s greatest...
Invasion of Ukraine
It takes time to defeat a dictatorship
Whether it is acknowledged or not, Ukraine and the West are in the process of learning a very hard but essential lesson about the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Breaking Europe’s hold on football
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar brought together nations from around the world, and 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the final. But...
Armenia
With Armenia defeated tensions between Yerevan and Russia reach a turning point
Relations between Armenia and its traditional strategic partner Russia are deteriorating fast. With Yerevan's fundamental defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh - the 30-year-old Moscow-backed separatist region...
Invasion of Ukraine
Prigozhin’s inglorious rebellion
Images of camouflaged gunmen seizing government buildings in a post-Soviet city were eerily reminiscent of what the world witnessed in the spring of 2014...
Invasion of Ukraine
Conflict, migration, and demography in Russia and its border regions
Despite the absence of a clear definition of “ethnic group,” the term generally refers to people with a common history, culture, and ancestry. Russians...
Invasion of Ukraine
Working against Ukraine’s own interests
As the Ukrainian counter-offensive begins, maintaining American support is absolutely vital to Kyiv’s success. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have proven their courage, but even...
Analysis
A post-Berlusconi Italy could find itself at an era-defining political turning point
A new era began in Italy on June 12 when Silvio Berlusconi, the polarizing and towering political figure who dominated Italian politics for nearly...
The Negroni Diaries
Ukraine’s ‘Doolittle Raid’
Ukraine has proven that a numerically superior combatant can be defeated when confronted with superior tactics and a better-trained, motivated, and equipped opponent.
IT & Telecom
Washington issues reward offer for Russian ransomware actor
On May 16, the State Department announced a reward offer, under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, of up to $10 million, for information...
Defense & Security
When it comes to defense, the politicians must listen to those who know best – the generals
The halls of power are walked by people who know little, care even less and yet have the right to supersede and ignore the advice of those who know better.
Georgia
Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated
In early March, the world’s attention was on Georgia. We saw massive protests fueled by anger, concerns and fear, and eventually, we witnessed a...
Europe & Eurasia
Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications
Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...
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