Eastern Europe / Features
South Korea VS China in the race for a commercial Arctic trade route
South Korea is set to wave off a commercial container ship bound for Europe via the Arctic Ocean some time in late August, in the process testing the commercial viability of a northern sea corridor.
Russia's economic plan is hitting its targets, but growth is still only 1%
Russia's structural transformation plan has hit 12 of its 14 targets for the first half of this year, eight of them ahead of schedule, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development
Asia's nuclear arms race stops being hypothetical
China has told Japan not to test its patience over nuclear weapons, in an exchange that has moved an Asian arms race from something strategists war-game to something foreign ministries now argue about in public. Beijing's warning followed months...
Russia trying to systematically destroy Ukraine's retail sector
Ukraine's government went looking for warehouse space to hand to companies bombed out of their own. On its own experts' best case, it can cover about a fifth of what business needs.
Kremlin think tank warns Putin Russia faces 1.6% growth without reform
Everything that has kept the Russian economy growing since 2020 has now been used up, a think tank the Kremlin created itself has told Vladimir Putin.
Russia and Myanmar sign ten documents as Putin dangles LNG, nuclear power and a deep-water port
Russia and Myanmar signed ten documents in the Kremlin on August 18, including a joint declaration on countering Western sanctions.
Europe's second inflation shock is arriving in two waves, energy now and food next year
Central bankers do not usually forecast the weather. The European Central Bank's chief economist has just put one into his.
Russians are not cashing out of banks, deposits hit a record high but savings boom that built them running out of steam
This week The Telegraph reported that “Russians withdraw billions from banks amid fears Putin could seize deposits.” What actually happened is Russian bank deposits have doubled since the start of the war in Ukraine and are still rising.
Nato has no plan for a joint Russia-China attack, its own strategists say
The scenario that keeps Western planners awake is easy to describe and, it turns out, almost entirely unstudied: Russia moves on a Nato member while China moves on Taiwan.
The electric war
Russia has begun its campaign against Ukraine's energy system weeks earlier than in either of the past two winters, and this time the aim is to stop the repairs before they finish.
Russia's state development bank sacks chief economist over a speech he gave in May
Russia's main state development bank has sacked its chief economist over a speech he gave three months ago, in which he said the Russian economy would survive.
Ukraine's bank profits fall by nearly a third as wartime windfall fades
Ukraine's banks made almost a third less profit in the first half of 2026 than a year earlier, as the wartime windfall that fattened their margins begins to fade.
Iran and the Philippines offer Russia two very different farm-export bets
Russia's meat and feed exporters face a choice between two very different markets: Iran, slow and bureaucratic but predictable, and the Philippines, fast-growing but brutal on price.
Belgium leads EU buyers as Russian LNG sales to the bloc jump 57%
The EU bought €809mn of Russian liquefied natural gas in June, 57% more than a year earlier, with Belgium the single biggest buyer.
Sberbank profit hits record $12.6bn as strain spreads through Russia's banks
Russia's banks are earning more than ever, yet beneath the record profits lie mounting bad debts, a flight to cash and a corporate-loan pile that few in Moscow can measure.
Putin’s winter campaign to freeze Ukraine into submission is already underway
Russia has begun tearing into Ukraine's power grid weeks earlier than last winter, hitting substations and fuel depots as Kyiv braces for the blow meant to plunge it into the dark.
EU gas stocks sink below 2021 lows before the hardest winter in five years
Europe's gas tanks are emptier than at any point on record for the time of year, and the cargoes that should be filling them are sailing to Asia instead.
Ukraine rapidly running out of grain storage space
Ukraine could run out of room to store 8mn-11mn tonnes of its own grain by November, with the ports shut and the new crop still coming in.
Russian view, Tehran's Hormuz trap
The US military strategy has run into a dead end. Alternating strikes and ceasefires have done nothing to shift Iran's stated resolve, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has given Tehran the leverage to press its terms.
Kazakh billionaire Turlov bids for presidency of World Chess Federation
Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov did not set out to run world chess. But after the current president of FIDE Arkady Dvorkovich was sanctioned last month, he is now the leading contender to take over. He wants to make chess a digital Olympic sport.