Features
Moscow coup claims, drone strikes and V-Day celebration nerves
The Moscow elite have been shaken a little ahead of the annual Victory Day parade on May 9 after a Ukrainian drone hit an elite residential skyscraper and rumours of a coup attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin swirl in the international p
Seven billion dollars could have flowed into Ukraine’s missile-maker Fire Point, earning insiders vast profits
A total of $7bn could have flowed from Ukraine’s state coffers into the missile-maker Fire Point, potentially earning Bankova’s insiders vast profits, Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskiy’s former press secretary, alleged in a blog post.
Japan quietly resumes Russian oil imports as Hormuz crisis forces a pragmatic rethink
A cargo of Russian oil arrived in Japan for the first time since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as pragmatism overtakes principles in Tokyo.
Finland's break with Russia left its economy struggling to keep up with defence spending
When Finland formally joined Nato in April 2023, abandoning the studied neutrality it had maintained since the Second World War, the decision was framed in Helsinki as an existential security choice forced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Is Russia quietly blocking the development of the Middle Corridor?
Mysteriously, the project to build the transit route’s most critical piece of infrastructure, Anaklia deep sea port in Georgia, remains stalled.
Post Assad Syria sill dependent on Russian oil
Russia has emerged as the main supplier of oil to Syria, despite the new government's reaching out to the West and uncomfortable relations with Moscow over its military support for the fallen Assad regime.
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Has the Third World War started – in Asia?
As history has demonstrated many times to date, the ‘start’ of a world war is less a moment than a process, and Asia today is beginning to look uncomfortably similar to Europe of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Iran-linked shock’s impact on Emerging Europe seen milder than 2022 crisis, says wiiw economist
Severity of current shock in Emerging Europe linked to Iran war unlikely to match the 2022 crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
How China captured the Gulf while Washington forgot to send an ambassador
Beijing now trades nearly $400bn a year with the Middle East, runs the region's largest infrastructure programmes, and brokers its diplomacy. America still sells the weapons. It is not enough
How Tehran systematically dismantled America's Gulf military network in the first days of the war- NBC
When US and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, striking Iran's nuclear sites, missile factories and military infrastructure, the Trump administration was expecting a walk in the park. It wasn't.
Asian trade jitters spark fresh Malacca Strait monetisation push
The collapse of maritime stability in the Middle East has cast a long, overdue shadow over the busiest maritime chokepoint in Asia: the Strait of Malacca.
Iran's oil sector fails to "explode" as Trump's shut-in deadline passes
The US blockade of tankers serving Iran’s oil exports is intended to cut Iranian oil exports to near-zero and force its production to stop as storage tanks fill, forcing Tehran to return to the negotiation table. The plan hasn't worked.
Europe bought more Russian LNG in March than at any point in history, the same week it banned imports
Despite threatening to end Russian LNG imports completely next year, prompting the Kremlin to threaten to cut off gas exports to Europe before then, the EU just imported the most LNG in history as it slides into an expanding gas crisis.
Europe buys the most Russian LNG in history, just as first bans on imports come into effect
Despite threatening to end Russian LNG imports completely next year, prompting the Kremlin to threaten to cut off gas exports to Europe before then, the EU just imported the most LNG in history as it slides into an expanding gas crisis.
Berlin's Kazakh oil fiction is ending and the numbers don't add up
The Kremlin has announced that it will end a three-year old deal to deliver “Kazakh” oil to Berlin from the start of May, plunging Berlin into a fresh energy shortfall crisis as it scrambles to find an alternative source of crude.
Von der Leyen's gaffe complicates EU relations with Turkey
The EU is in a slow-moving identity collapse crisis. Disunity in the EU is growing more obvious each month and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is casting about for ways to rebuild a consensus without much luck.
With Washington’s reliability shifting daily, Northeast Asia’s security order frays
US policy is increasingly variable, shaped by domestic politics, transactional needs, and at times which side of the bed its leader wakes up on.
EU imposes “anti-circumvention” sanctions on Kyrgyzstan for assisting Russia
Sanctions may hurt Bishkek’s image more than its economy.
Merz's conservatives deliver ultimatum to Von der Leyen: cut the Brussels machine or go
The relationship between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her own political family has reached a new point of tension, with German conservatives preparing to deliver a blunt ultimatum to the woman they helped install in Brussels
Europe paid for the weapons. America kept them.
The contracts were signed. The funds were transferred. The weapons were manufactured. Then came the notification that they would not be arriving on schedule — because the United States needed them elsewhere.