Features
The Belarusian security threat – Part II
Since 2020, the Minsk regime has gradually made Belarus into a pariah state and the regime’s previous attempts to position itself as a regional security guarantor have been and are continuously being undone.
Europe's gas storage tanks already half full, but will it be enough?
Gazprom cuts supplies of gas as Europe races to fill its storage tanks. These crossed the halfway mark on June 7 and are now 51.12% full, as the EU seeks to replenish its supplies ahead of the coming winter.
Turkey’s despair rating score is worse than war-torn Ukraine’s
Turkey is in a full-blown crisis and has an extremely high despair index of 93.8, even worse than that of sanction-embattled Russia’s 42.5. And if you don't believe the official Turkish statistics, Turkey's score is also even worse than Ukraine's.
The Belarusian security threat – Part I
While Ukraine isn’t afraid of an outright invasion by Belarusian troops, it still thinks that Belarus remains a military threat, and Minsk still has the potential to pose a long-term security threat to Europe in the years ahead.
Ukraine’s budget is underfunded and in need of Western help
Wars are very expensive and very hard to finance. Ukraine has been thrown into a conflict with a much larger and better funded adversary and it is struggling to raise enough money to continue its heroic resistance against the Russian invader.
Ukraine’s despair index spikes, while Russia’s is already falling
Ukraine’s despair index, which indicates the amount of pain felt by the bottom third of society, has spiked in the last two months, driven up by soaring inflation, rising unemployment and increasing poverty levels, while Russia's peaked in April.
Russian energy export revenues up 40% in May despite sanctions
Despite the West’s push to phase out Russian energy imports and deprive the Kremlin of revenues to finance its war in Ukraine, the country’s export revenues were in fact up by almost 40% year on year in May.
Fate of Russian Arctic megaproject Vostok Oil up in air amid sanctions, EU embargo
A year ago, Rosneft’s Vostok Oil megaproject in the Arctic was heralded as the next frontier for Russia’s oil industry and the biggest investment since the 1970s. Today Russia is sanctioned and the mega-project is unlikely to happen.
Russia preparing for second Africa Summit to build closer ties as it pivots away from the West
Russia is preparing for the second Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for October-November 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as it steps up its campaign to move closer to the African countries and pivot away from the West.
Sanctioned Russians appeal to EU courts
Over 20 Russians are appealing against sanctions imposed on them since the start of the war by the EU. Those challenging their sanctions include oligarchs such as Abramovich and Fridman, as well as industrialist Melnichenko and executive Konov.
The taming of Georgian culture: Film triumphs vex government
Georgian cinema has been enjoying a renaissance, becoming a darling of the international independent film world. But it’s also running into political problems at home.
The Fourth Russia – Green Ukraine
The energy crisis that has wracked Europe since the EU began to cut itself from Russian energy five years ago has had a silver lining. It has driven the transfer to renewables much faster than anyone could have hoped, nowhere more than Ukraine
The Fourth Russia – the energy wars
The biggest change to the world over the last five years since the war in Ukraine ended is the remaking of the world energy order. While the West reorientated itself away from Russian oil and gas, it couldn't wean itself off Russian energy entirely.
Global red warning lights are flashing as stagflation looms
The conflict in Ukraine and high inflation threaten the global economy with stagflation similar to that experienced in the 1970s, according to a new World Bank forecast.
The Fourth Russia – Gorbushka is back
On a warm day in June the crowds throng the Gorbushka electronics and media market in the Fili Park in west Moscow. The new iPhone XX is out and it would be impossible to find it in Moscow if it were not for Gorbushka's tables.
Ukraine’s banking sector weathering the storm for now
Ukraine’s banking sector has been weathering a string of storms, from the coronavirus pandemic to a full-scale invasion by Russia, with remarkable strength, but in the last two months the shocks are starting to have an effect.
The Fourth Russia – the new world order
The year is 2027 and it is five years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Just how much progress has the country made since then and just how much damage has the extreme sanction regime imposed on Russia done?
INTERVIEW: Estonia’s President Alar Karis
"In a sense, we, the Western states, failed – so many heads of Western states went to Russia, yet we did not manage to avoid the war."
Poland’s post-Gazprom strategy hinges on Baltic Pipe
The new pipeline will link the gas-rich fields of the Norwegian Continental Shelf to Poland via Denmark, and enable the country to replace roughly the equivalent of Gazprom’s supplies.
Q&A | UN warns crises may force 70% of Kyrgyzstanis into poverty
Reliance on migrant remittances has left Kyrgyzstan especially vulnerable to the pandemic and Russia’s war.
