Opinion
COMMENT: Iran’s twelve-day war with Israel has pushed Tehran deeper into Moscow’s arms
Iran’s twelve-day war with Israel has pushed Tehran even closer to Moscow and led to new cooperation agreements, including increased weapons supplies and closer cooperation in the nuclear sector.
COMMENT: Is the EU deliberately trying to scupper the US peace plan or is it just incompetent?
After the talks in Geneva the 28-point peace plan (28PPP) has been cut to 19 points. But the EU has come up with its own 24-point plan that contains several points that guarantee the Kremlin will reject it.
Economic pressures fuelling support for rightwing populists in Emerging Europe, says analyst
Recent elections show rightwing populism is “alive and kicking” in East European countries in 2025, says Mak Kasapovic, Eastern Europe analyst at Oxford Analytica.
MACRO ADVISORY: Will dark water take the shine off Kyrgyzstan’s golden growth?
The Kyrgyz Republic has reported average annual GDP growth of 9% for the past three years and will again be close to that growth in 2025. But while the economy is doing well, Kyrgyzstan and its neighbours are facing a major power and water crisis.
UBN: Ukraine’s war of drones reaches a new level
The war of drones has reached a level that was impossible to predict just a short time ago. The Western allies are completely unaware of the current military landscape as they talk about defending their borders from a new model of warfare.
COMMENT: Russia’s impossible budget plan for 2025
Russia’s Finance Ministry has projected a federal budget deficit of RUB5.7tn ($63.6bn) in 2025, or 2.6% of GDP, based on expected expenditures of RUB42.8tn and revenues of RUB37.1. But it will probably miss even this inflated target.
Corruption and lack of competitiveness threaten fast-track EU enlargement
wiiw study says candidate countries must accelerate deep economic and institutional reforms if they hope to meet ambitious timelines for EU accession.
UBN: Energoatom scandal hurts Ukraine, benefits the Kremlin
The $100bn Energoatom corruption scandal that broken on November 10 has caused outrage in Ukraine. It has hurt Ukraine's reputation and benefited the Kremlin, says UBN's editorial team.
COMMENT: Finland’s President Stubb lists the three obstacles to a Ukraine ceasefire
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb has warned that a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine is unlikely to materialise before spring, and urged Western allies to sustain support for Kyiv despite recent corruption scandals.
COMMENT: Trump was “sent by heaven”, Russia is a “God-given” neighbour, says Kazakhstan’s president. What's cooking?
With White House and Kremlin visits in the space of six days, pressure was on Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to pull off a masterclass in multi-vector foreign policy.
COMMENT: Ukraine slowly wearing down Russia's oil industry
Russia’s oil industry, long seen as the bedrock of the country’s economic strength, is being slowly degraded—not by sanctions or falling demand, but by the persistent and methodical pressure of Ukraine’s drone attacks.
Armenia’s 2026 election set to be battleground for competing Western and Russian influence
Carnegie Europe commentary says 2026 general election to determine whether Armenia continues its pivot toward the West or reverses course under pressure from Moscow and powerful diaspora networks.
EU accession policy fails to address Chinese engagement in Balkans
ECFR report warns the EU does not have a clear strategy for managing candidate countries’ engagement with China.
BEYOND THE BOSPORUS: In Zurich, Turkey’s opposition chief was almost falling over himself to declare that power is nearly upon the CHP
It’s an interesting thought that sounds a bit too good to be true.
COMMENT: Czechia economy powering ahead, Hungary’s economy stalls
Early third-quarter GDP figures from Central Europe point to a growing divergence between the region’s two largest economies outside Poland, with Czechia accelerating its recovery while Hungary continues to struggle.
COMMENT: EU's LNG import ban won’t break Russia, but it will render the sector’s further growth fiendishly hard
The European Union’s nineteenth sanctions package against Russia marks a pivotal escalation in the bloc’s energy strategy, which will impose a comprehensive ban on Russian LNG imports beginning January 1, 2027.
Western Balkan countries become emerging players in Europe’s defence efforts
The Western Balkans could play an increasingly important role in strengthening Europe’s security architecture, says a new report from the Carnegie Europe think-tank.
COMMENT: Sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil are symbolic and won’t stop its oil exports
The Trump administration’s sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, announced on October 22, may appear decisive at first glance, but they are not going to make a material difference to Russia’s export of oil, says Sergey Vakulenko.
Armenia’s painful reorientation toward the West
Yerevan’s drive to break free from its dependency on Moscow is generating profound internal political turbulence and exposing it to new external risks, says a report by the Central Asia‑Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program.
COMMENT: Europe’s “fake it till you make it” war approach cannot hold off Russia’s trillion dollar war machine
In their speeches on the war in Ukraine, European leaders appear like a video clip looped on repeat. Standing before the cameras they declare new packages of support for Kyiv and threaten new measures to pressure Russia as if it was still 2022.