Russia
Russia is asserting itself as an imperial power. Isolated since its invasion of Ukraine, it is seeking to strengthen its ties with non-Western countries. At home, Vladimir Putin's regime is hardening.
Related Subjects
U.N. Security Council meets on Nord Stream at Russia's request
Remarks by Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, director of Ifri's Center for Energy & Climate, on the occasion of the meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Nord Stream at Russia's request, on September 30, 2022.
Military briefing: How will Russia’s mobilisation affect the war in Ukraine?
Kyiv expects new recruits to appear within two months but Moscow struggles with training and logistical obstacles.
Russia's air force makes the difference in Donbas breakthrough
The frantic rate of attacks from the air seems to have contributed to the recent retreat of Ukrainian forces on the Donbas front.
Thomas Gomart 'Russia is waging a colonial war in Ukraine under nuclear protection'
Thomas Gomart is a French historian and director of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). In an interview with Le Monde, he analyzed the new global strategic situation and gave a first assessment of the disruption caused by the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
C.Africa's Leap Into Bitcoin Leaves Its People Bemused
In the Central African Republic (CAR), nine out of 10 people do not have internet, and only one in seven has electricity -- that is, when there are no power cuts.
Yet the CAR has just followed El Salvador in adopting bitcoin as legal tender, a currency that requires access to the net to be bought, sold or used.
Le Pen Closer Than Ever to the French Presidency (and to Putin)
As elections approach Sunday, the far-right candidate is linked to the Russian president by a web of financial ties and a history of support that has hardly dimmed despite the war in Ukraine.
EU Winds Down Military Training Operations in Mali
The European bloc is involved in two training missions in Mali – the EUTM and the EUCAP – to coach soldiers and police.
After the riots, a new era in Kazakhstan?
In January 2022 Kazakhstan underwent its most serious political crisis since its independence, proclaimed on December 16, 1991. The increase in the price of fuel has set ablaze the west of the country in the grip of socio-economic marginalization, then the southern regions, traditionally more resistant to central power. What actually happened, and what consequences did these troubles have at the national and regional levels?
Putin’s War is Stuck, Beware The Rising Risks
Data on the concentration of Russian troops was solid; the diplomatic offensive executed by Moscow was deliberately disagreeable; yet, many experts (myself including) refused to accept the proposition on the coming war as “inevitable”.
Moscow’s tried and tested Georgia strategy now tailored for Ukraine
Western powers appear unable to thwart Putin’s strategy to reassert Russian influence
Energy Relations between Russia and China: Playing Chess with the Dragon
Post-sanctions Russia-China energy relations: what expectations?
Shifting Political Economy of Russian Oil and Gas
Dramatic changes in the Russian energy strategy and energy-based political alliances are to be expected due to the evolution of the domestic oil and gas market resulting from the economic crisis and sanctions linked to the annexation of Crimea.
War’s Indirection or the Return of the Limited War
Over the last few years both the United States and Russia seem to have changed their conception of how to deploy force.
There Will Be Gas: Gazprom’s Transport Strategy in Europe
The key role of Ukraine in the transportation of Russian gas and the underground gas storage facilities are a legacy of the Soviet era. From the mid-1990s onwards, Gazprom has repeatedly tried to control gas transit through Ukraine and other infrastructures from the Soviet era without success.
The Political and Commercial Dynamics of Russia's Gas Export Strategy
A wide-ranging look at the way Gazprom interacts with an increasingly challenging global gas market for Russia.
Gazprom in Europe: a Business Doomed to Fail?
The construction of what is nowadays called European energy policy is an ongoing process that officially started with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and has not yet been entirely finalized. It took several decades to move from a Community composed of six countries to a policy – not fully fledged – intended to strengthen as much as possible cohesion between 28 EU member states in the energy sector.
Raising the Costs to President Putin
-by building dissonance within. Some like to remember fondly the call by Ronald Reagan for Gorbachev “to tear down this wall”. The United States “Won the Cold War” said George Bush Senior in his State of the Union Address. We need to step back and recognize with some humility that the Soviet Union fell largely of its own weight rather than as a result of external pressure. Again today Russia is economically weak. It has become an exporter of raw materials, its industrial sector is weak, and its revenues are already falling. Conditions now offer the opportunity to aggravate Russia’s economic frailty – let’s focus on that.
Russian LNG: The Long Road to Export
On 1 December 2013 a law on the export liberalization of liquefied natural gas (LNG) came into legal force in Russia. The law allows some categories of companies other than Russia's state gas giant Gazprom and its subsidiary companies to have LNG export rights.
Beyond the "Arab Spring": Russia's Security Interests in the Middle East
The reconfiguration of the regional system of international relations as a result of the Arab revolutions has engendered fresh challenges for Russia, related, amongst other things, to deteriorating relations with the USA and other Western powers.
The Expanding Chinese Footprint in Latin America: New Challenges for China, and Dilemmas for the US
The physical presence of China in Latin America is entering a phase of significant expansion, as the logical consequence of the rapid growth over the past decade of its trade, investment, and infrastructure for doing business in the region.
Kremlin Is Top Destination For Spooked European Leaders
Rarely in recent years has the Kremlin been so popular with European visitors. French President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday. The Hungarian prime minister visited last week. And in days to come, the German chancellor will be there, too. All are hoping to get through to President Vladimir Putin, the man who singlehandedly shapes Russia’s course amid its military buildup near Ukraine and whose designs are a mystery even for his own narrow inner circle.
Helium‑3 from the lunar surface for nuclear fusion?
Since 1969, the return of a human mission to the Moon has never seemed so close. Although scientific interest continued to flourish, space programmes had for many decades abandoned it in favour of the International Space Station and missions to explore the solar system.
What can we expect from Russia at COP26?
We ask experts whether the Kremlin’s latest moves on climate, including its 2060 net-zero target, heralds genuine change or more greenwash.
Russia has been seen as a climate pariah by the international community for some years. It was one of the last counties to ratify the 2015 Paris Agreement – not until September 2019, at the UN’s Climate Action Summit.
The arrest of Russian cybersecurity titan Ilya Sachkov
Our main story this week is the treason case against Ilya Sachkov, the 35-year-old CEO of the cybersecurity firm Group-IB. On Wednesday morning, September 29, hours after officials raided the company’s Moscow office, a local court jailed Sachkov for the next two months, pending trial.
President Zelensky’s Increasingly Critical Stance toward the West
After the recent intensification of dialogue between official Kyiv and President Biden’s administration, in the wake of the rising threat to Ukraine posed by Russia and in anticipation of President Biden’s visit to the UK and EU, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team began sharpening their rhetorical stance toward Ukraine’s Western partners.
Anna Myroniuk: Peace in Donbas can’t mean capitulating to Russia
Editor’s Note: This opinion piece was written based on the experience of Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Myroniuk, a native of Donetsk, on a trip to Paris at the invitation of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sponsored a visit by Ukrainian journalists in early February. In Paris, the reporters had a chance to speak with top-level decision-makers and hear their views on how to end Russia’s war in the Donbas.
China, Russia rise in CAR as Western influence shrinks
Russia and China are muscling their way into the Central African Republic as Western clout in the mineral-rich, strategically important nation seems to wane, analysts say.
100 years after independence from Moscow, Finland anchored firmly to West
HELSINKI (AFP) - A century after gaining independence from its powerful neighbour Russia, Finland continues to consolidate its ties to the West, as tensions flare between Moscow and the West. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and an uptick in military activity in the Baltic region have tested Finnish-Russian relations, painstakingly maintained over the years with scrupulous diplomatic efforts.
From Russia, with love
Russia is trying to “sow chaos” in Europe by betting big on Marine Le Pen and France's far right.
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