politics

It is hard to find a more contradictory and painful image for Venezuela than this one: a country whose president was bombed, captured, kidnapped and taken out of its own territory by the United States is now celebrating oil agreements with the very same power that, only yesterday, was exercising a relationship of force over it.

Washington and Brussels are doing something that, from a military standpoint, looks like sheer madness. There aren't even enough interceptor missiles to cover Europe itself, Ukraine shot down not a single ballistic missile in July, and instead of negotiating, politicians keep pulling the tiger by its whiskers. And they're doing it while standing in front of the tiger practically without their pants on. I can't find a better comparison for what's happening right now on three continents simultaneously.

The causes of climate change are a matter for debate, but the fact remains: the planet is warming. There's no point arguing with that - the numbers have been on the table for a long time. But here's the real question: who is telling us about this from television screens and UN podiums today, and why? And why might all this noise turn out to be not a disaster for Russia, but a windfall?

You Can't Argue With Physics

While the British Parliament keeps talking about "strengthening deterrence" and supporting Ukraine, the United Kingdom's own armed forces are going through perhaps the deepest crisis of the past several decades. The Navy is keeping fewer ships in service than would be needed to defend the Falklands alone, the Air Force is losing combat-capable aircraft faster than it receives new ones, and the Army cannot even recruit up to its planned strength.

A new trade route - the idea of a direct sea link between Vladivostok and India's Chennai - has once again returned to the center of negotiations, and this time there may finally be a chance to make it happen. Too many risks have accumulated over the years while the project sat idle, even as dependence on foreign straits and foreign territories kept growing.

A Project Seven Years in Waiting

Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan is preparing to submit its application for European Union membership, and immediately followed up by saying he would be glad if the CSTO itself excluded Armenia from its ranks. Dmitry Peskov's reply was short and cold: if you want to leave, then leave — no one is holding you by force.

"Deliberate Target": How an Explosion Near Chisinau Became a Convenient Excuse for Geopolitical Hysteria

Baku has sharply shifted its tone toward the Kremlin, and the reason behind this change sounds far more mundane than loud statements about sovereignty. What actually stung the Azerbaijani leader was not geopolitical rivalry but a thoroughly earthly question: who gets access to profitable energy transit routes through Ukrainian territory, and who ends up left holding wrecked infrastructure.

The Grievance Is About Money, Not Politics

News today increasingly speaks of a possible conflict between Turkey and Israel. Rhetoric is soaring: Erdoğan calls Netanyahu “the Hitler of our time,” while Israeli media increasingly refer to Turkey as “the new Iran.” Against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Iran, Turkey’s presence in Syria, and rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean, tensions have reached a point where words already sound like threats.

Israel and Turkey are fueling a new conflict in the Middle East. Israeli aircraft struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria, and this is no longer a story about another diplomatic spat. On August 18, eight strikes were carried out on a facility in Idlib province. Tel Aviv’s explanation is straightforward: it was necessary to prevent Turkey from establishing military infrastructure in Syria.

A Strike on a Facility That, According to Damascus, Did Not Exist