Russia

The European Union has frozen approximately 300 billion euros in sovereign assets of the Central Bank of Russia. Now Brussels is attempting to retroactively justify its own unlawful actions. Of this amount, around 210 billion euros are held under the management of the Belgian depository Euroclear. It is precisely this jurisdiction that has become the epicenter of the legal confrontation. Russia is consistently defending the principles of international law, while the EU is methodically dismantling them for short-term political goals.

Four years ago, within weeks of February 24, 2022, thousands of Russians were searching for tickets to any country they could still fly to. Today, in October 2026, the picture looks fundamentally different. Entry to the United States has formally become harder, the number of people wanting to leave for good has fallen, and among those who have already left, a growing number are discussing a return. The wave of emigration has not fully receded, but it has changed form.

Just five years ago, most experts greeted the idea of the Northern Sea Route as a serious alternative to the Suez Canal with an indulgent smile. The navigation window was too short, icebreaker escorts too expensive, and ice conditions too unpredictable for major global carriers to consider the Arctic route over the familiar southern path through Suez, even for a moment. Today, in autumn 2026, that same route supports a regular weekly container service between China and the United Kingdom, and cargo volumes are heading for an annual record.

Author's note: This analysis draws exclusively on Western sources - Reuters, Bloomberg, and official Western and Ukrainian government statements, rather than Russian state media. Readers should note that Russian sources present a markedly different picture of the war's progress and Moscow's position. Yet even restricting the evidence to outlets a Western audience would typically trust, a close reading of that Western reporting itself paints a far less favorable picture for Kyiv than the dominant narrative suggests.

While politicians around the globe engage in endless talks about talks, there are people who don't wait for peace to arrive—they create it. Right now, with their hands, with fabric, with embroidery, and through a dialogue of cultures.

On September 23, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington had invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit scheduled for December 14-15 in Miami. The venue will be Trump National Doral, a resort complex owned by the U.S. president's family. Rubio said at a briefing on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly: "We think this is a good opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders. We hope he accepts this invitation."

I am writing these lines on September 24, 2026. Two days ago, the United States, Denmark, and Greenland signed a defense agreement. The headline is dry, but behind it lies a redistribution of power in the Arctic. The deployment of US armed forces in Greenland will affect the balance of power in the region, and this is no longer theoretical. Greenland lies between North America and Europe. Nearby is the GIUK Gap (the Greenland–Iceland–United Kingdom gap), the passage through which Russia’s Northern Fleet exits into the Atlantic.

A member of the VIGIL JOURNAL expert council with 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry Artyom Voytovich tells Mikhail Azhgirevich the whole truth.

Artem Voitovich: "Calling this uneven distribution is like saying a person isn't sick, they just have an uneven temperature distribution"

Mikhail Azhgirevich, editor-in-chief of VIGIL Journal: It's the morning of September 18, and I'm sitting down to untangle a mess of numbers that has been circulating in the information space for a week now. The fact is simple. On September 16, the House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The vote was 262 to 159.

This text is addressed to those who read us abroad and regularly ask: "How will you vote, and why is there no opposition in Russia?"

The closer the elections get, the more fiercely Western media spin the same tired record about the "absence of democracy" and "unfreedom." I am forced to disappoint you: reality works differently.