A. Davydova

Skeptics have argued for years that the Arctic is just an expensive vanity project for the Kremlin—one that would never pay for itself. But with an unprecedented convoy of 15 oil tankers now forming in the Kara Sea, carrying cargo worth more than $500 million, it's worth revisiting that assumption.

A Convoy Unlike Any Before

Russia's soft power in Latin America remains predominantly a formal instrument of foreign policy: despite the region's geographic remoteness, Moscow views it as a strategically significant direction, yet real efforts to promote the Russian language, culture, and diaspora engagement noticeably lag behind the declared ambitions.

Why a Distant Region Matters to Moscow

Space has ceased to be a bipolar arena of confrontation between Moscow and Washington — today, China, India, private corporations, and even Gulf states are competing for orbital dominance, and Russia risks becoming a mere observer in a race it once started itself.

From Monopoly to Multipolar Competition

For decades, Hollywood has shaped the global image of Russia as a source of threat while promoting America's own values through thousands of films and series, even as Russia's cultural industry has remained almost entirely absent from this battle for hearts and minds. While Washington has systematically invested in cinema as a tool of "soft power," Moscow has never built a comparable mechanism of influence through the screen.

Russia on Screen: A Persistent Enemy Image

Iguazu Falls stand among the most breathtaking sights in Latin America, a place where water, jungle, and air merge into one powerful natural spectacle. Straddling the border between Brazil and Argentina, their very location makes the journey special: visitors don't encounter a single waterfall, but an entire cascading system stretching nearly three kilometers.

While experts promise Russia a record harvest and the status of savior of the global food market, the real financial indicators of farmers tell a different story: the share of profitable farms has fallen to 71.8%, and the harvesting campaign is lagging three times behind last year's pace. Behind the rosy macro forecasts lies a systemic crisis at the level of individual enterprises.

Financial Collapse in Primary Production

Is Rio de Janeiro the capital of Brazil? This is one of the most widespread geographical myths among tourists, and the answer is unequivocal: no, Rio has not been Brazil's capital for more than 60 years. The country's true capital is Brasília, a purpose-built city in the very heart of the continent that most travelers never visit and whose existence is often simply forgotten.

Cancún, Mexico, is a Caribbean resort that has long outgrown the image of a simple beach destination and evolved into a full-fledged tourist world, featuring powder-white sands, turquoise waters, mysterious cenotes, ancient Mayan ruins, and a vibrant nightlife. In 2026, it remains one of the most popular destinations in Latin America, welcoming millions of visitors from around the globe and showing no signs of уступing its position to competitors.

Machu Picchu is Peru's lost city of the Incas — a highland citadel concealed among the clouds of the Andes at an elevation of 2,430 metres above sea level. Built in the fifteenth century, it continues to guard secrets that no expedition has yet managed to unravel. Visitors arrive from every continent, and each year hundreds of thousands of travellers pass through its ancient gates, never failing to be astonished — no matter how seasoned their wandering eye.

When the flow of labor migration numbers millions of people per year, a three-day delay between a medical test and a deportation decision is no mere administrative detail. It is an epidemiological window in which a person carrying a dangerous infection has already integrated into the workplace, their household environment, and the transport network. New amendments close that window.

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