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Russia’s use of cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions has exposed a gap in the international community’s attempts to throttle Moscow’s war machine. Photo: Agency «Moscow» / snob.ru The emergence of the A7A5 stablecoin represents a transformative shift in global financial evasion.   Until now, the international community has relied on the dominance of the US dollar and the SWIFT system to enforce economic order, but the rise of ruble-backed digital assets suggests a sophisticated

Seizures of sanctions-busting oil tankers have triggered a new wave of disinformation from the Kremlin. A recent uptick in manipulative narratives about Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ suggests that the Kremlin is getting increasingly nervous about its ability to evade European sanctions on the export of Russian oil. Just as the Kremlin uses oil tankers flying false flags to transport Russian oil overseas, it uses false claims pushed by its foreign information manipulation and interf

The pace of technological change on the Ukrainian front lines is now exceptionally fast. Could Western armies adapt as quickly? As the worst winter in many years settled across Ukraine late last year, the 600,000-strong Russian invasion force innovated to embrace the cold — and briefly gained a tactical edge all along the 700-mile front line.   The Ukrainians innovated right back, ultimately blunting that edge. That dance — measure versus countermeasure — should reassure frie

After losing its allies in Syria and Venezuela, a relieved Moscow will applaud the bloody suppression of the Iranian protests. Iranian protestors wave the pre-1979 Iranian flag bearing the lion and sun / photo: Social networks The preservation of the corrupt, sanctioned, repressive regime in Tehran is a critically important outcome for Moscow. It will have watched with enormous (self) interest and will be drawing conclusions from the Iranian theocracy’s at least initial,  blo

Europe needs to get on the front foot to tackle Russia’s hybrid warfare, a Polish deputy defense minister warned as he unveiled details of a new anti-drone systems. Warmate loitering munition. (Source: Polish Ministry of National Defense) Cezary Tomczyk, secretary of state in Poland’s Ministry of Defense, has provided new details about a new  €2bn (£2.3bn) anti-drone system  which will be the largest of its kind on the continent, and able to detect and neutralize enemy drones

Ukrainian Droid Raw 12.7 UGV fitted with M2 Browning heavy machine gun during field trials. (Source: Ukrmilitary Pages / X) Ukrainian army officials claim to have made military history in late 2025 by deploying a single land drone armed with a mounted machine gun to hold a front line position for almost six weeks. The remote-controlled unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) reportedly completed a 45-day combat mission in eastern Ukraine while undergoing maintenance and reloading ever

The US Secretary of War’s acquisition reforms can find inspiration and assistance in Kyiv. Ukrainian small-sized Peklo cruise missiles / Illustrative photo: Office of the President of Ukraine “The defense acquisition system as you know it is dead,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared at the National War College in December as he addressed America’s top defense-industry leaders.  “Speed replaces process, money follows need, joint problems drive action, experimentati

Ukraine is suffering badly, with implications for significant population movement. Western allies can help, if they acknowledge the threat. Blackout in Kyiv Cornered by an ever-narrowing range of options to advance his war of aggression, Vladimir Putin is making decisions that worsen his position. The chess term is zugzwang, and it explains why the Kremlin has decided to play one of its few remaining cards. Unable to defeat the Ukrainian army, Putin has declared war on Ukrain

In 2026, the Russian economy is not yet in decline, but it is in real trouble. War-driven growth is losing momentum, sanctions are tightening, financial reserves are shrinking, and uncertainty is increasingly shaping everyday life. What for a while looked like resilience is proving fragile, as the economic costs of the war spread beyond the battlefield. The illusion of resilience For years, the Kremlin has insisted that Western sanctions do not work and that Russia’s economy

While Tokyo no longer dominates global chipmaking, it has forged a path to reduce dependence on China and make itself indispensable. A few decades ago, Japan Inc. supplied almost 90% of the world’s memory chips, and just over 50% of the entire semiconductor market. Trade tensions flared between the US and Europe. The industry shifted, moving to processors and chip designers who outsourced to manufacturing foundries, most in Taiwan and South Korea.  Today, Japan is back, reinv

Ukraine has made huge strides in its military technology but ingenuity alone won’t be enough for Kyiv to prevail. Photo: Sergey Okunev / NV Ever since the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has compensated for its disadvantage in traditional firepower through  innovation . Unmanned systems, particularly first-person view (FPV) drones, helped its forces  blunt  Russian offensives and impose heavy costs on attacking units. Over time, this approach hardened into what was described as

The aircraft have a near-unique ability to hit Russian targets but only if Europe provides them with the right munitions. Ukrainian F-16 with GBU-39 aerial bomb, November 2025. Photo credits: martes1k ( t.me/maratix1 ) In a virtuoso display of air-defense prowess unimaginable for any European member of NATO, Ukrainian forces shot down 34 out of 35 cruise missiles on December 22. It was even more notable given Ukraine’s defenders were also warding off another 638 Russian rocke

F-16 fighter jets patrolling over Greenland. Photo: The Danish Armed Forces Bottom lines up front: In responding to recent rhetoric from the White House about “taking” Greenland, European leaders need to look beyond the legal infeasibility. The White House is correct that Greenland and the waters around it are a strategic asset—one that Europe has failed to recognize in recent years. If Europe wants to ensure that no outside power can exercise control over Greenland, then it

Over the years, TikTok has risen to become a global entertainment and information ecosystem, with a monthly user base reaching nearly 1.6 billion people. Propastop analyzed whether the platform—which claims to have around 400,000 users in Estonia (a figure provided by TikTok that cannot be independently verified)—is truly “a place where every company and politician must be, because that’s where the consumer and voter are,” or if it poses a potential threat to society’s psycho

Photo: Sergey Okunev / NV Ukraine is currently at the epicenter of radical changes taking place in the way modern wars are fought. However, much of the world is still busy preparing for the wars of yesterday. European armies are only combat-ready on paper, while the invincibility of the United States military is based largely on past victories. The current state of affairs is far from unprecedented. In early 1940, Polish officers tried to warn their French counterparts about

Source DJI / CineD When cyberattacks and missile strikes converge on the same targets, infrastructure resilience becomes more than a technical mandate; it becomes a matter of national survival. For Ukraine, this is not a hypothetical future scenario. On the contrary, it has been daily reality for more than a decade. Since 2014, Ukraine’s power grid, banking system, telecommunications networks, and digital infrastructure have faced sustained and increasingly sophisticated atta

Russia’s Geran attack drones have morphed from crude versions of Iranian Shahed UAVs into an affordable and flexible strike system, with deadly results. Russia’s Geran 2 attack drone / Source Sergej Flesh Facebook page Moscow’s forces have launched nearly 50,000 Geran/Shahed drones into Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of 2022 and shifted to a near-continuous rhythm of strikes that have overwhelmed defenses, disabled infrastructure, and killed families in their homes.  

Russia’s relentless assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and a crisis of governance promise a cold winter. But there is hope ahead. Illustrative photo. Elimination of the Consequences of Hostile Shelling of Poltava Region / Photo – Ministry of Energy of Ukraine/Zmist The Kremlin’s forces have been striking Ukraine’s energy generation and distribution facilities almost daily. Attacks on November 25 alone left more than 40,000 people without power in the Kyiv region, 20,

Mass grave site discovered in a forest near the Ukrainian city of Izium after its recapture from Russian forces in September 2022 / Source Insider Media The recent Hollywood movie “Nuremberg” provided a timely reminder of the role played by Soviet consent in the creation and legitimacy of the International Military Tribunal established to prosecute Nazi leaders after World War II. The broad outlines of the tribunal had been agreed before the end of the war during the February

The new US National Security Strategy is surprising only for those determined to ignore reality. By Edward Lucas In an ideal, imagined world, the US is a wise, friendly, and eternal mentor to its European allies. It uncomplainingly shoulders the burden of military and diplomatic leadership. It does not push its own interests too hard, whatever American voters may want.  Against the background of such wholly unrealistic assumptions, the new  US National Security Strategy  inde