The autumn of 2025 has drawn the attention of the international community to two major military events. The first was a parade in Beijing, showcasing China’s rapidly advancing military capabilities, and the second is the large-scale Zapad-2025 exercises currently taking place in Belarus with the participation of Russian armed forces....
State Contracts are the fodder base of сorruption on Polish railway
Corruption schemes in the field of railway state contracts in Poland reveal systemic problems that stretch from contractor selection to the padding of contracts with “necessary” components and the exaggeration of required volumes of work. When millions of złoty appear on tender papers, Poland’s “railway economy” often looks less like...
Obstacles on Montenegro’s path to the EU
Russia and corruption remain the main obstacles to Montenegro’s accession to the European Union. Although Russia is gradually losing its influence in the Western Balkans, the Kremlin has no intention of simply accepting this. Moscow is making every effort to continue interfering in the internal affairs of countries in the...
Hungary acts countrary to the EU on the issue of russian oil
Hungary continues to receive Russian crude oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline – an exemption allowed by the EU due to the particular dependence of Budapest and Bratislava on supplies of Russian “black gold.” The Druzhba pipeline runs from Russia through Belarus and Ukraine, delivering oil...
NATO’s inland sea becomes a theatre of hybrid warfare
After Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, the Baltic Sea has effectively become an inland sea of NATO. Since then, alliance members have been staging one naval exercise after another in these waters. In September 2023, off the coasts of Latvia and Estonia, two weeks of “Northern Coasts” exercises...
China and Russia seek to conquer the Arctic
Russia and China are demonstrating intensified cooperation in the Arctic, particularly in the security sphere. Moscow anticipates that global warming will melt Arctic ice, opening new opportunities for use of the Northern Sea Route (along Russia’s northern borders). Beijing likewise expects that climate change will make the Arctic more accessible,...
Belgium: the case of combating money laundering
On September 2, 2025, the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office announced that, in addition to investigating the money laundering case involving former EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders—who has been under investigation since 2024—it is also tracking his ties with Moscow. In particular, Belgian law enforcement became interested in possible contacts between...
Austrians still waltz with Russians
How normal is it that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria (1995-2000) and ex-Chancellor of this country (2000-2007) Wolfgang Schüssel suddenly becomes a member of the board of directors of the Russian telecommunications company MTS? And later – in 2019 – he becomes a member of the supervisory...
How Russian timber is legalized bypassing EU environmental standards
In 2020, the European Commission acknowledged that deforestation is a major driver of the global climate and biodiversity crisis, and that the EU also contributes to these crises, as the EU population consumes a significant share of products linked to deforestation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found...
Corruption: “The main threat to Albania’s European integration”
Of the five Western Balkan countries currently holding EU candidate status — Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia — Albania has long been seen as the frontrunner in the race toward membership. But despite its formal progress, the country continues to grapple with high levels of corruption...