The rise in popularity of far-right parties in Europe has always been accompanied by questions about the transparency of their funding sources and the extent of their dependence on foreign influence. One of the least transparent and most difficult to trace methods of financing is cryptocurrency, as it allows entities...
The anti-corruption boomerang for Albania’s government
Albania had long been regarded by the European Union as one of the most promising accession candidates. The motivation was a sweeping judicial reform and the creation in 2019 of a specialized anti-corruption body, SPAK, designed to combat corruption at the highest levels. However, several years on, this very instrument...
Vienna as a Center of Russian Radio-Electronic Espionage in Europe
Analysis of satellite imagery, along with assessments from Western intelligence officials, indicates that Russia is using Austria as its primary hub for intercepting NATO and international organization communications, with European intelligence services describing Vienna as the largest center of Russian intelligence activity in the West. According to an investigation by...
Large-scale modernization of EU armies as a response to modern hybrid threats
Russian aggression against Ukraine has become a key factor in the transformation of the security system in Europe. The full-scale invasion has shown that the previous model of defense policy of most EU countries, which provided for a gradual reduction of armies and optimization of military budgets after the end...
House of Lords reform and the future of British politics
The British political system is undergoing an event that historians call one of the most significant constitutional reforms. The Parliament of the United Kingdom has passed a law definitively stripping hereditary aristocrats of the right to sit in the upper house of parliament, the House of Lords, thereby completing the...
The Epstein Files and the Political Crisis in Europe
The publication of a new part of the so-called "Epstein Files" in early 2026 became one of the most high-profile international political scandals. These materials triggered a chain reaction of investigations in Europe, from criminal cases against former prime ministers to the resignations of diplomats and politicians and raised new...
The British footprint in the sanctions war
After leaving the European Union, it was important for the United Kingdom to prove that it could be self-sufficient outside its borders, including due to the loss of the ability to directly influence political decisions in Brussels. Events in recent years have demonstrated one interesting trend: London is increasingly becoming...
What does Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz mean for the UK
In late February 2026, the global energy market found itself on the brink of a new crisis. Following US and Israeli military strikes on Iranian targets, Tehran responded asymmetrically, effectively restricting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the key maritime corridors of the global economy. Already in the...
How Hungary’s banking sector became a tool for Orbán’s abuses
Today’s Hungary is in what more and more people are calling a “captured state” as the country’s financial system has ceased to serve its primary function of driving the economy, instead becoming an instrument of Viktor Orbán’s political survival. The basis of the Fidesz party’s political strategy has become the...
Emigration as a cover: how the FSB turns Russian refugees into its agents
Over the course of more than a quarter century of Putin’s rule, political emigration from Russia has transformed from isolated cases of the expulsion of individual “inconvenient” oligarchs from the country to the outflow of the intellectual and cultural elite who dared to express public disagreement with the Kremlin’s policies....