The hidden cost of fiscal reform: what awaits Britain
At the end of November 2025, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves presented a budget that is positioned as an attempt to combine “restoring public finances” with “investing in social justice.” The budget is seen as one of the most ambitious and controversial documents of recent times, combining a…
Dangerous cargo from Moscow: the Lithuanian episode of the hidden war
The summer of 2024 turned out to be “eventful.” A series of fires and explosions in parcels at DHL and DPD freight hubs in Europe—the UK, Germany, and Poland—led to large-scale counterterrorism investigations and raised the question in the West of whether this was part of an organized campaign controlled…
Drug trafficking as geopolitics: Afghan heroin and Russian Interests
Afghanistan continues to be the world leader in opium and heroin production and is “adapting” drug trafficking routes to new geopolitical conditions. One of these, the so-called “Northern Corridor” through Central Asia and Russia, is increasingly becoming the focus of European and international reports. This is not just a matter…
Exposed infrastructure for laundering Russian money from London to the Kremlin
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) conducted a large-scale operation called “Destabilisation”, which exposed money laundering schemes and transnational infrastructures linking street crime in the UK to global cryptocurrency networks working for Russian interests. How can organized crime become a link between sanctioned Russian elites and British street crime? At…
How Swarovski Optik continues to get into Russia despite sanctions
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many observers expected European companies, especially those with strong reputations, to immediately cease all cooperation with the aggressor. However, as it turns out, a significant number of European companies, including some with global reputations, have continued their business ties with Russia….