Three years into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Europe faces an entirely new security reality. The war itself, Russia’s increasingly regular strikes on border regions of Eastern European countries, and the repeated incursions of drones into EU airspace have made defense and security the number-one priority. What used to be…

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…

It has become almost axiomatic: behind every major corruption scandal in Europe, one inevitably finds a Russian trail. Moscow skillfully identifies unscrupulous players, offers them the chance to enrich themselves, and gradually ensnares them in a web of tainted money—erasing whatever moral compass they once had. In the process, funds…

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 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…