“Between two giants”: how the confrontation between the USA and China presents Europe with a historic choice
Since the early 2010s, the geopolitical rivalry between the two major powers, the US and China, has gone far beyond bilateral relations. This struggle, which includes trade wars, technological competition, and ideological conflicts, is shaping new rules for global politics and economics, which has become particularly noticeable in the outgoing…
A crisis of confidence and growing instability: the UK on the brink of 2026
The year 2025 will go down in British history as another period of deepening socio-political division and slowing economic growth. The results of the outgoing year show that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has faced extremely low levels of trust, while economic indicators have faced difficult challenges that create a…
Sanctions and Romanian passports with false origins
An investigation launched by the Romanian prosecutor’s office in 2024 uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme that allowed Russian citizens to illegally obtain Romanian citizenship and, accordingly, European Union passports. According to the investigation, the scheme operated from at least 2022 to 2024 and had a well-organized, transnational structure. The basis…
The Kremlin’s “Shadow Fleet”: from sanctions to espionage
With the outbreak of a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, the world, and Europe in particular, faced a new form of “hybrid” warfare: covert operations in international waters. Central to this strategy has been the so-called Russian “shadow fleet,” which comprises over 1,000 vessels registered under shell companies and…
War without tanks. Russian influence in the European Parliament
The European Parliament, as one of the key institutions of the European Union in matters of imposing sanctions against Russia, supporting Ukraine and the EU’s overall foreign policy, is a particularly important target for influence by the Kremlin. In its resolutions, the European Parliament has repeatedly expressed concern that Russia…