What should Europeans really fear from Russia? European intelligence services see no evidence that Russia is preparing to attack an EU country, but warn of growing hybrid threats, including drones, cyberattacks and disinformation.
While overstating hybrid threats against the Baltics, commentators often understate what Russia is doing right now. It commits daily war crimes against civilian targets in Ukraine. Sabotage, arson and cyber-attacks on European allies are deadly serious, and getting worse, writes Edward Lucas.
For the first time ever, a target was selected not by a human, but by artificial intelligence.
Another stage in Russia’s shadow war – targeting a Slovak drone factory. The planned arson attack is testing Nato’s eastern flank and its defence industry.
European leaders should make the most of the current favourable political weather. Since Viktor Orbán’s departure from power in Budapest, and before the next French president takes office next May, a rare period of consensus about support for Ukraine reigns in Europe, writes Edward Lucas.
Russia has every incentive to keep this alumina supply chain intact, and it knows exactly how to do that: paperwork.
“Putin Always Chickens Out”, so far, but his humiliations in Ukraine, as well as Chinese pressure, could push him to test Nato resolve like never before.
Rows within the Moscow regime are becoming visible – and although critics have not gone falling out of a window, which in the past has been the fate of those who criticise the Kremlin publicly.
For Vladimir Putin, peace is profoundly dangerous — not because it threatens Russia’s security, but because it threatens the ideological foundations of his regime.
The same cheap civilian drones you can order online are being retooled into weapons faster than defences can adapt, creating a war zone where human control still exists on paper but is increasingly hollow in practice.
Why a joint defence platform with Ukraine is a prerequisite for Europe’s strategic agency and security.
Eighteen shipments of oil products from refineries that run partly on Russian crude were unloaded at EU ports in July, more than double the eight recorded in the month before.
As Baltic leaders sound the alarm over a possible Russian false-flag drone strike, they fear the real damage could come from the political chaos and hesitation it triggers among Nato allies in the crucial first hours.
Some of the world’s best places to live are, apparently, now in central and eastern Europe.
Creating an institution that cannot, by design, reach the one man it was created for is not accountability. It is expensive symbolism — and it costs Europe exactly the credibility it is trying to project, argues former ICC judge Christine Van den Wyngaert.
From secret deportations and European-funded projects destroyed in Gaza to EU recovery funds and mining lobbying, these ten investigations expose the widening gap between Europe’s rhetoric and the realities of its policies and actions.
As Chaiko’s champagne-soaked birthday in a Moscow luxury restaurant turned into a bloodbath, furious pro-war bloggers are openly asking why they should keep dying at the front when their generals cannot even be kept safe at home.
While drones already account for most of the bloodshed in Ukraine, the push to let AI, not humans, choose who lives or dies is racing far ahead of any global rules meant to protect civilians.
The Putin regime is rigid but brittle, and under increasing stress; don’t switch your phones off.
The Russian missile was in Polish airspace for six minutes. Everything Poland did well happened after it hit the ground.