Chevron and partners prioritized profits, enabling runaway costs and ballooning budgets worth billions as Russia deployed strong-arm tactics and steered contracts to cronies. On a late August afternoon in 2021 the mooring master made a frantic call to a dispatcher at Russia’s largest port, Novorossiysk. “Stop! Stop! Stop loading tanker …

A photo of Slovak PM Robert Fico shaking hands with Russian President Putin in the Kremlin caused uproar and concern in Slovakia, sparking a debate about the country’s place in Europe.“We are ashamed of Fico!” chanted the 15,000-strong crowd of protesters on a cold evening on January 10 in Bratislava, …

Elsewhere in the region, Orban sells half a Budapest district to Arab investors; Czech public support for Ukraine drops; and Poland lobbies to remove restrictions on buying advanced chips from the US. Adebate on a vote of no confidence in Slovakia’s fourth government under Robert Fico ended abruptly on Tuesday, …