European energy providers open Russian rouble accounts for gas, challenging bloc’s united front against Moscow. As Poles and Bulgarians worry their cookers and heaters will run dry, the rest of Europe is scrambling to respond after Vladimir Putin’s latest chess move over the Ukraine conflict – cutting off the gas …

After failing to capture the capital Kyiv and northern Ukraine, Russia now focuses on completing its conquest of the south. It took several cruise missiles to destroy a bridge that linked southwestern Ukraine with Romania – and stood hundreds of kilometres away from the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian war. …

Western leaders shrugged it off when, in 2016, Erdoğan said in plain language that Turkey did not need to join the European Union “at all costs” and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations. Erdoğan’s popularity, since he came to power …