Gazprom cuts off gas to Poland and Bulgaria, the Czechs discuss defence cooperation with the US, and Hungary becomes the first target of the EU’s new mechanism to withhold funds from member states that break the rule of law. Russia has been trying to split the West for years, with …

The separatist authorities in Tiraspol are being pulled steadily into the war between Russia and Ukraine despite their best efforts not to get involved. Given its geographical proximity to Ukraine, and the high number of Ukrainian citizens living in the Transnistria, the de-facto authorities of the breakaway Moldovan region have …

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought other historical tensions to the surface as some in Kyiv accuse neighbouring Hungary of coveting their territory. Andras Bartal has a dream. It will take decades to realise it, but, in Bartal’s vision, Hungary will take back Transcarpathia, a region or oblast in the …

Europe can find alternatives to Russian gas, but can Russia find the consumers to replace Europe?In halting gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, the Kremlin is putting “false political ideas” ahead of the interests of Gazprom and the Russian economy, Russian energy analyst Mikhail Krutikhin says. Poland, which according to …

Following the start of Russia’s large-scale military re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, concerns arose about the role that the Transnistrian region of Moldova could play in the Kremlin’s war plans. The territory has been under Russian military occupation since 1992, with Moscow’s military, security and civilian officials directing, assisting …

Only the most naïve believe that Putin’s war in Ukraine is only about Ukraine, but Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky says that new talk about extending the Russian operation into Moldova’s Transnistria underscores the fact that the Kremlin wants all non-Russian countries to draw conclusions for themselves from what is happening in Ukraine. …

On 21 April, an agreement concluded nine days earlier in Moscow between the Cameroonian Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo and his Russian counterpart Sergei Choigou was released. The content of the 13-page document is quite vague, mentioning the exchange of information in the field of international defence and security policy, …

Analysis: Wagner Group ‘like a bull in a china shop’ in unstable parts of Africa, say experts Western officials told the Guardian earlier this year that the Wagner mercenary group was the “thin end of the wedge” and a “Trojan horse” for a Russian effort to extend its influence covertly …

Mali’s decision to renounce a military cooperation agreement with France after it fell out with the ruling junta is “unjustified” and would not affect the military withdrawal, a French foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday. Paris “considers that this decision is unjustified and absolutely contests any violation of the bilateral legal …

Israeli police entered a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem to clear away Palestinian protesters on Thursday, after Jewish visits that had been paused for the Muslim holidays resumed. Recent weeks have seen several rounds of clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims, which is built …