"Russia has intensified covert efforts to undermine the leader of Armenia’s bid for re-election next month, fearing his victory could lock in the former ​Soviet republic’s realignment with the West, according to Western intelligence and government officials." www.reuters.com/world/import...

Exclusive: Imported voters, fake websites: Russia's covert efforts to stop Armenia's pivot West

Russia has intensified covert efforts to undermine the leader of Armenia’s bid for re-election next month, fearing his victory could lock in the former ​Soviet republic’s realignment with the West, ac...

reuters.com

"Nothing (and no one) is forever, and it is only a question of time when Russia gets another chance to turn the page on this shameful period and launch democratic reforms. If this chance is to succeed, reforms must be accompanied by a robust process of transitional justice" shorturl.at/aKv8o

Opinion | What Putin is trying to erase in Russia

Without transparency and accountability, yesterday’s secret police become tomorrow’s rulers.

washingtonpost.com

Excellent article from Adam Thomson for @theeln.bsky.social — I would endorse his recommendation that "instead of focusing on 'substance principles', we should develop and insist upon a set of “process principles” to guide Russia-Europe relations." europeanleadershipnetwork.org/commentary/a...

After Ukraine: Six principles for managing Europe’s security divide

ELN Senior Associate Fellow, Sir Adam Thomson, explores how Europe and Russia might navigate security after the war in Ukraine. Before debating end-states or shared rules, both sides should first agre...

europeanleadershipnetwork.org

“Putin is determined to curtail Ukraine’s sovereignty...keeping Ukraine within Russia’s sphere of influence and preventing its Euro-Atlantic integration is paramount,” says Lokker. Some comments from me on the 4th anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. www.firstpost.com/world/four-y...

Anthropic's co-founder on AI's current state: "The way that I think of these systems now is that they’re like little troublesome genies that I can give instructions to, and they’ll go and do things for me. But I still need to specify the instruction just right" www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...

Opinion | How Fast Will A.I. Agents Rip Through the Economy?

nytimes.com

"Nearly 40 percent of Russia’s federal budget is now devoted to the military and security. Another 9 percent goes to interest payments on the debt that Mr. Putin has decided to take on to finance the war, a departure from years of tight fiscal discipline." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/w...

Russia Remade Its Economy for War, but It’s Come at a Huge Cost

nytimes.com

"Listening to Rubio, the reality is that the US seeks to move to a 19th-century concept of the world, as a duty to those who need to be rescued from non-Western civilisation, by force." www.euractiv.com/opinion/rubi...

Rubio's dream of imperialism | Euractiv

Rubio's message at the MSC was: In the name of a Western Christian civilisation, go out and conquer. For this he was applauded by Europeans

euractiv.com

Rubio has a personal interest in saying nice(ish) things to Europe; the Trump administration as a whole has a strong interest in Europe not acting on the rupture the White House has created. None of this means an actual change of direction in US foreign policy.

🚨🚨 #NATO SG Mark #Rutte is to my mind massively undermining European #unity and efforts to build up their #defence and #security in what I see as a statement which only plays in the hands of #Putin and #Trump. 🧵https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-defense-nato-mark-rutte-us-politics-threats-gdp/

Europe can’t defend itself without the US, NATO’s Rutte warns

The EU should stop dreaming of creating a European pillar for NATO and continue to build ties with the U.S. despite Trump, the alliance secretary-general said.

politico.eu

Abolish ICE is now the moderate minimum position, Prosecute ICE is where Dems should be at next.

Border Patrol murdered Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this morning. He was a 37-year-old ICU nurse, a U.S. citizen, a legal gun owner. Video shows he was holding a phone when they killed him. This is the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in 17 days. A legal thread 🧵

To Atlanticists who've insisted for years that Giorgia Meloni is not far right, I ask: why is she appearing in a video alongside 🇫🇷Le Pen, 🇩🇪Weidel, 🇮🇱Netanyahu & 🇪🇸Abascal? And why is this supposed friend of Ukraine endorsing Orban for re-election so he can keep blocking 🇪🇺 aid to 🇺🇦?

Media 🇮🇹@mediasit.skyfleet.blue · 7mo ago

Meloni e Salvini (con Le Pen e Netanyahu) nella clip elettorale di Orbán (che arranca nei sondaggi): «Dio vi benedica». Il Pd: «Inquietante» – Il video

Insane it had to come this far, but it is the right move and a major step for Europe’s security

Jacob Öberg@profjacob.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🚨🚨Breaking: "Sweden has sent military to Greenland". Denmark's message: The Kingdom's soldiers will shoot back if Greenland is attacked. "It is at the request of Denmark," writes PM Ulf Kristersson. 🧵 www.expressen.se/nyheter/varl...

BREAKING part 3: Denmark is not acting alone. Several European allies are in dialogue with Copenhagen about providing military reinforcements to Greenland. Preparing for the arrival of allied forces is a key task for the advance unit now on the ground. www.dr.dk/tjenester/ki...

Having seen several abductions up close, it is really hard to convey how much the thing they’re doing is roaming in military convoys until they see someone who is alone and isn’t white, and then jumping out in large numbers, pulling them into a van, and screeching off, all in 90 seconds or so.

Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins@ajcousins.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"“They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived on my street & in the neighborhood.” Lugert-Thom responded, “I don’t know anything about that” & she said they then asked, “Well, what about the Asian families?”" "“I was a bit shaken & a bit shocked of what I was asked to do.”"

It's a repeat of Trump's business failures. You can ride the attention economy — all the way to the presidency, it turns out — but if all of your "productive" ventures have a negative return on investment? You'll eventually go bankrupt.

With BRICS cooperation formally expanding to the military domain, this serves as an important reminder that the #AxisofUpheaval continues to strengthen. www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

China to lead joint naval drills with Brics nations in South African waters

It is the first defence cooperation under the Brics framework, with the Russian and Iranian navies reportedly taking part.

scmp.com

There's "compartmentalising" the transatlantic relationship... and then there's the mental gymnastics required to reconcile this ⬇️ with any sort of meaningful US security guarantees for Ukraine. Europe's on its own.

auonsson@auonsson.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Danish soldiers are under standing orders to engage any hostile activity on Greenland, including unannounced US activity. The standing order of 1952 is confirmed to be in force by both Danish Defence Command and Ministry of Defence to news site @berlingske.bsky.social

Realism. Restraint.

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 7mo ago

President Trump proposes a massive increase in 2027 defense spending to $1.5 trillion, citing “troubled and dangerous times.”

It’s just kids playing Risk now. 🤡

"For Donald Trump, the preservation of something close to the status quo makes sense, given that his goal is extortion, not political transformation. Rather than the moralistic imperialism of George W. Bush, Trump’s foreign policy is imperialistic gangsterism." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/o...

Opinion | Don’t Call It Regime Change. This Is Something Else Entirely.

nytimes.com

Pretty sure this is the plan

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war

What to make of the EU decision on funding for Ukraine? It is a good outcome in my opinion. Here is why:

There’s gonna be a lot of hyperbolic talk about EU failing to meet the moment, yada, yada. But a 90 BILLION EU loan is a huge step for the EU and Ukraine! Europe just borrowed for war! EU crossed the joint borrowing rubicon. And they can still do the reparations loan in 2026.

António Costa@eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu · 8mo ago

We have a deal. Decision to provide 90 billion euros of support to Ukraine for 2026-27 approved. We committed, we delivered.

Putin is in no mood to compromise. Under current conditions, there is no realistic peace deal that preserves Ukrainian sovereignty and the broader norms underpinning global stability. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Vladimir Putin predicts European ‘swine’ backing Ukraine will lose power

Russian president vows to liberate ‘historic lands’ in hardline speech, showing no signs of compromise on invasion goals

giftarticle.ft.com

The war in Ukraine is a critical inflection point for the norm against conquest. Preserving this principle requires a settlement that upholds Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, ensuring the costs to Russia of its aggression outweigh the benefits. My analysis for @inkstickmedia.com:

Inkstick Media@inkstickmedia.com · 8mo ago

Under Trump 2.0, Washington is willing to sell out Kyiv at any cost. By: @nlokker.bsky.social inkstickmedia.com/can-the-glob...

🚨🚨This is worse than we could have imagined: Full version of #Trump's national #securitystrategy reportedly calls for “pulling Poland away from #EU”. 🧵 notesfrompoland.com/2025/12/10/f...

Fuller version of Trump security strategy reportedly calls for "pulling Poland away from EU"

notesfrompoland.com

People continue to be surprised by this stuff as if we don't already know that the main point of strategy documents for the Trump admin is throwing far-right talking points together in exactly the way that produces maximum trolling.