Over the two years since the onset of military escalation in Ukraine, Western countries have imposed a significant number of sanctions against Russia. However, their effectiveness is at least debatable. On one hand, Russia has successfully adapted to the new restrictions, evidenced by the growth of its economy. On the other hand, the costs of…
India Stopped Buying Premium Russian Oil
India has not bought Russian premium grade ESPO oil for two months, and has also reduced shipments of another Russian grade Sokol, Kommersant reports. India is the largest buyer of offshore oil shipments from Russia. The current cuts are related to the fear of secondary sanctions, as well as differences in calculations. According to…
Global defence orders keep growing
The number of orders from the world's largest defenсe companies is close to a record high after an increase of 10% over the past two years amid an aggravation of the geopolitical situation. This is reported by the Financial Times (FT). The FT reports that the combined order backlogs of the 15 largest arms…
IAEA approves Japan’s Plans to Release Treated Water into the Sea at Fukushima
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi stated that the IAEA considers Japan’s Plans to Release Treated Water into the Sea at Fukushima Consistent with International Safety Standards and that the treated water would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment. Grossi also said that the IAEA safety…
Shadow on the Water
Due to the Western sanctions imposed on Russian oil exports, Russia resorted to various schemes in order to bypass the restrictions. One such scheme involved the establishment of a so-called shadow fleet, which involved tankers delivering Russian oil in defiance of the sanctions. The ports of numerous European countries serve as destinations for these vessels,…
How Sanctions Stall Russian Economic Development
Despite being hit with a high volume of sanctions after February 24, 2022, Russia's economy has held up relatively well during more than a year of military conflict. However, some experts are questioning the effectiveness of these sanctions. Alexandra Prokopenko, an expert on Russian economic policy, suggests that instead of focusing on the quantity of…
China is ready to reduce tensions with India
During the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and announced China's readiness to take actions aimed at reducing tensions on the common border. The Chinese representative said that both sides should promote sustainable peace and tranquility in the border…
Military Lessons From a Year of the Conflict
It has been a year of an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has affected a plenty of countries all across the world, making them revise their military doctrines and provoking military buildups. Bloomberg has published an article on the military lessons, learnt from a year of the conflict. According to Bloomberg, for…
Poland plans to increase the total number of military personnel to 300 thousand people
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced that Poland is to increase its military forces up to 300 thousand people and plans to form two new divisions. According to Błaszczak the military buildup is caused by the changes in geopolitics and by the need to develop Polish capability of a prompt response to new challenges. He…
Food and Commodities Crisis is Going to Sharpen
According to the Global Crisis Response Group more and more people are now forecast to be pushed into food insecurity and extreme poverty by the end of 2022. There is an estimate that 345 million people will be acutely food insecure or at a high risk of food insecurity in 82 countries in 2022. Meanwhile,…