Russia Shifts Part of the Cost of Drone Defenses Onto Business
The new arrangement would allow Russia’s Defense Ministry to permit businesses to purchase large-caliber air-defense systems.
And a whole world in BRIEFLY.
Search
Armenia’s parliamentary elections delivered a convincing victory for Nikol Pashinyan’s party — an outcome that, on the whole, had been expected.
According to official but still preliminary results, Civil Contract won 49.81 percent of the vote, enough to secure an absolute majority in parliament with 61 seats.
China Ramps Up LNG Purchases Ahead of Summer Demand Peak as Russia Partly Replaces Lost Qatari Volumes
According to Bloomberg, the rise in purchases is linked to expectations of heavier pressure on the power grid in the coming months and the need to secure stable fuel supplies in advance.
France again boards a tanker linked to Russian oil trade
According to Bloomberg, the tanker in question is the Tagor, which departed from Russia’s Murmansk and is subject to international restrictions.
Russian banks allowed to defend themselves against drones
According to Reuters, Russia has passed a law allowing the Central Bank, Sberbank and other financial organizations to operate anti-drone systems independently and to arm staff in order to protect facilities without the mandatory involvement of special forces.
Berlin Proposes an Intermediate Path to the EU for Ukraine
According to Bloomberg, the initiative comes from Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has sent a letter to the heads of the EU’s key institutions.
Opinion
Authors
World
View all >>
Russians Are Paying Less Attention to the War as Fatigue Starts to Show, Levada Poll Finds
In April 2026, 43% of respondents said they were closely following developments around the war in Ukraine, the lowest reading recorded by the pollster.
Ship Signals in the Persian Gulf Go Haywire as Tensions Around Hormuz Escalate
According to Bloomberg, dozens of ships in tracking systems suddenly began appearing not at sea, but on land — deep inside the territory of the United Arab Emirates and near the border with Oman.
Governors Seek Cash as Moscow Holds Back Oil Windfall
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said the combined deficit of Russia’s regional budgets has already reached 1.5 trillion rubles and could widen to 1.9 trillion rubles by the end of the year.
Drone Hits Upscale Moscow High-Rise Ahead of Victory Day Parade
Bloomberg notes that Russian air defenses usually intercept drones on the approaches to the capital or in the suburbs, making the hit on a building in an upscale district not only a military episode but also a symbolically sensitive event.
Zhirinovsky’s Afterlife as a State Project
One might have thought that Zhirinovsky’s death would also erase the very logic of the LDPR’s existence — a party built around a single person. But in a system where symbols often matter more than institutions, death is not the end of a political career. It is its next phase.
Politics
View all >>
Black Recruiters: How the Trade in Soldiers Turns People Into Commodities for the Front
An investigation by journalist Anastasia Kashevarova reveals a vast shadow network of “black recruiters” in Russia — corrupt intermediaries who forge documents, exploit vulnerable people, and trade soldiers between regions and units for profit.
Russian Voters Want Lower Prices, Peace and a Return to “Normality” Ahead of Duma Elections
Researchers from HSE University, together with EISI, a think tank close to the Kremlin’s domestic policy bloc, have published a report arguing that issues of national security and identity are moving to the forefront of the electoral agenda, alongside a demand for “normality” and concerns over the cost-of-living crisis.
