August 10, 2023. 2:10 AM, Moscow time. The Luna-25 mission launches from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. For the first time in 47 years, Russia is launching an unmanned lunar mission, which aims to touch down near the Moon's south pole, study its soil, and search for traces of frozen water. On August 16, the spacecraft enters lunar orbit and, three days later, begins its landing maneuvers. But at the crucial moment, something goes wrong. The engines do not shut off when they should, the craft adopts an incorrect trajectory, and it crashes into the lunar surface.

“A swallow does not make a summer” would be the Russian equivalent of our “A flower does not make a summer”. In this winter Orthodox Easter Week, with temperatures near 0 degrees and snow in Moscow, the Easter truce will have passed like a fleeting mirage of 32 hours. Faced with Vladimir Putin's refusal to extend the ceasefire beyond midnight on Sunday, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked him to, both sides have mutually accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in fighting in the hope that Donald Trump will see that the other is the main obstacle to peace.

Pessimism has taken hold of Russian military commentators. After the Kremlin's army managed to close the gap with Ukraine in the drone race in the autumn of 2025, in recent weeks Kyiv's unmanned aerial vehicles have once again left Russian technology behind. Their superiority on the front has helped to slow down Volodymyr Putin's spring offensive, while, for the first time since the start of the invasion, more long-range Ukrainian drones than Russian ones are being launched.the distance to Ukraine in the drone raceThe ability to disrupt Kyiv's troop supplies was one of the successes of the Molnia-2, the Russian attack drone that allowed the Kremlin to increase pressure on the Ukrainian rear in late last year and facilitated the progress of Russian soldiers. Now, however, it is the new generation of Ukrainian drones that is causing Moscow's troops to falter. In March, they only advanced 25 square kilometers, according to military observers from the Blackbird group, far from the monthly average of 380 in 2025. The great hope of Russian commanders is that, with the arrival of good weather, the foliage of the trees will serve their men to camouflage themselves from the threat from the sky and allow them to survive the so-called

The war fronts are multiplying everywhere while Donald Trump continues to belittle NATO and opens wars from which he cannot emerge afterwards. In a context of growing global tension, this Thursday the British government revealed that Russia carried out a covert submarine operation in the North Atlantic, in waters near the United Kingdom, for more than a month. A month in which, as in the best moments of the Cold War, Russians and Westerners played the cat-and-mouse game. Because the Russian submarines were being watched at all times: the British frigates were responsible for making it evident.

Geographically isolated and with an inclement climate (it rains 300 days a year and the wind reaches hurricane-force gusts), the Faroe Islands are another piece of the Kingdom of Denmark that has gained growing importance on the geopolitical chessboard. This archipelago, made up of eighteen islands, is in a privileged position to monitor the North Atlantic, where world powers compete for control of the Arctic gateways. European fishing fleets and American warships converge in its waters. At the same time, the Faroe Islands maintain a controversial trade agreement with Russia on fishing, the heart of an economy that does not depend on donations from Copenhagen (as is the case with Greenland). The Faroe Islands are part of NATO through Denmark, but they are not part of the European Union, as the autonomous government is not interested in entering into community fishing regulations.In these circumstances, the Faroese (55,000 inhabitants) elected a new government at the end of March to manage their extensive autonomy, while Denmark retains powers over defense, security, foreign policy, currency, and courts. The victory of the Conservative Party at the polls opens the door for Beinir Johannesen, 29 years old, to become the youngest prime minister the country has ever had.At a time when Donald Trump's desires for Greenland have generated anxiety in the region, the elections have set aside geopolitics and have focused on the economy, which is in expansion. The Atlantic nation's GDP per capita exceeds that of Denmark, thanks to salmon farm exports, which are worth one billion euros annually. The unemployment rate is around 1%, and the country has modern infrastructure, such as the world's first roundabout built under the sea.However, housing prices in the capital, Tórshavn, are a headache for those who want to live there, at the same time as the islands face a serious depopulation problem. Among 25-year-old Faroese, 40% choose to move abroad and approximately one in five never return. Another controversy is the largest construction project in their history: a 23-kilometer subsea tunnel that will cost the equivalent of 20% of the country's GDP.In the background of the elections, there has also been independence with Denmark, an option defended by five of the six main Faroese political formations. In 1946, the Faroese voted by a narrow margin to separate from Denmark, but at that time the Danish king Christian X did not approve it. Finally, self-government powers were expanded in 2005, after the Faroe Islands and Denmark had been connected for more than 600 years.At the beginning of this year, the Faroese government was set to reopen negotiations with Copenhagen with the intention of pushing for greater autonomy. But that was before Trump triggered the worst diplomatic crisis in the Danish kingdom over control of the Arctic island of Greenland. Faced with this situation, the Faroese leaders decided it was not the time to enter into in-depth negotiations with Copenhagen over their sovereignty: “Given the climate that was generated, it was seen that it was not opportune to start negotiations on the condition of a new state, as everything was unpredictable”, reasons Heini í Skorini, an expert in international relations at the University of the Faroe Islands.The expert explains that the reasons for independence are based on the will to have a voice of our own on the international stage: “For us, the fact of not being a sovereign entity makes it very difficult for us to negotiate new and better free trade agreements because this is done between states”, he argues. Skorini also points out that “there is a political consensus that the next step is to achieve statehood, without this necessarily implying leaving the Danish Commonwealth”.Increase in geopolitical tension

While the issue of sovereignty has been put aside, the Faroese government has extended the controversial fishing agreement with Russia year after year to exchange quotas, despite the war in Ukraine. This cooperation in fishing has irritated Copenhagen and Brussels, even though from Tórshavn it is justified that food products are not subject to sanctions. They also recall that Norway has ratified similar agreements with Moscow: “On the one hand, all EU sanctions against Russia have been adopted because we want to be part of Europe and NATO, but, on the other hand, the decision has been made to maintain fishing cooperation with the Russians,” details Skorini.Although the Faroe Islands have attracted much less attention than Greenland, the Faroese perceive the growing interest of superpowers: “Some years ago it would have been science fiction to see a North American nuclear submarine surfacing in a Faroese port, but today it is no longer the case,” assures the expert. The archipelago is located in the so-called GIUK gap between Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland, a point that NATO keeps a close eye on because it represents the exit to the Atlantic for the Russian submarine fleet based in the Arctic. Faroese politicians have also expressed their concern that Russian fishing vessels anchored in the islands may be carrying out espionage operations. To monitor all this, the United States will install new radars to observe what is happening in the archipelago's waters, “although the increase in US military presence also creates some suspicions,” acknowledges Skorini.

]]>

The territorial dispute clouds the peace negotiations over Ukraine, now suspended due to the conflict in the Middle East. Although the recognition of the occupied regions as Russian is important for Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin's ambitions involve the Belarusianization of Kyiv, that is, its political subordination. Moscow wants a meek and friendly neighbor that poses no threat in itself to Russia, nor as a vanguard of hypothetical Western aggression. However, the Russian president missed the opportunity to depose Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of the war, and after four years of daily bombings, the advent of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine seems like a fantasy or a bad joke.

]]>

“Are there any men in the audience? No? What a shame! Take off your pants and put on a skirt!” With these words, the dean of Voronezh State University of Engineering, in southwestern Russia, tried to pressure his students to go fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin has demanded that the rectors of the institutions send 2% of enrolled students to the war. They promise them one year of service in a drone unit far from the front lines, astronomical salaries, and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives. astronomical salaries and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives.

]]>

Volodymyr Zelensky fears a perfect storm: a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, from which Vladimir Putin continuously benefits with the sustained increase in oil prices, which fattens the Russian budget for the war in Ukraine and stalls the economies of Kiev's European allies. To prevent this, the Ukrainian president is carrying out the most intense campaign of attacks against Russia's crude oil export ports since the start of the invasion. However, this strategy could be counterproductive to Zelensky's short-term interests, as it could contribute even more to the increase in oil prices and, therefore, to the Kremlin's revenues.

]]>

After a three-week journey from the Baltic Sea, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, to the Caribbean, the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin will finally be able to dock in a Cuban port and will break the blockade that Donald Trump has been imposing on the island since January. “If a country wants to send oil to Cuba right now, I have no problem with it, whether it's Russia or other countries. It will have no impact, Cuba is finished.”, said the President of the United States, a few hours before the vessel reaches its destination. The 730,000 barrels of crude oil that the ship is carrying – about 100,000 tons – are estimated to alleviate Havana's fuel crisis for a month. At the same time, they will offer Vladimir Putin a geopolitical victory in the dispute with Washington over spheres of influence.

]]>

Vladimir Putin has launched his spring offensive in Ukraine. Taking advantage of a dry March after a brutal winter, the Russian army has intensified attacks against the last major Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donbas, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, with assault operations exceeding 600 attacks in four days and battalions of up to 500 soldiers. The objective is clear: to conquer what the military calls the Donetsk fortress belt before the diplomatic path, if it ever materializes, freezes the conflict map.

]]>

Two Prosecutors begins with the gate of a prison opening and ends with another closing. This circular trajectory delimits the hero's adventure, Kornev, a young prosecutor in Stalin's Russia, who, upon discovering the torture and forced confessions to which the survivors of the old guard of the Communist Party in his region are subjected, wants to bring this scandal to the attention of the Soviet leadership. The problem, however, is that his idealistic view (that of someone who "is still a virgin," as some characters who see themselves in his path slyly insinuate) is the only one that doesn't realize the corrupt world he moves in.

]]>

"The United States doesn't want allies, but vassals, and Russia cannot accept that framework for relations." These words of Vladimir Putin in 2015 resonate with increasing force among Russian analysts since the US attack on Iran. The aggression, in the midst of negotiations, has alarmed Moscow. who doubts the usefulness of engaging in dialogue with Donald TrumpAfter a year of rapprochement, Washington has once again revealed itself as a geostrategic adversary, and the Kremlin is becoming convinced that it cannot expect anything regarding the resolution of the war in Ukraine.

]]>

Despite Vladimir Putin's efforts to conceal the ravages of the war in Ukraine from residents of major cities, the conflict has once again become a part of daily life for Muscovites in recent hours. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has denounced the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow since the start of the invasion. According to him, nearly 250 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down as they headed toward the capital. Russian military analysts believe this is an aerial escalation by Kyiv, while independent observers warn that the Kremlin may be exaggerating the threat to justify its actions. internet outages within the country and to convince Donald Trump of Volodymyr Zelensky's unwillingness to reach a peace agreement.

]]>

A cartoon that appeared in the Russian press shows a billboard with a caricature of Vladimir Putin and the text "He brought us back from the 90s." At its base, a man asks another, "Where did you get that? Does he look for people?" His interlocutor replies, "I'll show you on the map," and unfolds a huge map of Moscow. Walking through the Russian capital these days is like stepping back in time and, at the same time, contemplating a science fiction set. On March 5, the authorities blocked mobile internet in the city's central districts, and more than a week later, the network is still failing. The Kremlin justifies this action as being for "security reasons," but activists warn that this is just one more step toward Russia's inevitable disconnection from the global internet.

]]>

The film The Kremlin Magician, This French production, directed by Olivier Assayas with a screenplay by Emmanuel Carrère, represents what no one had dared to do before: to stage on screen the background and key figures of the first fifteen years of Putin's Russia. It depicts the transition to a police state, a synthesis of Soviet totalitarianism and oligarchic capitalism. I gather that screenwriter Emmanuel Carrère—son of historian Hélène Carrère de Encausse—has greatly irritated the Kremlin, but he has been skillful enough to guarantee the physical safety of some characters by changing their names.

]]>

One of the documentaries with the most chances of winning an Oscar is Mr. Nobody vs. Putin, a magnificent work for its capacity for denunciation but, above all, because it returns to the essence of the genre. The images were born as a testimony of a reality even before there was any intention of turning them into a film project. Initially, the purpose of these recordings was different. But a turning point changed its destiny, almost as a consequence of the perplexity experienced by the person recording the images.The protagonist is Pavel Pasha Talankin, a primary school teacher in the city of Karabaş, in the heart of industrial Russia, in the mountainous Ural region. The town is famous because UNESCO declared it the most toxic place on Earth. The life expectancy of its inhabitants is 38 years. Pasha is the coordinator of school events and the cameraman for everything that happens there. A dynamizer of the cultural life of the center, much loved by the students. He explains how his work changed drastically in February 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine, when a guideline with the new federal patriotic education policy arrived at the school. Since then, students have to present the flag and march like soldiers every morning, sing the anthem, and recite patriotic speeches. Teachers have to preach lessons in classrooms that are pure propaganda without any academic basis. Pasha is obliged to record everything and upload the images to government databases to demonstrate that the school respects the orders of Putin's regime. The camera becomes a witness to the entire indoctrination process. The hours that Pasha previously dedicated to students, he now spends in the service of propaganda. The contrast between before and after the Russian invasion shows us how life in Russia has transformed and how fear, censorship, and oppression are imposed. We not only see how the protagonist's mood changes, but also that of his students and former students. There are very moving scenes about the impact of the war on their lives. The possibility of providing all the recorded material to a documentary filmmaker beyond the Russian border is what motivates Pasha to continue. He becomes this Mr. Nobody from the title who fights Putin from absolute humility, from the logic of his work, from affection for his students, love for his country, and his democratic convictions. "I think what you've done will have a big impact," a voice tells him over the phone. And so it is. Mr. Nobody is on the verge of winning an Oscar in Hollywood by showing the abyss into which the Russian educational system, and therefore Russian society, is sinking. He always does so with a sense of humor born from pain and from the most grotesque scenes that absolutisms provoke. It is a documentary that will resonate with teachers and can be a good antidote for all those young people who are fascinated by the far-right.

]]>

Vladimir Putin appears to be, for the moment, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the US and Israeli war against Iran. The US Treasury Department has announced that it will temporarily authorize the purchase of Russian oil currently in transit. In other words, Washington has issued a 30-day exemption from the sanctions that prevented the purchase of Russian hydrocarbons as punishment for the war in Ukraine. The measure aims to curb the surge in crude oil prices, which jumped more than 9% on Thursday after several days of increases. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that allowing the tankers currently stuck at sea, unable to transport their crude, to move will help stabilize global energy markets. In a statement to X published hours after benchmark oil prices surpassed $100 per barrel, Bessent said the measure was "very tight" and "short-term" and would not provide a significant financial benefit to the Russian government.

]]>

The US Treasury Department announced Thursday that it will temporarily authorize the purchase of Russian oil in transit. The measure aims to curb the surge in crude oil prices, which jumped more than 9% on Thursday after several days of increases and, despite moderating the pace of the climb, continued to rise on Friday. On Friday, the price of Brent crude—the European benchmark—surfaced at over $100 a barrel. Conversely, the price of natural gas moved in the opposite direction, falling by approximately 0.60% to €50.54 per megawatt-hour (MWh) on the Dutch TTF market, which sets prices across the continent. These declines were relatively small, and gas prices rose for much of the day. With the lifting of restrictions on Russian crude, thousands of barrels will enter the market, which should contribute to a decrease—or at least a moderation of the escalating price—of oil. When it announced the embargo, President Donald Trump's administration asserted that the ban on Russian oil purchases was key to pressuring Moscow in the war in Ukraine. However, it now indicates that this temporary exemption from the restriction, which will last until April 11, will not represent a significant benefit for Russia.

]]>

In the volcanic rivers of Kamchatka and the snow-fed torrents of Siberia, locals brave raging currents to hunt their prey. Russia has a long tradition of fishing in turbulent waters, a tradition that also extends to foreign policy. Donald Trump's attack on Iran has offered Vladimir Putin an unexpected lifeline. the rise in energy prices in a context of global instabilityHowever, just as these fishermen expose themselves to great dangers to catch the most coveted fish, short-term gains for the Russian economy threaten to become new risks if the conflict in the Middle East drags on.

]]>

"I don't even want to discuss this possibility," Vladimir Putin stated last June when a journalist asked him how he would react if Israel or the United States were to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once the possibility became a reality, the Russian leader merely sent a telegram of condolence to the Iranian president, criticizing what he considers a "cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law." He has repeated this message in the following days. The man who invaded Ukraine without warning four years ago and who bombs its cities daily is not so much concerned about the image he projects to the world—his inability to help an ally—as he is about the ghosts this death evokes, inevitably linked to the trauma of the execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The assassination of Gaddafi in 2011 horrified and obsessed Putin, who began to fear a similar fate. The Kremlin leader perceived it as a betrayal by the United States and Europe, and this was one of the causes of the break with the West. However, fifteen years later, Russia is not in a position to raise its voice forcefully against the White House. The initial telegram, much shorter and more neutral than a televised statement, avoided pointing fingers at those responsible for Khamenei's death and made it clear that Moscow cannot and does not want to antagonize an omnipotent Donald Trump, who has broken Putin's isolation and is mediating to resolve the war in Ukraine. Since then, Putin has barely spoken about events in the Middle East.

]]>