Faced with the conditions of a real war, the defense industry’s priorities have shifted toward conventional forces.

While Armenia remains formally aligned with Russia, its shift toward the West is becoming increasingly evident.

The first major treaty between Iran and Russia since 2001 does not include a military alliance or impose any obligations on either party.

Moscow has yet to fully admit its culpability in the downing of an Azerbaijani plane in Russian airspace that resulted in the deaths of thirty-eight people.

Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Sergey Vakulenko, a prominent expert on Russia’s shadow fleet, oil trade, and sanctions evasion, and a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center; and Tatiana Mitrova, another sought after expert on the energy market, Russian oil and transportation, and a research fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, to discuss Russia's energy sector, sanctions, global trade and more.

Perhaps each of the parties was hoping that one of the others would have such a vested interest in continuing the transit that they would agree to lose face and make concessions, but in the end everyone was prepared to suffer rather than give anything away to the enemy.

The breakaway republic of Transnistria has been plunged into an energy crisis following the end of Ukrainian transit of Russian gas. If it is Kyiv and not Moscow that comes to the unrecognized statelet’s aid, Russia risks losing any remaining influence in the region.

At his annual press conference, the Russian president dismissed European leaders, and was cautious about whether negotiations with Trump on Ukraine would yield anything.

The storm of government spending is sustaining the current state of affairs, but it cannot address the chronic problems that have long plagued the Russian economy. We are witnessing an irreversible turn toward economic stagnation.

If separatist Transnistria is deprived of the cheap Russian gas that keeps its economy afloat, it would hand Moldova a historic opportunity to reunify the country.