Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi, one of the leaders of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) and its political wing, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), has been sentenced to 25 years in p...

Friedrich Merz’s government has pushed through a sweeping overhaul of the so-called heating law, the central policy instrument for transforming the heating sector. Its previous version was one of the ...

On 22 September, after eight months of negotiations, the governments of the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland concluded an arrangement supplementing the 1951 Agreement on the Defence...

Between 18 and 20 September, Russia held parliamentary elections to determine the make-up of the new 450-member State Duma, the lower house of parliament. The vote coincided with an annual series of r...

On 10 September, following attacks by Iran-aligned forces and damage to infrastructure, Saudi Aramco shut down the East-West pipeline. On 15 September, reports emerged that a number of crude oil deliv...

On 16 September, Seoul hosted the first summit between the leaders of South Korea and the five Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (the C5). The summ...

The United List (Latvian: Apvienotais saraksts, AS), led by incumbent Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, is likely to win the 3 October election to the Saeima, Latvia’s 100-seat unicameral parliament.

On 16 September, during a visit to the Pentagon, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, signed a declaration on closer cooperation between the two countrie...

The European Commission intends to increase funding for defence-related purposes to approximately €150 billion in its proposal for the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). As part of its r...

On 1 September, for the first time, Chişinău mandated businesses operating in separatist Transnistria to pay VAT and excise duties into the Moldovan budget on certain goods they import. The new regula...

On 16 September, the US House of Representatives passed a bill imposing sanctions on Russia, originally proposed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham. The vote completed the bill’s passage through Congr...

Contents MAIN POINTS INTRODUCTION

On 31 August, Xi Jinping promulgated an amendment to the 2010 National Defence Mobilisation Law of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国国防动员法), which will enter into force on 1 October this year. Th...

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On 2 September, parliament elected Ülle Madise President of Estonia. Her candidacy was supported by 71 of the 101 MPs, with 68 votes required for election. Madise will take office on 12 October after ...

On 25 August, a fire broke out at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex, which is still under construction. The complex is located near the town of Svobodny, outside Blagoveshchensk in Russia’s Far East, arou...

On 4 September, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) searched the office of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. On the same day, the agency announced that it had carried out Operati...

On 5 September, President Donald Trump’s special envoys, Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, visited Moscow, resuming efforts to bring Russia’s war against Ukraine to an end after a hiatus of more than ...

The AfD won the parliamentary election in Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September, securing 43.8% of the vote – 23 percentage points more than in 2021. This gave the party 39 seats in the 83-seat Landtag. The CD...

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The elections scheduled for 6 September in Saxony-Anhalt will be crucial for Germany’s political system. For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Alternative for Germa...

YouTube video by Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW)

YouTube video by Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW)

Péter Magyar’s first hundred days in office have marked Hungary’s most significant political shift since Fidesz came to power in 2010. A constitutional majority, combined with high levels of public tr...

On 10 August, Turkey’s parliament passed a law establishing a legal mechanism enabling former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants to return to civilian life. The legislation was backed by the gov...

In the first half of August, the Kremlin sent Tokyo a strong political signal regarding the dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands (Japan’s Northern Territories). Between 4 and 12 August, Russia’s Pa...

On 12 August, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine had recaptured 745 km² of territory and 26 settlements in a large-scale offensive operation conducted by the Air Assault Forces togeth...

On 7 August, in Mecca, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which aims to enhance collective deterrence and improve coordination and integration of the three cou...

16 August marked 100 days since Rumen Radev’s government was sworn in. Despite its pre-election promises, the single-party cabinet of the conservative-social Progressive Bulgaria (PB) has so far taken...

On 7–8 August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first visit to Serbia since taking office. His meetings with President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Đuro Macut focused on economic...

Twenty years after declaring independence, Montenegro is the most advanced candidate currently in the EU accession process. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has provided fresh impetus to EU enl...

On 22–24 July, the Russian parliament unanimously adopted a package of laws that drastically curtails the civil rights of Russian citizens living abroad. The measures target those who have been convic...

On 22 July, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy, Taras Vysotskyi, announced that no commercial vessel had entered Ukraine’s Black Sea ports that day. Shipowners suspended sailings over concerns abou...

On 22 July, Moldova’s new government was sworn in, with independent businessman Vasile Tofan, aged 44, appointed as prime minister (see Appendix: biographical note and composition of the government). ...

On 13 July, Lithuania’s Minister of the Interior, Martynas Katelynas, proposed the introduction of temporary controls at the border with Latvia in response to a significant increase in the number of m...

The EU’s twenty-first sanctions package against Russia: national interests dilute the measures

Following its victory in the April 2026 parliamentary elections and the securing of a constitutional majority, Péter Magyar’s government began implementing one of its key campaign pledges: to restore ...

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On 16 July, the Verkhovna Rada approved Serhii Koretskyi as prime minister by a majority of 289 votes and confirmed the composition of his cabinet. The new government reversed the merger of two ‘super...

More than two months after the collapse of Ilie Bolojan’s government, Romania’s main political parties remain unable to reach an agreement on the formation of a new cabinet. This impasse comes at an e...

On 14 July, the Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) approved the programme and composition of the new government led by Social Democrat Mindaugas Sinkevičius by a narrow majority of 72 votes in the 141-sea...

Since the end of May, Russia has been experiencing a fuel crisis marked by physical shortages of fuel across most regions of the country, accompanied by rising prices for petrol and diesel. This disru...

On 15 July, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov would not be part of the new government. The government reshuffle and the allegedly slow implementation of ref...