Russia

Poland is building up its defences with US$ 14.5 billion in South Korean weapons, some of which could go to Ukraine. Germany’s seeming failure to help Ukraine against Russia’s aggression is proving controversial in bilateral relations. Warsaw wants a strong military deterrent against Moscow’s threats.

Ukraine and Syria will be the main points of discussion. The Turkey-mediated grain deal between Ukraine and Russia still reverberates. Turkey’s “sultan” defends Russia’s “tsar” from Western criticism. Both want to keep their hold on power.

A moral counter-revolution, as some Russian media call it, is the global and declared aim of the war in Ukraine; for this reason, it has touched a sensitive nerve in the West, much more than the geographical proximity between NATO forces and those of neo-Soviet Russia.

Putin's invasion has blocked Chinese funding in Russia for the Belt and Road Initiative. A project for the joint construction of a transport super plane also suspended. The Chinese limit collaboration with Moscow to the energy market for fear of running afoul of Western sanctions.

The creator of the charity facility is Dr Ievkov. Support for those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. The Orthodox youth association 'Kinonia' contributes to the initiative. Migrants also assisted in sorting out documents, finding a place in hostels and returning home to Ukraine, Belarus or Kazakhstan.

A response to the blockade of goods in transit from Lithuania. Crackdown started with Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent EU sanctions. Propaganda against Lithuanians intensifies in the territory: they are accused of subversion and of being spies.

The attack marred the opening ceremony of Hagia Sophia Church in Suqaylabiyah, a replica of Istanbul’s ancient Byzantine Basilica recently repurposed as a mosque. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an anti-Assad terror group still in control of a large area of northern Syria, was blamed. The incident comes a few days after Erdoğan, Putin, and Raisi meet to de-escalate the Syrian conflict.

According to the Chinese, the document denigrates their government's military policy. Japan aims for growth in military spending to 2 percent of GDP. Kishida administration: Russian attack on Ukraine risks becoming a precedent for Chinese aggression against Taiwan.

Exactly one hundred years ago more than 300 distinguished representatives of the scientific, literary and artistic intelligentsia were expelled from Soviet Russia to Germany.They saved Russian culture from erasure. Even today because of the "Ukrainian revolution" thousands of teachers, artists and scholars from various fields have fled the country. Will they be able to do the same?

Action by Russia’s Justice Ministry is a new blow for Russia’s Jewish community after its chief rabbi was forced to flee for not supporting the invasion of Ukraine. Reopened in the 1990s, the agency helped Jews emigrate to Israel. Since February, 10,000 have left the country. In Israel the Lapid government is sending a delegation warning that “Russian Jews will not be held hostage”.

The 'Common Ground' project, in which Latvians and Russians help Ukrainian refugees to hope for a better future, has been in action since March. Many volunteers have arrived from Russia.

Gathering of the Universal Russian People's Council, a political-religious society founded in the 1990s by the current patriarch of Moscow, Kirill. The group wants a country with its own vision, free from Western influence.