Mistrust continues to govern relations between Russia and the West. Two years of full-scale military confrontation have only served to confirm existing negative preconceptions about each side’s intentions. President Putin could make the initial move to break this deadlock by sending a clear message that Russia does not seek to…

Since time immemorial, the sea has been a contested arena for state and non-state actors, for the passage of valuable goods and the control of traffic. Traditionally, the straits have been the focus of attention.On March 23, 2021, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, the world had its first…

Any measure that hinders the supply of affordable energy to Europe, such as the continuation of sanctions or a premature withdrawal from long-term gas supply contracts, will cause massive damage to the European economy and set the EU back by years, if not decades, Ulrike Reisner writes. Pursued under the…

Competition of candidatesIt is worth clarifying that for Trump, issues of loyalty are extremely important and this feature will influence his choice of vice president along with the real strategic advantages of one of the candidates.Marjorie Taylor-Green, Mat Goetz, Byron DonaldsAll three are close to Trump ideologically, but do not…

On March 28, 2024, the Valdai Club presented its new report, titled “Crafting National Interests: How Diplomatic Training Impacts Sovereignty”. The moderator was Andrey Sushentsov, programme director of the Club.Nikita Neklyudov, an expert at MGIMO University’s Institute for International Studies, noted that the report returns us to the discussion about…

Despite its significantly lower weight in the global economy compared to the United States, London is trying to secure its role as one of the leaders in the application of sanctions. This is facilitated by the continued position of the UK as one of the world’s financial hubs, a major…

NATO’s aggression against Yugoslavia for international politics was that it was a collective attack, perpetrated by a large group of Western countries, against a sovereign state, and marked the watershed between a time when a peaceful world order could still be expected, and the resumption of the Cold War in…

The modern world is the most mobile that it has been in the last 30 years. For many years, the relatively stable situation in Europe seemed exemplary to many, and its security complex was perceived as a prototype for other regions to emulate, including the Middle East. However, we see…

In January 2023, Christopher Hill, the US Ambassador to Belgrade, was interviewed by the Serbian media; he stated that for him “the biggest disappointment was that things that I thought were decided a long time ago are still fresh in people's memory. When I came here last March, I was…

The multidirectional geopolitical interests of regional and external players, which directly influence the difficult socio-political transformations in the region, keep us from being optimistic about the rapid transformation of the South Caucasus into a zone of peace – even if some document on the normalisation of relations between Baku and…

Alas, the world is on fire. And this fire is only growing. For some reason, it seems that we don’t have enough firefighters. But there are plenty of arsonists. When we look at what is happening in the modern world and reflect on the behaviour of its various elites, it…

ROn March 18, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted and expert discussion dedicated to financial settlements within the BRICS. Moderator Ivan Timofeev recalled that, according to the final declaration of the 2023 BRICS summit, the relevant departments of the member countries had to work out possible mechanisms for financial settlements. The…

The creation of new financial mechanisms through BRICS is one of the most promising fields for the development of the association. In the final declaration of the BRICS countries after the 2023 Summit, financial policy was given quite a lot of attention. In particular, it was stated that the BRICS…

The world has lost its understanding of the balance of power that is obvious to everyone, which makes international relations more complex. A large number of emerging crises are caused by the fact that “small” and “medium-sized” countries have begun to experiment: they see an opportunity for themselves to test…

Discrepancies between expectations and practice are one of the most noticeable characteristics of modern world politics, both in the performance of leading powers and in the activities of the international institutions they create. The origin of this phenomenon is the fact that the first is a product of subjective ideas…

For the 2024 World Youth Festival in Sochi, a group of young experts under the auspices of the Valdai Discussion Club prepared a report titled “Charting the 2040: Younger Generation Insight on the World in the Making”. This report left a very favourable impression; it is thought-provoking and represents a…

Amid the second anniversary of the start of the Special Military Operation (SVO) in Ukraine, a number of Western countries and associations launched a new set of sanctions against Russia, as expected. In quantitative terms, the number of Russian companies and citizens subject to restrictive measures was indeed high. However,…

The Valdai Club youth conference on March 5 consisted of three thematic sessions and an open discussion. As during the closed-door workshops held on March 3–4, which you can read about here, the participants in the open session were guided by the image of the future presented in the new…

Neither Washington nor Beijing are ready for sharp escalation at the moment. The Americans are looking forward to the presidential election in 2024, and China continues to experience economic problems. Nevertheless, the desire of the United States to prove its readiness to support Taiwan continues to increase the level of hard tension in this part of the planet, where, as it seemed earlier,…

The banking and financial relations between Iran and Russia have developed significantly in recent years under the influence of several factors, which is unprecedented in the history of relations between the two countries, Vali Kaleji writes.  In his article, Dr. Vali Kaleji, a Tehran-based expert on Central Asia and Caucasian…

The 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for All” will be held in Sochi on October 2–5, 2023. The meeting will be attended by more than 130 experts, politicians and diplomats from 43 countries throughout Eurasia, Africa, North and South…