#putin-diplomacy

#putin-diplomacy

Major indices, including the Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average, all recorded gains, with the Nasdaq delivering its strongest weekly performance since November.

Ust-Luga, a key oil-export outlet in Russia's west, stopped at the end of March as Ukraine stepped up attacks on energy infrastructure along the Baltic coast.

Trump's decision to assassinate Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while Iran was in active negotiations with the president's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner has reinforced a growing sense among hard-liners in Moscow that diplomacy is fragile - perhaps even pointless - in a world in which the United States is willing to use military force to achieve its goals.

In 2021, when Olga Rudenko and other journalists launched the Kyiv Independent, they were committed to making a publication that wouldn't face political pressure from an owner. A few months later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the Independent began reporting breaking news from the front lines.

Russia has been steadily expanding its global nuclear footprint through its state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom and its subsidiaries. Russia provides financing or technological support and exports complete nuclear-power-plant solutions from building infrastructure to supplying the core component, the Nuclear Steam Supply System, which drives power generation.

In some countries, we're going to take those sanctions off until this straightens out. Trump told reporters, although he did not clarify which countries might benefit from this potential policy shift. At present, the United States enforces sanctions that restrict oil trade with several nations, including Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria, and North Korea.

Writing on Telegram, Pushkov criticised Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, French President Emmanuel Macron, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, arguing that European leaders have offered "no serious answers" for why they should be involved in talks already led by the United States. Pushkov suggested that EU ambitions risk "derailing even the fragile negotiations that are already underway," framing European efforts as symbolic rather than substantive.