Russian diplomats in EU: unpaid wages, low morale

Turkey and Sweden have hit a wall in talks on Nato accession, with some predicting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won't give way till July.

Dutch media authorities have granted a broadcasting license to TV Rain, a Russian news channel suspended in Russia and then also forced to leave Latvia following a row over its coverage of the Ukraine war.

A majority in Czechia, Hungary, and Poland are open to their countries hosting Ukrainian refugees, according to a survey by Globsec, the Bratislava-based think tank, published last week.

Six Russian fertiliser and chemicals barons will partly get off the hook on EU sanctions, in the first significant loosening of EU measures since Russia invaded Ukraine.

EU leaders' bark will be worse than their bite on Russia sanctions at this week's summit, if disagreements drag out.

Historically, Muscovite and Russian elites viewed the territories that comprise modern Ukraine with indifference or greed, not fear. Ukraine was too far away to matter.

In the last-minute deal, the EU unblocked Hungary's opposition to joint financial assistance to Ukraine and the bloc's adoption of the global minimum tax.

Upcoming EU sanctions will strike at Russia's media bullhorn, while shedding light on the horrors behind the propaganda lies.

From the outset, arms manufacturers eyed this war as a profitable business opportunity. Structural changes took place across the EU, not only to fast-track arms to Ukraine, but also to make more public finance available to the highly-lucrative arms industry.

"We cannot afford any more delays," Czech minister Zbyněk Stanjura said of aid to Ukraine, adding that his country's EU presidency is "fully committed to finding a compromise".

How should democratic states co-operate with authoritarian governments in the future? My organisation, Democracy Reporting International, has studied the security strategies of 13 democratic governments to understand how they see this relationship.

The agribusiness narrative is a masquerade. A smokescreen to water down environmentally-friendly reforms and maintain industrial agriculture. A smokescreen to which a majority of European policy-makers, including member states, are dangerously buying into.

The EU Commission has downplayed Russia's threat to stop selling oil to countries which adopt a Western cap on prices.

Vladimir Putin himself is somewhat suspicious of Serbia's leader, as are most who deal with the opaque Aleksandar Vucic. The Russian president has preferred to keep his Serbian counterpart compliant, via a tight rein of annually-reviewed gas pricing.