Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to seek commitments from his US counterpart, pledging support in his country’s ongoing battle with the Russian Federation.
Another wave of COVID-19 in Russia is undermining public health and threatens economic recovery. But widespread mistrust of institutions will stymie the country’s efforts to move past the pandemic.
Despite a 27% approval rating, Putin’s United Russia party can maintain its legislative majority in September through manipulation and fraud, says an expert on Russian elections.
Co-ordinated cyberattacks can create massive disruptions to infrastructure and supply chains. New treaties are needed to prevent cyberwarfare, but it’s challenging to predict technological advances.
At this month’s summit, US President Joe Biden warned his counterpart Vladimir Putin of reprisals against ‘persistent malicious cyber-attacks’. But it will take more than posturing to end the stand-off.
Nord Stream 2 is a pipeline that will deliver Russian gas to Western Europe – and, by extension, increase Putin’s influence across the continent. That makes Ukraine and some other countries nervous.
Matthew Sussex, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
This could have been a feisty exchange between two adversaries. But the summit was a calm affair, with each side hoping their hostile relationship could be ratcheted down a notch or two.
When announcing financial penalties on Russia earlier this year, Biden hinted at the prospect of ‘further’ sanctions. An energy scholar explains what Biden may have meant.
Some tension was inevitable at the June 16 US-Russia summit. But Vladimir Putin’s defiant support for Belarus’s rogue regime now pits him harder against the West.