From a nondescript seventh-floor office at 135 Bonham Strand near Hong Kong’s financial district, at least four companies are operating with a shadowy mission: facilitating the illicit trade of Western technology to Russia. Shell companies at that address have acquired millions of restricted chips and sensors for military technology companies in Russia, many of which … Read more
Eyeing each other warily across negotiating tables, U.S. and Russian diplomats never much trusted each other. Yet even during the Cold War, they hashed out agreements on the biggest issues of the day. Now the fierce, mutual hostility over Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine raises a critical question: Is U.S.-Russian diplomacy effectively dead? The answer is … Read more
With the White House calling Russian deployments in eastern Ukraine an invasion, it’s expected to follow up with tough sanctions. President Joe Biden has made clear the United States intends to deploy sweeping financial penalties, not American troops, to hit Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s moves against Ukraine. The Biden administration says its toughest sanctions … Read more
In early 2020, members of a Taliban-linked criminal network in Afghanistan detained in raids told interrogators that they had heard that Russians were offering money to reward killings of American and coalition troops. The claim, that Russia was trying to pay to generate more frequent attacks on Western forces, was stunning, particularly because the United … Read more
The Russian president went up to the brink — and then, with the eyes of the world upon him, stepped back from it. State television images on Friday showed Russian forces that had amassed near Ukraine — sparking fears of an imminent full-scale war in Europe — being loaded onto trains and ships to be … Read more