#Hybrid: Russia adds another layer of narratives to distract attention from the essence of the energy crisis in Transnistria: initially Moscow claimed that the crisis arose due to⤵️

#Personal: Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr! Feliz Año Nuevo! Bonne Année! La mulți Ani! 🥂

#Romania: Liberal candidate Elena Lasconi is using the image of the Moldovan and Georgian presidents to boost her chances against her rival Georgescu, who is described as a Russian asset (“United against Putin”).⤵️

#Geopolitics: Politico raises a good question, but the answer lies in the liberal approach in which all international political organisations established by Western states are embedded. On the one hand, the EU/Europe sees the world stage through realistic lenses and has been avoiding confrontations⤵️

#Personal: Hi 41!

With Austria phasing out Russian gas, Slovakia becomes the largest consumer of Russian pipeline gas supplied via Ukraine. Hungary also buys Russian gas, but for this purpose it uses the Turkish Stream. Other Russian comes in Europe in the form of LNG.

#Hybrid: Finland's Supo intelligence service reports that Russia may try to use Russian researchers and journalists to gather sensitive information abroad. Before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia used its diplomats as spies. In recent years, the West has expelled up to 500 Russian diplomats,⤵️

#Ukraine: Scholz's phone call to Putin has two main reasons: 1) Germany is heading towards elections and Scholz is trying to show his voters that he made an effort to talk to Putin (and the problem is Russia, not German leadership);⤵️

#FrozenConflicts: Protests against the deal with Russia that allows its companies and non-Abkhaz citizens (many Abkhaz have Russian passports) to take possession of property and land in Abkhazia if signed.⤵️

#Azerbaijan: Borrell is reacting to what appears to be a hostile language by Aliyev against the EU and two of its member states: France & the Netherlands. However, the problem is that Borrell is an outgoing official (‘too little too late’) and his position is not backed by the incoming @kajakallas.

#ThinkTanking: Thanks Anastasia pociumban @dgapev for one of the most frank discussions I have attended recently as a speaker on the electoral context and domestic politics in Moldova (with a big focus on the implications of Russian hybrid warfare).

#Russia: The 2024 budget looks staggering in terms of planned defense spending, which increased by ~ 70% (10.8 trillion rubles/$115 billion). This constitutes 1/3 of the total expenditure & 3 times more than planned in 2021 (a year before the full-scale war against Ukraine).

#EU_Enlargement: The future dynamics of enlargement will depend on the ratio between the “net contributors” to the EU budget and that “net recipient”. The overall picture also depends on how well the German economy, which is producing 25 billion euros for the EU budget, does.

#Critical_Infrastructure: Ukraine and Moldova agreed on a new rail corridor that will transport grain from Ukraine to Romania. Today, up to 60% of grain exported from Ukraine is shipped through Romania. The new route will also include the Transnistria region, showing that ⤵️