Aura Sabadus

2 months ago | aurasabadus.substack.com | Aura Sabadus

Dean Acheson’s ‘Present at the Creation’ is due for a sequel: ‘Present at the Demise.’Like the 51st US secretary of state who watched a new world order emerging from the ashes of the Second World War, we are the witnesses (and architects) of its demise. For the last seven decades the West has enjoyed the peace dividends of the order deftly described by Acheson in his Pulitzer-prize winning book, blissfully oblivious that war, and not peace, had been the rule that underpinned human history.

Jan 28, 2025 | cepa.org | Maciej Bukowski |Aura Sabadus |Wojciech Jakóbik |Alexander Kolyandr

As President Donald Trump rushes to kill clean energy projects, the new European Commission is racing ahead to reach its ambitious green goals. It’s an opportunity for Europe to take the lead. A good test will be its plans to promote green hydrogen. Upon moving into the White House, President Trump ended the Biden administration’s last-minute tax incentives for clean hydrogen investments.

Jan 22, 2025 | cepa.org | Pavel Luzin |Aura Sabadus |Wojciech Jakóbik

Russia is struggling to increase arms production against a tide of permanently growing costs and a shortage of human and financial resources. Without a ceasefire, the Kremlin will face deeper imbalances in its domestic political economy and become strategically weaker. 2025 will be the last year Russia can rely on its massive stockpiles of Soviet-era conventional arms, including artillery, main battle tanks and armored vehicles.

Jan 22, 2025 | cepa.org | Pavel Luzin |Aura Sabadus |Wojciech Jakóbik |Kseniya Kirillova

There are clear signs that Russia’s 2024 military budget exceeded the planned 10.4 trillion rubles ($101 billion) and was actually closer to 13.2 trillion rubles ($129 billion.) This number comes from Minister of Defense Andrei Belousov, who said in December that defense spending was 32.5% of the total federal budget of 40.6 trillion rubles at the year’s end.

Jan 22, 2025 | cepa.org | Pavel Luzin |Aura Sabadus |Wojciech Jakóbik |Kseniya Kirillova

The death and disablement of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, acute strains in the defense budget and a looming shortage of military hardware make 2025 the year of truth for Moscow’s armed forces. With the full-scale war against Ukraine nearly three years-old, Russia’s armed forces have lost as many as 700,000 troops killed, injured or missing in action by October last year.