The reasons the EU's loan to Ukraine falls short of what Ukraine needed are frustratingly political, despite Kyiv getting the money it wanted.

Bloomberg.com

Seizing Russian Funds Was a Test That Europe Failed

In the end, it didn’t take one of the European Union’s "three shirt" marathon summit extensions to resolve the question of how Europe will cont...

on social media, i think it's important to post hot takes grounded in diametrically opposed political and philosophical core beliefs, sprinkled with annoying semantic errors, just to keep everyone on their toes — literally

Macron says Europe risks a navel-gazing foreign policy and being left out of the Ukraine war settlement if it sticks to the EU's hardline of no direct dialogue with Moscow.

Excellent op-ed from Hanna Notte on how Europe "risks a self-fulfilling prophecy over the threat from Russia." A good balance of addressing "adversarial relations with Russia" as "a fixture of the European security landscape" while stressing the dangers of post-2022 "overcorrection."

Client Challenge

if it weren't for ignorant and unfairly harsh American criticism of the EU, i think the union would have collapsed long ago. it's so weak and dysfunctional, after all.

Oof, Roscosmos has ditched its fancy plans for the future "Russian Orbital Station" and embraced a scheme to use 30-year-old ISS scrap instead. "Clearly a money-saving move" but "remarkable even for Russia’s threadbare space program," writes Eric Berger.

Ars Technica

Russia is about to do the most Russia thing ever with its next space station

Russia, meanwhile, will be left to carry on the legacy of the ISS, with all its problems."

For yesterday's newsletter, I finally sat down and wrote a brief comparison of this month's dueling Foreign Affairs essays by Sergey Radchenko and Thomas Graham. It's remarkable how both scholars can agree on so much while arriving at mostly opposite policy recommendations.

Meduza

This was Russia today Thursday, December 18, 2025 — Meduza

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