Politico EU

From the SWAP: A Secret History of the New Cold War by Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson. Copyright © 2025 by Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson. Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

In the third week of March 2023, Vladimir Putin dialed onto a video call and reached for a winning tactic he had been honing since his first weeks as president. He approved the arrest of another American.

By then, Russia’s president was running the world’s largest landmass from a series of elaborately constructed, identical conference rooms. As far as the CIA could tell, there were at least three of them across Russia, each custom-built and furnished to the exact same specifications, down to the precise positioning of a presidential pencil holder, engraved with a double-headed eagle, the state symbol tracing back five centuries, on the lacquered wooden desk. Neither the 10 perfectly sharpened pencils inside nor any other detail in the windowless rooms, with their beige-paneled walls and ..

BRUSSELS — After shock waves from a massive Russian drone assault severely damaged the EU delegation in Kyiv last month, Ursula von der Leyen didn’t wait for the official diplomatic channels to contact Donald Trump.

The European Commission boss simply rang Trump directly. Two EU officials familiar with the call said she told the U.S. president: “This is what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is capable of. Here’s a clear example of how Putin isn’t keeping his word.”

The fact that von der Leyen and Trump are speaking directly is of increasing geopolitical significance. For months, early in Trump’s second term, the EU feared it was being left out, unable to make itself heard — or even deliberately snubbed — in the vital diplomacy over the war in Ukraine, as Trump aligned himself with Kremlin talking points.

But something has shifted since June, and the two leaders are now in regular contact. Trump is lavishing von der Leyen with compliments such as “fantastic” and “tremendous,” and E..

Listen on

Spotify

Apple Music

Amazon Music

Zweiter Anlauf für die Verfassungsrichterwahl: Nach dem Sommer-Desaster treten heute Sigrid Emmenegger, Günter Spinner und Ann-Katrin Kaufhold an. Union und SPD sind auf Stimmen von Grünen und Linken angewiesen. Rasmus Buchsteiner erklärt, warum das Votum zum Test für die Koalition wird, ein Scheitern aber unwahrscheinlich ist.

Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht Grünen-Fraktionschefin Britta Haßelmann über Verantwortung, Vertrauen – und warum sie trotz aller Kritik an Friedrich Merz für die Kandidaten stimmt. Sie warnt: Ohne Taten im Herbst der Reformen droht ein „Winter der Enttäuschung“.
Außenpolitisch richtet sich der Blick nach New York: Hans von der Burchard berichtet von der UN-Generalversammlung, wo Sudan, Ukraine und Gaza die Agenda bestimmen.
Und: Kulturstaatsminister Wolfram Weimer überrascht mit dem ersten KI-Avatar in der Bundesregierung – eine digitale Premiere mit Signalwirkung.

Das Berlin Playbook als Pod..

KYIV — Ukraine’s leaders “want to go offensive,” U.S. President Donald Trump said late Wednesday ahead of Friday’s planned meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy where Tomahawk long-range missiles are expected to be discussed.

“We’ll be talking about the war with him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Zelenskyy.

“They want to go offensive,” Trump added. “I’ll make a determination on that, but they would like to go offensive,” he said.

Both Zelenskyy and Trump have said they will discuss Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems during Friday’s meeting at the White House. The Ukrainian delegation in the U.S. has already met this week with Raytheon, the producer of Tomahawk missiles as well as Patriot missile-defense systems.

“Tools like Patriots and Tomahawks can help lay a long-term foundation for peace,” Zelenskyy said in his evening statement on Wednesday.

Kyiv is looking at Friday’s meeting to secure the advanced weaponry needed to un..

BRUSSELS — An EU plan to sanction Israel’s government ministers and cut back on trade ties has been put on ice as a leading group of member countries believes it’s no longer necessary in light of the U.S.-brokered peace agreement to end the war in Gaza.

The original push is now unlikely to find sufficient support at meetings of foreign ministers and EU leaders this month, according to four European diplomats, granted anonymity to speak to POLITICO about the closed-door talks.
An agreement among all 27 capitals would be needed to impose the penalties, and despite growing pressure on the EU to act, the deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump has divided national governments on the way forward. Separate measures to restrict trade could be introduced with the backing of a smaller group of countries, but this too now looks unlikely, according to the diplomats.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her State of the Union address in September to announce she would m..

LONDON — The threat from states such as China is as bad or worse as the threat of terrorism, the head of one of Britain’s top intelligence agencies warned Thursday.

Giving his annual threat update speech from MI5 headquarters at Thames House in London, MI5 director general Ken McCallum called for the most profound change in the way British intelligence operates “since 9/11.”

His comments come as Westminster continues to be engulfed by questions over the high-profile collapse of a case against two alleged Chinese spies. Both the British government and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have faced scrutiny over the case after the CPS unexpectedly dropped the charges against the two men in question last month.

Speaking Thursday, McCallum said his teams are running a “near-record” volume of investigations into terrorism, and have foiled 19 late-stage terrorism attacks since 2020.

But he said that threats from states — including China — are now a “second menace of equal or even greate..

BRUSSELS — Montenegro wants the EU’s help in fighting Russian disinformation as the Balkan nation moves toward membership of the bloc.

The small country, which has set an ambitious goal to join the EU by 2028, is increasingly a target for disinformation from those hoping to disrupt its membership bid, Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović told POLITICO in an exclusive interview in Brussels.

“I’m very much hoping that in the future we would be getting bigger support from the EU to really fight disinformation and misinformation,” Milatović said, adding he had pitched the idea to EU policymakers and member countries.

Moldova, another EU candidate country, has been a favorite target of the Kremlin’s meddling, including vote-buying and disinformation. That led the EU to deploy last month its new cyber reserve — a team of private-sector cybersecurity experts — to Chişinǎu and allocate millions in funding for a hub to fight disinformation.

Milatović, who was in Brussels to meet with Europ..

Georgia’s interior ministry has fined Finland’s foreign minister after she expressed support for protesters at a pro-EU, anti-government rally on Tbilisi’s main avenue, Rustaveli.

Elina Valtonen, who visited Georgia on Tuesday in her role as chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), had recorded a video in front of the Georgian parliament.

“Peaceful protestors have gathered in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, to voice their concern over the repressive direction of their country … we are here to support them,” Valtonen said in the video.

The authorities subsequently fined her 5,000 lari (€1,600) for “blocking the road,” a penalty that is frequently imposed on anti-government protesters.
Valtonen’s planned meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze was cancelled. According to the Georgian government, the cancellation was due to Valtonen’s participation in an “illegal rally” and her “false statements.” However, Valtonen s..

BRUSSELS — A potential dramatic return to Brussels of one of the European Union’s biggest beasts could trigger a massive escalation in the simmering battle for influence between the European Commission and the bloc’s foreign policy wing.

Martin Selmayr — the most powerful person in the EU machinery during the term of former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, but who fell out of favor when Ursula von der Leyen took the helm — is in pole position for a newly created senior position inside the European External Action Service, according to two EU officials and one senior diplomat.

While it’s not certain he will get the job, many officials have been talking up his chances. It would mean him working under the EU’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, whose team, according to officials inside the Commission and the EEAS, already has a fragile relationship with von der Leyen’s office.

The prospect of seeing Selmayr return to Brussels in such a crucial role — offering Kallas the benef..

NEW YORK — The U.S. Pentagon should retain key military equipment in Europe to deter Russia even as Washington prepares to draw down the number of troops it keeps stationed on the continent, Finland’s president told POLITICO on Thursday.

Speaking at the Finnish residence in New York, Alexander Stubb said he was “not too worried” about the outcome of the ongoing review of U.S. strategic assets around the world, the results of which are expected to be unveiled in coming weeks.

“I think there’ll be a bit of a shift to the Indo-Pacific and that’s understandable,” Stubb said, referring to discussions about potentially moving U.S. troops and military equipment from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region. “When it comes to the number of troops there will probably be some discussion on that but at this stage I’m not too worried. It’s in the strategic interest of the United States, and very cost effective” to keep U.S. forces in Europe.

He added: “I’m sure there will be some reduction, but by how..