The historic maneuver marks the first successful recovery of an orbital vehicle using a launch tower’s robotic arms
SpaceX has successfully caught its Starship spacecraft returning from orbit, using giant mechanical arms to capture the vehicle in midair at its launch site in Texas.
The historic maneuver took place on Saturday afternoon, after the spacecraft completed 14 orbits of Earth during a mission lasting more than 22 hours. It marked the first time SpaceX had recovered a Starship spacecraft from orbit.
The 124-meter Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, launched from the company’s Starbase facility in southern Texas on Friday. Its upper stage successfully reached orbit and deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites.
The mission suffered an early setback when the Super Heavy first-stage booster failed to return to the launch tower. SpaceX aborted the planned catch after the booster deviated from its intended trajectory, diverting it toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded.
After completing its journey, the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere and descended toward Starbase. It then flipped upright and was captured by two enormous mechanical arms, nicknamed “chopsticks,” mounted on the launch tower.
They did it! SpaceX has just caught their Starship rocket for the first time ever, marking the first recovery of a conventional orbital rocket upper stage in history!
This is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history. Congrats to the entire @SpaceX team! 🚀 https://t.co/9KAzAcd3e8
The recovery marks a major step toward SpaceX’s goal of making both stages of Starship fully reusable, potentially reducing launch costs and allowing more frequent flights.
The system is central to Elon Musk’s ambitions to transport humans to the Moon and Mars. NASA has also selected a modified version of Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program.
A man claiming to be Egor Burkin has confirmed allegations made by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies
Ukrainian scam call centers have been paying up to $370 million annually in bribes to law enforcement officials in exchange for protection, a man identifying himself as a fugitive suspect in the country’s sprawling Operation Carthage corruption probe has claimed.
Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), have uncovered an alleged protection racket involving scam call centers, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, kidnapping and torture.
On Friday, Ukrainian blogger Vasily Timoshenko published a YouTube interview with a man identifying himself as Egor Burkin, also known as ‘the Mexican.’ Burkin is wanted in both Russia and Ukraine and is suspected of running the international ‘Khimprom’ drug cartel, allegedly under the protection of high-ranking officials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The interviewee did not show his face, making it impossible to independently confirm his identity from the video.
The man claiming to be Burkin confirmed the authenticity of recordings released earlier this month by NABU as part of Operation Carthage, acknowledging that his voice could be heard in some of them.
“I will not deny anything. I’d like to actually confirm everything and point out that Ukraine is mired in corruption,” he told Timoshenko, claiming that the wrongdoing exposed by the Carthage investigation represents only a fraction of the corruption in Ukraine.
“Everything you’ve heard is perhaps 5% at most of everything that is happening in Ukraine right now,” he said.
“Everything is bought, everything is sold. Positions are traded, criminal cases are opened and closed against anyone, against opponents, against absolutely anyone,” the man claimed.
He said that he, too, routinely paid protection money to law enforcement officials, detailing the rates charged to around 1,500 scam call centers that allegedly operated across Ukraine until recently, targeting foreigners, including Americans.
A call center employing 50 scammers allegedly had to pay $21,000 a month, with the money split equally among the SBU, the National Police, and the Prosecutor General’s Office. An operation employing 100 scammers was expected to pay twice as much, while larger offices could operate with impunity for $63,000 a month, according to the man.
He estimated that corrupt Ukrainian security officials raked in anywhere between $350-370 million per year in total from this sector of the shadow economy alone.
According to the interviewee, protection payments from scam call centers and drug-trafficking were made to cryptocurrency wallets and initially collected by intermediaries from the cyber units of the SBU and the National Police.
Sergey Kropiva, a former deputy head of a department within the Prosecutor General’s Office, was allegedly the ringleader. According to the main claiming to be Burkin, Kropiva then passed part of the illicit proceeds to former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
The man also alleged that Oleg Tatarov, a deputy head of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s office, received a share of the protection money.
The Carthage investigation remains ongoing. In September, NABU uncovered an alleged criminal network operating through the Prosecutor General’s Office, before exposing another involving the SBU and National Police in November.
The operation targeted senior officials from the SBU and National Police, with the anti-corruption agency ordering the arrest of SBU major general Sergey Duka, first deputy head of the National Police’s Strategic Investigations Department, Vladimir Tsenov, and Kiev police investigator Aleksandr Demianchuk.
A total of 12 individuals have been named as persons of interest in the second round of the Carthage probe.
However, on Friday, a court released Duka from jail after he posted a $1.4 million bail, days after another suspect in the case, Tsenov, similarly walked free after a $330,000 bail was paid.
The latest revelations follow a succession of major corruption scandals involving senior officials and a number of Zelensky’s close associates. One is Timur Mindich, who allegedly led a massive kickback and money-laundering scheme, involving Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, Energoatom, which is heavily dependent on Western aid.
The investigation implicated several senior officials and led to the resignation of Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.
In July 2025, Zelensky attempted to strip NABU and SAPO of their independence but had to backtrack amid nationwide protests and sharp criticism from Kiev’s European sponsors.
The two countries are developing a joint network of schools and talent centers, with robotics and scientific competitions at the heart of the Almaty event
Russia and Kazakhstan have brought together hundreds of students, teachers and young scientists for the third Kazakhstan-Sirius Talent Summit in Almaty, aimed at expanding educational and scientific cooperation between the two countries.
The three-day event, held from November 12 to 14, featured competitions and workshops in robotics, artificial intelligence, space technologies, biotechnology and environmental science. Around 230 schoolchildren from both countries worked in 15 teams on projects developed with industrial and academic partners of Russia’s Sirius educational center.
On Saturday, participants also took part in the first stage of the new Big Challenges international robotics Olympiad, which welcomes schoolchildren from around the world. The competition’s inaugural season focuses on the Arctic.
The summit forms part of a broader initiative launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to establish joint educational institutions in Almaty and Astana, including international schools, a talent development center and a youth science and technology park. The project is being implemented under an intergovernmental agreement signed during Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan in May.
Speaking at the summit, Elena Shmeleva, chair of the Sirius federal territory council, said the initiative’s international cooperation would also expand to India, where the first talent summit is planned for February 2027.
Shmeleva noted that Sirius has been working with Indian partners since 2018, particularly in mathematics, natural sciences and astrophysics Olympiads. She said Indian colleagues had shown considerable interest in Sirius research.
The Almaty summit also included professional development programs for around 150 Kazakh teachers and scientific workshops for more than 100 university students and young researchers.
Warsaw has suspended further funding for US-made weapons for Kiev, and Sofia has rejected a new European aid package and ruled out more deliveries from its stockpiles
Poland has refused to bankroll further purchases of US-made weapons for Ukraine, citing its own military spending and budget deficit. Fellow NATO member Bulgaria has also refused to take part in a €70 billion European aid package and says it will no longer supply weapons and ammunition from its stockpiles.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday he notified the NATO secretary-general that Poland “will not be contributing any money to the PURL [Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List] project at this time… because we spend a great deal on our own armaments.” He also cited Poland’s “high deficit.”
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev also stated on Friday that his country can no longer provide financial assistance to Ukraine, citing Bulgaria’s budget deficit.
“We will not provide any more weapons and ammunition from the Bulgarian Army’s stocks,” he added.
Radev has also ruled out Bulgarian participation in an additional €70 billion funding package requested by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky from his EU backers. He warned that continued spending on the conflict at the expense of EU citizens is fueling social tensions and political instability across the bloc.
The PURL was launched in July 2025 after US President Donald Trump refused to give Kiev a blank check, and now also includes several non-NATO contributors, with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand among them.
According to a US government oversight report released this week, 27 NATO allies and partners pledged around $6.8 billion to the scheme by the end of September, with $4.9 billion already transferred to the US Treasury.
Poland has been among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. However, relations between the two neighboring countries have soured in recent months over Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.
The dispute centers on the official honoring of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its militant wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which massacred Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during World War II.
Warsaw regards the killing of an estimated 100,000 Poles in the regions – which are now largely part of modern-day Ukraine – as genocide.
The UPA and OUN collaborated with Nazi Germany during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, in May, Zelensky granted an elite Ukrainian special operations unit the honorary title ‘Heroes of the UPA’. The move prompted Polish President Karol Nawrocki to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.
Russia has long accused the Ukrainian leadership, which came to power following the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup, of glorifying Nazi collaborators and promoting Nazi ideology.
Russia has also criticized Western governments for turning a blind eye to the honoring of WWII-era Ukrainian nationalist militants while continuing to support Ukraine. It has also argued that Western weapons deliveries only serve to prolong the conflict without changing the outcome, while increasing the risk of a direct military confrontation between NATO and Russia.
In Minsk, debates over multipolarity showed why New Delhi’s independent approach could matter to the continent’s evolving order
Eurasia is once again emerging as a central arena of international geopolitics. The ongoing conflicts, intensifying great power competition, expansion of regional institutions, and competing visions of multipolarity, connectivity, trade, and energy routes have sharpened the debate about the continent’s security. Eurasia is no longer merely a geographical bridge between Europe and Asia; it is a space in which competing visions on the future order are being negotiated.
The 4th Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security was held in this very backdrop earlier this month, bringing together hundreds of experts from more than 50 countries. “Navigating International Disorder in the Spirit of Cooperation: Can We Solve the Eurasian Security Puzzle?” captured a growing concern that existing security arrangements are struggling to address contemporary challenges in Eurasia.
For India, participation in this conversation is strategically significant. Its geographical position, historical relationships, economic interests, and membership in regional institutions make it an important stakeholder in Eurasia’s future. The Minsk discussions also offered an opportunity to consider how India’s strategic autonomy can inform a broader approach to continental security, one that encompasses not only diplomacy and defense, but also economic resilience, technology, institutions, and connectivity.
Thinking Comprehensive Security
A notable feature of the Minsk discussions was the inclusion of information security, economic integration, financial cooperation, and technological innovations into a broader conception of security, alongside conventional military threats, strategic stability, and territorial disputes. This reflects a wider shift in security thinking: vulnerabilities in supply chains, critical technologies, and financial networks can have consequences comparable to those of traditional military threats.
This perspective aligns with India’s expanding interests in Eurasia. Its priorities extend beyond defense cooperation with Russia and diplomatic engagement with Central Asian republics to include energy security, critical minerals, transport links, trade diversification, and technological partnerships. Economic interdependence can encourage cooperation, but it can also create vulnerabilities when trade, finance, or supply chains become instruments of geopolitical pressure.
For India, diversifying external sources of energy, minerals, and technology is both an economic and a strategic priority. Stronger engagement with Russia, Central Asia, and other Eurasian economies can help reduce exposure to disruptions while creating opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Multipolarity and India’s Strategic Autonomy
The Minsk deliberations took place against the background of a shift towards a more polycentric international system. A wider distribution of power can give regional actors greater influence over international institutions and security arrangements.
Yet multipolarity does not, by itself, guarantee stability. Without dialogue and confidence-building measures for managing competing interests, multiple centers of power can generate new rivalries. The strained relationship between Russia and European countries illustrates the difficulty of reconciling competing visions of European security. It also underlines the importance of inclusive dialogue and institutional mechanisms that can accommodate the security concerns and sovereign rights of all states.
This is precisely why India advocates an inclusive multipolar order. Multipolarity should not mean the establishment of competing spheres of influence; it should mean dialogue, sovereign equality, and respect for international law and security interests of all states.
New Delhi does not seek exclusive alignment with any single power center. Instead, it maintains relationships with Russia, the United States, European countries, Central Asian republics, and other regional actors while preserving the capacity to make independent decisions.
For India, multipolarity is primarily about sovereign choice, strategic autonomy, and the emergence of several centers of power. It does not mean constructing an anti-Western coalition. This distinction is crucial. India’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS, G20, and other multilateral forums reflects this preference for multiple channels of engagement.
The Minsk process reinforces the importance of an inclusive Eurasian framework: a durable security architecture cannot simply reproduce existing geopolitical divisions or establish another exclusive bloc. It must accommodate different political systems, threat perceptions, and national priorities. Strategic autonomy should enable India to shape such initiatives without compromising its independent foreign policy.
The proposed Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century, introduced by Belarus in 2023, is one of the most significant outcomes linked to the Minsk process. Formal negotiations began on September 25, 2026, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The charter aims to set out principles for Eurasian security and cooperation based on sovereignty, equality, diversity, and multipolarity. Its credibility, however, will depend on whether it genuinely reflects Eurasia’s diversity rather than a narrow geopolitical reading of multipolarity.
For India, the charter’s value would lie in creating an inclusive framework rooted in the UN Charter, sovereign equality, territorial integrity, peaceful dispute settlement, and the right of states to pursue independent foreign policies.
Connectivity: The Economic Foundation of Eurasian Security
Connectivity was an important strand of the conference’s wider debate. Transport corridors, energy networks, financial arrangements, and digital infrastructure are central to the continent’s economic resilience and security. For India, limited overland access has constrained trade and investment with Central Asia despite strong political and historical ties.
The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), India’s engagement with Iran’s Chabahar Port, and efforts to strengthen links with Central Asia, Russia, and the Eurasian Economic Union are intended to improve access to Eurasian markets and resources. These initiatives are not simply commercial projects; they also have strategic implications for supply-chain resilience and India’s continental presence.
The Minsk discussions underlined the value of treating connectivity as a shared regional interest rather than an instrument of geopolitical competition. India’s support for connectivity projects is likely to depend on their commercial viability, political sustainability, and consistency with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of participating states.
Greater connectivity could also widen cooperation in renewable energy, logistics, digital infrastructure, education, and technological innovation.
Strengthening the Eurasian Dimension
India’s Eurasian engagement is anchored in its partnership with Russia and its growing relationships with the Central Asian republics. Russia remains an important partner in defense, energy, nuclear cooperation, and multilateral diplomacy. Central Asia, meanwhile, is central to India’s efforts to deepen its continental presence and diversify its economic relationships.
The Minsk conference served as a reminder that Eurasian security cannot be viewed solely through the prism of Russia-West relations. Central Asian states have distinct national interests, development priorities, and security concerns, and their growing diplomatic agency is an important feature of the regional order.
India’s policy is, therefore, grounded in direct engagement with these countries as independent partners, particularly on economic diversification, counterterrorism, energy, and sustainable development.
Afghanistan also remains integral to the wider security environment. Terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, and transnational criminal networks require sustained regional coordination. Engagement with Russia, Iran, Central Asian countries, and the SCO help India contribute to regional stability.
Beyond traditional security, education, scientific collaboration, cultural exchange, and people-to-people contacts offer a foundation for durable relationships across the region. Thousands of Indian students are pursuing their higher education in Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Tajikistan demonstrating growing social dimension of India’s engagement with the region.
These students serve as informal bridges between societies, developing familiarity with local cultures, languages, and institutions. Their experiences, together with academic partnerships and professional networks, can contribute to long-term mutual understanding and strengthen India’s societal connections with Eurasia.
Towards Better Eurasian Engagement
The Fourth Minsk International Conference demonstrated that debates about Eurasian security now extend across military stability, economic resilience, connectivity, technology, and institutional cooperation. It also exposed the continuing absence of a universally accepted continental framework and the difficulty of reconciling the interests of diverse regional actors.
For India, the central lesson is that Eurasian policy must move beyond a largely bilateral and sector-specific approach towards more sustained participation in continental debates. This calls for a greater role in shaping the principles, institutions and economic arrangements that will influence Eurasia’s future.
A stable Eurasia is in India’s strategic interest, but stability will endure only if the region is inclusive. Its future cannot be determined by a handful of major powers or exclusive groupings; it must be built through dialogue, sovereign equality, and the participation of all its constituent countries.
Delegates from 70 countries are expected to discuss protection of citizens abroad and human trafficking
Representatives from 70 countries will convene in Moscow for an international ombudsmen forum to discuss human rights protection, online child safety, citizens’ rights abroad, and cooperation between national institutions.
The event will run from Monday to Wednesday, drawing officials and rights advocates from countries including Brazil, Mexico, Türkiye, Indonesia, South Africa, Switzerland, and several ex-Soviet nations. The conference is being held under the auspices of Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova.
“The focus is on developing international cooperation, finding common approaches and effective mechanisms to help people in the most difficult circumstances,” she said. “It is important that a person can count on support regardless of which country they are in.”
The first day will be dedicated to discussing harmful online content and protecting children in the digital sphere. The next day will revolve around protection of citizens overseas, freedom of conscience, cultural identity, sovereign development, and support for trafficking victims.
Participants also plan to adopt the “Moscow Principles,” a declaration intended to reinforce the independence of human rights institutions and keep channels open even when governments clash.
Apart from foreign officials, the forum’s expected speakers include RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and former British MP George Galloway.
Lantratova recently came into the spotlight after she worked together with Ukrainian officials on a humanitarian operation in the town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region, which had been largely cut off from essential supplies for months due to a Ukrainian siege. The six-day local ceasefire brokered with the help of US First Lady Melania Trump allowed food and medicine to enter and civilians to leave for either Russia or Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised the operation as a success, commended cooperation between Lantratova and Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets, suggesting that the arrangement “could set a precedent” for similar humanitarian pauses elsewhere.
Senior company officials, including two Pentagon veterans, talked about expanding cooperation with Kiev into potential military applications
Three senior OpenAI national security officials, including two former Pentagon insiders, have been duped by Russian pranksters into discussing sensitive details of the company’s AI cooperation with Ukraine, including potential military applications.
The pranksters, Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, are known for impersonating officials to draw high-profile figures into private conversations. Their previous targets include Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Giorgia Meloni, and Henry Kissinger. The duo also host a podcast about their pranks.
This time, they posed as Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s foreign intelligence chief, securing a 17-minute video call with Sasha Baker, OpenAI’s head of global national security policy and former US deputy undersecretary of defense; Caroline Zier, a former adviser to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; and Ben Crampton, the company’s national security lead for Europe.
Despite their security credentials, the officials apparently failed to detect the impersonation. Baker and Zier greeted the supposed Umerov like a familiar contact, even though his camera remained off.
The discussion centered on OpenAI’s ties with Kiev. The company had publicly announced in September that it would provide Ukraine with its cybersecurity tools to protect civilian infrastructure. The prank call, however, revealed how readily its national security officials discussed expanding that cooperation to potential military use with someone whose identity they had failed to verify.
Seconds into the call, Crampton disclosed that OpenAI was already supplying Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation with a tool used to detect and fix cybersecurity weaknesses, and was preparing to offer a more advanced version capable of simulating cyberattacks. The pranksters then quickly steered the conversation toward military applications.
Crampton confirmed existing contacts with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, while Baker expressed willingness to explore closer cooperation.
“This partnership is very, very new. I think we would certainly be open to a conversation with your Ministry of Defense about their goals and needs,” she said.
Pressed on whether OpenAI would supply Ukraine with AI models for military use in particular, Baker sidestepped the question, but left the door open to a greater role in Kiev’s war effort.
“Let’s start there and let’s grow that partnership as robustly as we can, even as we’re having conversations about where we might be able to further contribute to Ukraine’s military efforts,” she said.
Crampton admitted that senior OpenAI executives were reluctant to allow offensive military uses of its technology, but suggested those limits could be blurred.
“There’s a general reluctance on the part of many people who are senior in the company to get too involved in offensive uses of our technology in a military context,” he said. He argued, however, that “offense and defense are not necessarily distinguishable from each other under certain circumstances,” raising questions about how far the company might extend military cooperation under the banner of defensive technology.
OpenAI confirmed the hoax to The Intercept, with spokesman Nate Evans saying the company had investigated the call weeks earlier, established that it was an impersonation and taken steps to prevent similar incidents. He did not address the substance of the conversation.
The exact date of the call remains unclear, although Vovan and Lexus said in a subsequent podcast that it took place after OpenAI’s September announcement. They released the recording on Telegram on Wednesday.
Kuznetsov noted that gaining access to OpenAI’s top national security officials was surprisingly easy. Posing as Umerov, the pranksters contacted a senior Ukrainian official in San Francisco who already had ties with OpenAI. The official apparently fell for the impersonation and offered to arrange the meeting.
A court opened the door to Russia’s hockey return – politicians want it slammed shut, and some fans have had enough
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decided to refuse visas to Russians to play in next month’s World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he became the first elected leader to openly ignore a court ruling and international sports federation decision. In doing so, he unleashed dangerous and virulent anti-Russian forces in his own country, setting back sports diplomacy over 50 years.
The week before, on October 30, the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) voted to allow Russian and Belarusian teams back into international play. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) accepted the decision and a plethora of national federations in Europe reacted predictably.
Eight countries, including Latvia and France, stated that they would boycott any games with Russia. Germany, the host of the 2027 IIHF World Championships, objected but accepted Russia’s return, with only Slovakia welcoming it. Sponsors of the event in Germany have either pulled out or threatened to do so.
What seems to be missing in this entire ‘discussion’ is what hockey fans think. Not the ‘nafoids’ and bots online who rant and rage against all things Russian. Not the opinion of the handful of Canadian-Ukrainians who protested in Ottawa at the visit of Russian star Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals. And certainly not grandstanding by politicians and sports administrators beholden to them. The voices of actual hockey fans are being studiously ignored by the media – so too the inherent danger posed by Russian or Belarusian teams competing in international competitions.
‘It’s purely hate of Russians’
In October, I had a business trip with Capital Sports to EU countries. I covered a number of major sporting events, interviewed athletes and administrators, with hockey taking center stage in Germany, Italy, and Lithuania.
“I used to love watching KHL (the Russia-based Continental Hockey League) games, they [are not] as brutal as in Canada, but the skill is amazing,” Nils, an Iserlohn Roosters’ hockey fan, told me in Cologne. “You see the difference with no Russian team playing [in World or Olympic competition], it’s so hard on those guys because the career is short.”
Nils and his friend Patrick were in the city for their team’s game with the Cologne Sharks. I interviewed dozens of people attending the November 1 game, less than two days after the CAS ruling. The German Ice Hockey Federation had already voiced opposition, with social media abuzz with rumors of boycotts and worse. Patrick and I found a common thread.
“When they [speak] about security, this is correct. Because we see now, they [pro-Ukrainians] can make a lot of trouble and not only online.”
‘Security’ and ‘safety’ were words contained in the statements of most national federations, for good reason. We have seen what Kiev can do in other sovereign states when they want to make a point. From attempting to murder an exiled Ukrainian oligarch in Monaco to the case underway in Germany against a Ukrainian military officer for the Nord Stream terrorist attack, there is a basis for fear.
“These guys [politicians and sport administrators] are idiots. It’s purely hate of Russians,” Mikaela, from Dusseldorf and lifelong hockey fan, said. “We had enough war now and we have to make changes. I mean, look at the football [FIFA World Cup 2026], the Americans were allowed to host it after blowing up little girls in school [in reference to the February 28, 2026 missile strike in Minab, Iran].”
Her boyfriend did, however, mention a Nord Stream-type specter.
“Can you guarantee that they won’t blow up an arena? I can’t,” he said, before quickly adding, “but I want to see White Russia [Belarus] and Russia both playing again. Not to be bullied.”
‘Football needs to man up and bring in Russia’
Four days later in Italy, while working at the AC Milan-Ferencvaros UEFA Europa League game, the situation in hockey had become clearer. Sweden, Finland, Czechia, France, Austria, Norway, Denmark, and Latvia were all ready to sustain losses by refusing to take the ice against Russia. The Carney ban on Russian youngsters was two days old and Milanese fans and visitors from Budapest did not hold back.
“It’s bulls**t,” Nico, a 24-year-old Milan fan of football and hockey, told me at halftime of the game. “I can’t stand these people and their [two] faces. Israel, yes. Ukraine, yes. Come play, kill kids, come play, all is good. Russia, it’s not the players who are fighting. If those fat fools who want more war, go fight, let the players just play.”
Other Milan fans held the same opinion, with one drawing a parallel with football.
“I was in Russia for a game [UEFA Champions League in 2012] and me and my wife fell in love with St. Petersburg. We go back for the World Cup in 2018 and I love the culture. Football needs to man up and bring in Russia to us again. Stop this stupid hating and blocking. We’re all people. We’re all just people,” Andrea said.
He proudly showed photos of his times in Russia and said that he would go back “when all the stupid shooting stops.” Asked about the Canadian visa ban, he laughed and said, “It shows they can’t protect children from crazy psychos, that is all.”
János, one of the Ferencvaros ultra leaders who organized a protest in support of law and order in Europe outside Milan’s Duomo cathedral earlier on November 5, echoed Andrea’s sentiment.
“Hockey showed balls to allow [Russia] back in [to] play... I don’t like what they do in Ukraine, but I know what Ukraine does to my people there [ethnic Hungarians]. There’s no good side in the any war, but we have worse things to deal with in Europe than have us all fighting.”
‘Let them all refuse and lose’
Back in Vilnius, a top official from the Lithuanian Ice Hockey Federation (LIHF) told me on Wednesday about the pressure they’re under, even though they won’t play Russia anytime soon.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said there is tremendous political pressure to “make a statement about solidarity with our neighbor [Latvia].”
They explained that both their chief funding source, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport, and at least one sponsor, Ober Haus (a real estate services company in the Baltic Region) have demanded that they stand with Latvia.
“Personally speaking, I would say let them all refuse to play and lose the games. Same as Canada, let them ban Russian boys and take the tournament to a country where people have a brain.”
Carney and his government have stated that they will disobey the CAS ruling and not allow players or staff holding current visas to take part; 116 Russian-born players were given visas by the Carney government this year. There are nine Russians currently playing for NHL teams in Canada. Of the seven teams in the country, only Ottawa and Vancouver have none on their active rosters, but both have Russians under contract.
Carney is in a difficult personal and professional position. Professionally, he has relied on the large Ukrainian diaspora vote, many of whom idolize Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and hate Russia and Russians. Personally, he is godfather to Chrystia Freeland’s son. Freeland, whose maternal grandfather Michael Chomiak was also a Nazi collaborator, now works in Kiev as an ‘economic adviser’ to Vladimir Zelensky.
Russia’s ice hockey federation has asked the IIHF to act: force Canada to allow Russian kids play or move the tournament. According to the Lithuanian official, the latter is most likely to happen.
“Canada can’t back down and the [IIHF] are worried about terror attacks.”
This scenario, they believe, is what will force their hand.
“You need to know that many Ukrainians live out in Alberta [where the competition will take place from December 26 to January 5]. It would not be too impossible that there is attacks on Russian players, or bomb threats, this is all they need to do.”
The puck is firmly under IIHF control. They can pull the tournament out of Canada and hand it to the US. They will worry about national federations breaking away and forming a new global organization, but the chances of that are about as much as an ice cube’s chance in a volcano. What remains to be seen is if the sports administrators and politicians listen to their public and realize that they now can take a historic step to save their sport, and the world. Because sports diplomacy is needed now more than ever. The bullies cannot win, off the ice.
Nuclear energy is vital not only for cutting emissions but for broader economic development, Rosatom Deputy Director General for Human Resources Tatiana Terentieva said in an interview, outlining the company’s long-term strategy for building local talent abroad and expanding women’s role in the sector.
“Today it is already universally recognized that without nuclear technologies it will be impossible to achieve emissions-reduction goals,” Terentieva said. As digital technologies and AI expand, demand for stable electricity grows. “Nuclear energy is a key player in addressing the climate agenda.”
But for Terentieva, atomic technology is about more than power generation. It drives industrialization, construction and the wider social and economic development of entire regions.
This makes work with younger generations essential. Because nuclear facilities operate for 80 to 100 years, the sector must think across generations. “It is impossible to build the future without involving young people,” she said.
Over the past four years, Rosatom has built an “impact team” of young people from Latin America, Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, helping them launch projects and engage with energy leaders in their own countries. One of the corporation’s first priorities in any partner country is building a national workforce.
Rosatom is already doing this in Türkiye, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. “We know examples where a plant has been built, but the people are not there. And that means enormous losses,” she said.
She pointed to Türkiye, where around 1,000 students have already been trained for work at the country’s nuclear plant. Some are already employed, while others are still studying: “They will tell their children that they were the first people in their country to launch a nuclear power plant.”
Terentieva also highlighted the growing role of women, who now make up 33% of Rosatom’s workforce, above the global average. In some professions, their share is much higher: 45% in design, up to 70% among cost estimators, and 35% in science.
She noted that women also lead major business areas, including Rosatom’s fuel division and its quantum technologies field. To support this trend, the company created a women’s initiative first called “Invisible Power.” Four years ago, it had about 100 participants, and now numbers at over 1,000. Over time, Terentieva said, participants concluded that women in the industry are not an invisible power at all, but a visible one.
US forces have been forced to divert money intended for spare parts toward supporting Kiev under Biden-era commitments, a new report says
Ukraine support is draining resources from US troops stationed in Europe and damaging their combat readiness, according to a new Pentagon inspector general report.
In its report to Congress in November, the watchdog said the US Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) was forced to divert resources from US forces and longstanding operations toward supporting Kiev because of the lack of dedicated Ukraine funding in fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
“These resource gaps have negatively impacted USAREUR-AF’s overall readiness, training effectiveness, and capacity to exercise operations plans,” the report states.
In particular, Ukraine-related operations were consuming funds intended for routine deployments and essential spare parts for US military equipment. On top of that, some rotating US units returned to their home bases with unpaid spare-parts bills, according to the report. An earlier report for January-March said the command redirected a total of $364.6 million from other requirements to support Ukraine.
The funding squeeze stemmed from failure to approve major emergency aid packages for Ukraine in 2025 and 2026 in Congress, where many Republican leaders vehemently opposed the “blank-check” policy for Ukraine. Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has also opposed further large-scale US-funded aid packages for Ukraine, seeking instead to shift the financial burden onto Kiev’s European backers.
The US has committed more than $198 billion in Ukraine aid since 2022, much of it under former President Joe Biden. Of that total, around $65 billion remained available for payment as of late September. However, $60.71 billion of this is already legally committed to contracts and other obligations, leaving the Trump administration limited room to redirect or halt the spending.
The Pentagon has also struggled to replenish weapons and ammunition taken from US military stockpiles to supply Ukraine. The watchdog cited a $38.6 billion backlog of unfunded requirements to replenish US military stockpiles depleted by Ukraine aid.
In addition, last year’s Pentagon audit found that the department failed to maintain controls over the use of funds aimed to replenish aid sent to Kiev, noting that funding reallocations, worth $5.7 billion, lacked adequate documentation. Auditors also identified $920 million in missed opportunities to use replenishment funds and found that the military overstated spending commitments and payments to Congress.
Since coming into office, Trump has resisted unconditional aid to Ukraine, opting instead to sell weapons to the country as part of the NATO-coordinated PURL mechanism where most procurements are financed by Ukraine’s European backers.
While Trump’s policy does not erase Biden-era commitments, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers accused his administration this week of delaying the execution of a separate $400 million Ukraine aid package until the final weeks of the fiscal year.
Last month, Washington approved the sale of 500 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, funded by Kiev and its backers, but given the backlog and the Iran war, which depleted US stockpiles, the deliveries could take years.
Moscow has warned against Western military assistance to Kiev, arguing that it only prolongs the conflict without changing the outcome.
European leaders have settled on a multi-country negotiating team after months of infighting, but have yet to name its members
European leaders have agreed on a negotiating team for potential participation in US-brokered Russia-Ukraine peace talks, following months of infighting over who should speak for the continent and after another round of negotiations that left Europe sidelined.
The decision, announced by European Council President Antonio Costa following an informal summit in Dublin on Friday, will see Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland – the E5 group within the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’, which pushes continued support for Kiev – represent Europe alongside representatives of the European Commission and the European Council, with NATO also expected to participate.
“Europe must speak with one clear and united voice,” Costa insisted, even as European leaders proved unable to agree on whose voice that should be, settling instead on a multi-country delegation he called a “team effort.” The decision came despite calls from Washington, Kiev, and Moscow for a single European envoy. Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had denounced the “disarray” of competing diplomatic voices.
Today the Leaders agreed that the European Team for negotiations on peace in Ukraine is the EU institutions and the E5 of the Coalition of the Willing - France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom.
Europe has yet to name its negotiators. According to Reuters, the E5 countries are expected to send national security advisers rather than national leaders, while it remains unclear who will represent the EU institutions.
The decision, however, left EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, an outspoken Russia hawk, without the lead role she had aggressively sought. Kallas insisted Friday that representing Europe was her mandate, but Costa instead cited EU treaties assigning external representation to EU leaders.
The agreement follows this week’s Abu Dhabi talks, where European representatives attended separate discussions but were excluded from the main Russia-Ukraine-US negotiations. After subsequent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Dublin, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff announced that both sides had agreed to include Europe in the next round. Kushner said the expanded format would allow for discussions of broader European security arrangements, alongside Russia-Ukraine territorial disputes.
Moscow has yet to confirm European participation, accusing EU governments of sabotaging past peace efforts and prolonging the conflict through arms supplies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also slammed Europe’s contradictory signals – talking peace while planning to deploy troops to Ukraine, which Russia opposes – and likened its infighting over a negotiator to “spiders in a jar.”
Kushner was equally scathing: “If Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”
Stratpol director Xavier Moreau told RT this week that Europe lacks a diplomatic heavyweight capable of negotiating with Moscow, citing conflicting priorities among its largest economies.
“Who is in charge of the diplomacy in the European Union? Brussels, Paris, Germany, or Italy?” he asked. Moreau argued that France faces financial constraints, Germany remains committed to supporting Kiev despite mounting difficulties, and Italy is distancing itself from the conflict while following Washington’s lead. “So a common voice in Europe, it’s not possible.”
A date for the new talks has not yet been set, but Peskov said Friday the next round will take place “fairly soon,” likely again in Abu Dhabi.
Washington forces Gulf states to choose between cooperation and destruction, Miko Peled has argued
The US is behaving like a mafia boss in the Middle East, forcing countries to cooperate or risk being attacked, Miko Peled, founder and director of the Palestine House of Freedom, said on Friday.
He was speaking in an RT panel discussion on recent remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who blamed Iran for instability in the region.
Peled said the Gulf states fear that defying Washington could leave their countries in ruins, pointing to US military interventions in recent decades.
“The US operates like a mafia boss,” he said. “If you’re a leader in the region and you know that if you don’t comply, you’re going to end up like Iraq... and Libya and Syria and Yemen… your country is going to end up in ruins.”
He argued that cooperating with the US offers Gulf countries a chance to maintain stability. “But that’s not a question of trust. It’s a question of survival, really.”
Tehran University Professor Seyed Mohammed Marandi accused Israel of being the main source of instability in the region, citing the displacement of Palestinians and the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza.
“The US has contributed to this misery for the sake of the Israeli regime. The invasion of Iraq has brought about the destruction of that country, thanks to the US,” he said.
“They destroyed Afghanistan. They initiated a dirty war in Syria,” he added, citing a February 2012 email in which Jake Sullivan, then an adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote that Al-Qaeda was “on our side” in Syria.
Naim Joseph Salem, a professor of international affairs and diplomacy at the Lebanese Army Military Academy, warned that Gulf states could come to regret hosting US military bases if the US-Israeli war with Iran escalates again.
“Gulf countries, in particular Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates, have come to feel the heat because of the presence of American military bases on their territory,” he said. “They may regret by then their alliance with the US.”
The large-scale show celebrated the country’s vast cultural diversity through the traditional Slavic folk dance
More than 600 dancers have taken part in the ‘Khorovod. The Energy of Unity’ folk dance production at the National Centre ‘Russia’ in Moscow
The large-scale dance production celebrated Russia’s vast cultural diversity, traditions and the shared identity of its many ethnic communities. At its core was the khorovod, a traditional Slavic circle dance that shares much in common with similar traditions around the world.
“What matters is that our production goes beyond classic folk dances. We have been able to present traditional art in a contemporary way. The khorovod brings people together, and virtually every people in the world has a dance like it,” ‘Russia’ National Center Deputy Director General Anastasia Zvyagina told RT.
The circle dance is especially symbolic in Russia, where so many different ethnic communities live together, she added. “No one comes first or last. It is this energy of unity that allows us to build on what we have today and, of course, look ahead to the future,” she said.
We have managed to preserve the culture and distinct identity of all our peoples, and we are proud of that.
The show combined traditional folk dances with contemporary choreography, electronic music, beatboxing and throat singing. Performers came from Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, Karelia, Yakutia, Crimea, the North Caucasus and other regions.
The production featured original musical pieces exploring family bonds, nature, and cultural heritage.
The performances ran from Tuesday to Thursday and attracted more than 1,800 spectators. The production brought together over ten ensembles and solo artists from different regions of Russia.
Internet-connected vehicles could expose sensitive military and government facilities, Stephan Kramer has warned
Tesla vehicles could pose an espionage risk, Stephan Kramer, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) in the state of Thuringia, has warned. His remarks come as German officials call for restrictions on parking internet-connected cars near sensitive government and military facilities.
Tesla is an American company led by Elon Musk, an ally of US President Donald Trump. The electric carmaker operates a major factory near Berlin, making it one of the few foreign automakers with a significant manufacturing presence in Germany.
Kramer was commenting on the German Army’s decision to restrict access by internet-connected vehicles to sensitive areas of military bases. The measures apply regardless of manufacturer, including Tesla.
“We should not assume that friends do not spy on one another,” Kramer told Handelsblatt on Friday. “The same security standards should apply to Tesla and all other manufacturers.”
According to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Germany’s digital security watchdog, most new vehicles sold in the country have the technical capability to collect information, including location data, camera footage, and sensor readings, and transmit it to manufacturers’ back-end systems.
There is no specific evidence so far that the data has been used for espionage, Handelsblatt reported. According to the BSI, customers are often unaware of what data their vehicles generate and transmit.
“The cameras and location-tracking systems in [internet-connected] cars capture sensitive information,” Kramer warned. “At [German Army] facilities, that includes information about military installations, operational procedures and personnel,” he said, describing the restrictions as “strongly advisable and therefore proportionate.”
The intelligence chief called for similar restrictions in “particularly sensitive areas of government buildings, police facilities, intelligence agencies and other security-relevant institutions,” including designated parking zones or access limitations.
Kramer also advised civil servants and public employees against discussing confidential matters inside internet-connected vehicles.
His concerns were echoed by several MPs, including Marc Henrichmann of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Johannes Schaetzl, a digital policy spokesman for the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary group.
“We must not be naive: Espionage today is no longer carried out solely by agents, but also through technology that we ourselves bring onto our premises,” Henrichmann told Handelsblatt.
Schaetzl expressed particular concern about vehicles produced by Chinese automaker BYD, which he described as “black boxes,” adding: “We do not know exactly what data is collected or who has access to it.”
Last month, Tesla reported that it delivered more vehicles globally than Mercedes-Benz’s passenger-car division in the third quarter of 2026. The German automaker has faced pressure from US import tariffs and growing competition in China, where domestic manufacturers such as BYD and Xiaomi are challenging established brands.
Starship reached orbit and deployed satellites, but its giant first-stage booster failed to return to the launch site
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, attempting to recover an entire orbital launch system for the first time in history.
The 124-meter (407-foot) Starship blasted off from the company’s Starbase facility in southern Texas on Friday, carrying 26 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit.
The mission was designed to demonstrate that both stages of the giant rocket could return to the launch site and be caught by mechanical arms attached to the launch tower, allowing them to be refurbished and reused.
However, the Super Heavy booster failed to return to the tower as planned, instead making a fiery landing in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX did not immediately explain the failure, although safety systems diverted the booster offshore.
Starship Flight 15 Super Heavy Booster soft water landing.
Landing looked so smooth. It hovered for a good amount of time. https://t.co/V9NW4O9Dv9
The Starship upper stage continued into orbit and successfully deployed its satellite payload. It is expected to circle Earth 15 times before attempting to return to Texas on Saturday, where the company plans to catch it using the tower’s giant mechanical arms.
If successful, it would mark the first recovery of a Starship spacecraft from orbit.
SpaceX has caught the Super Heavy booster three times, but recovering the upper stage presents a greater challenge because it must survive atmospheric reentry after traveling at orbital speeds.
Starship is also central to NASA’s Artemis program, under which SpaceX is developing a modified version of the spacecraft to land American astronauts on the Moon. The latest test follows September’s milestone flight, when Starship reached orbit for the first time.
The White House has confirmed plans for talks on nuclear arms control and international security on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The leaders of Russia, China, and the US plan to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, AP reported on Saturday, citing officials.
The White House confirmed plans for the unprecedented three-way meeting on Friday, the outlet said. The talks are expected to focus on nuclear arms control and international security, including the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov subsequently confirmed the meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will host his Russian and US counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at the November 18–19 summit.
Putin aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that the Russian president discussed the upcoming meeting with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “We hope that the first meeting in this format will have a positive impact on the overall international situation,” Ushakov said last month.
The summit will follow US-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, which marked the resumption of trilateral negotiations after a nine-month hiatus. Although the talks ended without a major breakthrough, Kushner said the sides will carry out “the largest prisoner exchange of the war.”
Ukraine’s European backers are currently discussing appointing representatives to take part in talks with Russia after being sidelined in Abu Dhabi, where European delegates met separately with Ukrainian and American teams. Moscow has insisted that the Europeans must first demonstrate goodwill, accusing them of seeking to sabotage peace efforts since 2022.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and LNG shipments, remains disrupted by the US-Israeli war with Iran, driving up energy prices. There are continued concerns in the region that Trump could resume major military operations following his Republican Party’s defeat in the midterm elections.
Washington and Beijing are still at odds over tariffs, rare-earth minerals, and restrictions on advanced technology, despite a fragile trade truce set to expire in January.
Refusing to hand over part of their combat pay and frontline bonuses can carry a devastating cost, a former serviceman recalls
Ukrainian soldiers have described being subjected to extortion, beatings, and other forms of abuse by their own commanders across multiple military units. RT correspondent Anastasia Volodina examines their firsthand accounts, exposing allegations of widespread misconduct within the ranks.
Stanislav Melanich, a former member of Ukraine’s Shkval battalion who lost both legs and fingers on both hands, says he was sent on a combat mission without proper preparation after refusing to hand over 20% of his combat pay and frontline bonuses to commanders.
“I’m not paying you a single penny,” he recalled telling his superiors.
Melanich said he was deployed to the front alongside other untrained soldiers who had also refused to pay. Unfamiliar with the terrain and equipment, they came under fire, leaving him severely wounded. He described being abandoned by fellow servicemen and forced to crawl through freezing conditions to survive.
“Who are we even fighting? Are we fighting among ourselves first?” he said.
Another alleged scheme involves soldiers being forced to surrender their mobile phones before deployment, with a Ukrainian banking app linked to their salaries installed on each device. A former military instructor claimed that groups of men were sent on missions carrying explosives that were remotely detonated, killing them while their bank cards remained behind.
Some of the incidents have prompted official investigations. In Sumy Region, a deputy battalion commander was accused of staging mock executions, beating subordinates with a combat helmet and shooting one soldier in the foot, according to Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation.
At least 25 non-combat deaths among recruits in the Skala regiment were reported between late 2025 and spring 2026, leading to a criminal inquiry into possible abuses. A former serviceman described men being tied to quad bikes and dragged along the ground, as well as incidents of suicide and attempted self-harm. Members of Ukraine’s 57th Brigade also reported systematic beatings, death threats, denial of medical treatment and being forcibly locked in car trunks.
“Bribery, abuse, torture – all part of the deadly price of serving in Ukraine,” Volodina says.
All 180 people aboard were rescued after the vessel capsized in the Mississippi River, with 32 hospitalized
An asphalt tanker rammed a docked cruise ship in New Orleans, Louisiana on Friday, causing it to capsize and sending passengers into the Mississippi River.
Videos from the scene show the much larger Atlantic Asphalt tanker striking the American Heritage cruise ship directly in the side.
The vessel, operated by American Cruise Lines, was carrying 180 passengers and crew members at the time of the collision.
The cruise ship rolled onto its side and partially sank as tugboat operators, police, and other rescuers rushed to help.
Watch the moment a tanker struck a cruise ship in New Orleans. Rescues are underway.
📷: Kern Studios
https://t.co/ZPspGtM0Yr https://t.co/O1qGr8kImf
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno confirmed that everyone aboard was rescued. She added that 32 people were hospitalized, none with critical injuries.
“It is a literal miracle on the Mississippi,” Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry told reporters. “When you think about the population that was on that cruise ship, and the ability for us to get them off, get them out of the water.”
WATCH: Dramatic video shows passengers swimming for help as cruise ship capsizes after being struck by a tanker; 12 people hospitalized, officials say. https://t.co/2UtubUdktf
The cause of the collision remains under investigation. Initial reports suggest that the tanker may have lost steering before striking the docked vessel.
The American Heritage is a 90-meter-long paddlewheeler built in 2015. It was completing an eight-day Mississippi River cruise when it was struck. The 160-meter-long, Marshall Islands-flagged Atlantic Asphalt was built in China in 2017.
The controversial reform allows intelligence services to carry out sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance
The German parliament has passed sweeping legislation granting the country’s intelligence agencies unprecedented powers to conduct sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance. The controversial law has prompted comparisons with the Gestapo and Stasi, the notorious secret police organizations of Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany.
The legislation, championed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing coalition, was approved on Friday by 300 votes to 190, with 71 abstentions. Only the ruling CDU/CSU bloc and Social Democrats backed the reform. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and The Left opposed it, while the Greens abstained.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt hailed the overhaul as a “reform of the century,” declaring a “new era” for German intelligence agencies that would put them on an “equal footing with our European partners.”
He defended the measures by citing alleged threats from espionage, sabotage, cyberattacks, and other hostile activities aimed at destabilizing Germany.
From surveillance to sabotage
The legislation fundamentally changes the role of Germany’s two principal intelligence agencies: the foreign intelligence service (BND) and the domestic Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Previously focused primarily on gathering and analyzing intelligence, both agencies will gain powers to actively intervene against perceived threats.
The BND will be authorized to penetrate foreign computer networks, disable servers used by suspected hackers, and delete data. Its new powers could extend to sabotaging foreign chemical laboratories and drone production facilities or disrupting supply chains by introducing defective components into shipments linked to potential threats.
The domestic intelligence agency will gain extensive surveillance and intervention powers, including covert access to smartphones and computers, interception of encrypted communications, and examination of stored data.
BfV operatives could also secretly enter private homes to install surveillance software and neutralize suspected weapons.
The agency will additionally be able to obtain information from payment providers, online platforms, and vehicle manufacturers, while deploying AI-assisted facial recognition and biometric searches to identify potential suspects.
Oversight of the expanded powers will be consolidated under the Independent Oversight Council, a 12-member body established in 2021 and appointed by the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Oversight Panel.
Previously focused largely on the legality of BND surveillance, the council will gain authority to approve intervention operations by both agencies, including proactive sabotage abroad.
It will also be required to report to parliamentary overseers at least annually and publish public reports excluding classified information.
Return of the secret police?
The overhaul has triggered fierce criticism from opposition lawmakers, who warn that it threatens constitutional protections and dismantles safeguards established after the fall of Nazi Germany.
AfD lawmaker Christian Wirth condemned the reform as an “attack on the rule of law with truly totalitarian characteristics.”
He criticized provisions allowing the BfV to exclude regional intelligence offices from information-sharing networks, warning that they could be used against politically “undesirable” state authorities.
In September, fellow AfD lawmaker Gottfried Curio accused Merz’s government of preparing to systematically violate fundamental rights, invoking Germany’s history under the Gestapo and East Germany’s Stasi.
“Manipulating, sabotaging, deceiving – with these subversive measures, the [BfV] is being transformed into Stasi 2.0,” he warned.
The criticism has extended beyond the AfD.
Green lawmaker Konstantin von Notz supported strengthening the BND but accused the government of lacking “any sensitivity to civil rights” in its domestic intelligence overhaul. He warned that the legislation could face “serious problems” before Germany’s Constitutional Court.
The Left’s Clara Buenger went further, accusing Dobrindt of undermining democracy through nationwide AI-powered mass surveillance and laying the groundwork for a “new German secret police.”
At the heart of the controversy is Germany’s longstanding separation principle, designed to prevent intelligence agencies from acquiring police powers.
The safeguard traces its origins to the Allied powers’ 1949 ‘Police Letter’, which sought to prevent the re-emergence of an organization resembling the Gestapo. The distinction between intelligence gathering and law enforcement was subsequently incorporated into legislation governing Germany’s security services.
Critics argue that allowing intelligence operatives to secretly enter homes, interfere with property, and conduct sabotage erodes that historical barrier.
Dobrindt has dismissed accusations that the reform threatens democracy as “madness.”
Russian threat narrative
The intelligence overhaul comes as Berlin accelerates its military buildup, with Merz’s government repeatedly invoking the supposed Russian threat to justify increased defense spending and expanded security capabilities.
German officials have increasingly warned of a possible military confrontation with Russia, while accusing it of conducting espionage, sabotage, and other hostile operations across Europe.
Last month, BND chief Martin Jaeger warned that Germany could become “embroiled in a violent conflict with Russia,” accusing the country of waging a “shadow war.”
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and senior military commander General Christian Freuding have also claimed that Russia could attack NATO before the end of the decade.
Moscow has rejected claims that it intends to attack NATO members, dismissing the speculation as “nonsense” and “political schizophrenia.” Russian officials have accused Berlin of pursuing escalation.
The controversy also has a domestic political dimension.
Merz has described the AfD as Russian-backed, without substantiating the allegation, while his Social Democratic coalition partners have pushed for a ban on the opposition party.
The AfD, which calls for stricter immigration control and opposes German military assistance to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, has become a major target of political scrutiny.
Defending the intelligence overhaul on Friday, Chancellor’s Office official Nina Warken argued that Germany faces daily threats from foreign powers that “disguise sabotage as an accident, espionage as business dealings, and propaganda as an opinion.”
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