Comment archive

Thursday, 17 Sept 2026
Russia remains absorbed with Europe amid BRICS summit

Russian state media regularly presents the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS as embodiments of a multipolar world order replacing Western dominance.

Thursday, 17 Jul 2025
Multipolarity matures, but not according to Putin’s plan

The intensity of turbulence on the global arena has reached such high levels that the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro on 6–7 July attracted far less attention than expected.

Thursday, 9 Jan 2025
Russian Counter-Offensive in the International Arena Has Lost Momentum

One of the key goals for 2024 that President Vladimir Putin had apparently set at the end of the second year of the Ukraine war was to execute a sustained foreign policy counter-offensive to reduce Russia’s international isolation to irrelevance. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tries to claim success in achieving ...

Tuesday, 29 Oct 2024
Putin’s Much Ado About the BRICS Summit

The BRICS summit on October 22–24, held in Kazan, Russia, was met with great fanfare in Russian propaganda, which hailed it for its “epochal” significance. The BRICS summit, held in Kazan, was met with great fanfare in Russian propaganda. Propagandists hailed it for its “epochal” significance. Moscow commentators promoted the ...

Wednesday, 23 Oct 2024
No Shortcut to Hard Road to Peace in Ukraine

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its 33rd month, no drastic changes are expected on the battlefield. Ukraine has intensified its behind-the-scenes multilateral political maneuvering, as evidenced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s promotion of his own victory plan, despite little change on the battlefield. Zelenskyy’s proposal emphasizes that only ...

Tuesday, 27 Jun 2023
Mutiny Undercuts Russian Intrigues in the Global South

The weekend mutiny of the Wagner Group, pathetic as it may look in hindsight, is certain to affect Russia’s ability to sustain its aggression against Ukraine and to repel the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive. But it will also resonate in a much wider sense. Russian intrigues One of these wider impacts ...

Tuesday, 1 Dec 2015
The Brazilian Aid Paradox

While the Norwegian overseas aid budget has been debated intensely here at home, Crown Prince Haakon was recently on an official visit in Brazil, from 16-19 November. Brazil is unquestionably the largest recipient of Norwegian aid, while simultaneously donating aid itself to poorer countries. This paradoxical situation tells us much ...

Tuesday, 15 Jul 2014
Putin tours Latin America, but his fate is decided in Ukraine

The upcoming BRICS (a loose political-economic grouping of the large emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, scheduled to take place in Fortaleza, Brazil, on July 15–17, provided an occasion for President Vladimir Putin to make a lengthy tour around Latin America, starting from Cuba last ...