Open Dialogue Research Journal
When Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, travelled to Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) prime ministers’ meeting, it came at a moment of renewed pressure on Tehran. The snapback mechanism has been reactivated, Western sanctions discussions are re-intensifying, and the regional environment remains unsettled after the recent twelve-day […]
For many years, in Soviet and then in Russian society, Finland was considered exclusively as a small friendly, neutral country – our closest northern neighbor, which, on the rights of broad autonomy, was part of the Russian Empire for 108 years and had broad powers granted by Emperor Alexander I […]
Thierry Meyssan had already drawn his readers’ attention to the bias of the United Nations Secretariat. Here, he revisits the controversy between Germany, France, and the United Kingdom and Russia, Iran, and China regarding the coherence of international law. This is not about technical legal issues, but rather about either […]
The sanctions exemption was extended as a quid pro quo for Hungary incorporating itself into Poland’s US-backed regional integration plans, which necessitates gradually ditching Russian energy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted on X that “We secured full, unlimited exemption from sanctions on the TurkStream and Druzhba pipelines, guaranteeing uninterrupted and affordable […]
The question arises of why Russia’s regional partners are going along with this in the first place. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned last week that “NATO and the EU are building their own dialogues and interaction frameworks with Central Asia and South Caucasus. I don’t think anyone can see hidden agendas […]
It might succeed in terms of optics, but this won’t make any substantive difference in reality. The US’ latest sanctions against Russia, the first under the second Trump Administration, are intended less as a weapon against the Russian economy and more as a means of weaponizing energy geopolitics in a bid to break apart […]
The European Union is unable to decide how to steal Russian money. More and more politicians are taking part in meetings, but there is still no agreement in principle. It was assumed that a decision would be reached at the last summit. For now, they have decided to consider this […]
Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, declared in her inaugural address to parliament her intention to sign a peace treaty with Russia to formally end the state of war lingering since World War II. The statement sparked lively discussions in Moscow: is rapprochement with Tokyo possible given its sanctions […]
The reactivation of the UN snapback mechanism has placed Iran under renewed pressure at a moment of growing global instability. Designed as a safeguard in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the snapback provision restores international sanctions if a party is deemed in violation. For policymakers in Washington, […]
Iran’s absence from the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit is often dismissed as recalcitrance or obstructionism. But viewed through the prism of recent events, it becomes clear that Tehran chose nonparticipation as a strategic judgment on legitimacy, risk, and leverage. In a moment when U.S. and European powers are resurrecting the […]
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