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Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…
A race for critical minerals is redefining global geopolitics as world powers rush to shore up supply chains of the finite materials that power the energy and tech sectors. Demand for rare earth metals and other critical minerals has seen a meteoric rise in recent years as the world increasingly electrifies and the tech sector becomes ever more robust and omnipresent. Due to the central role of these ingredients in global and national economies, competition for these supply chains is far more than just a commercial concern – it’s become…
Oil prices haven’t had a breather since the year started as one geopolitical crisis has moved to another. Just a week after the U.S. intervention in Venezuela captured Nicolas Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump has turned his sights to Iran, threatening a U.S. response to the deadly suppression of mass protests against the Islamic Republic’s regime. Oil settled on Monday at a one-month high amid concerns about a potential supply disruption in the Middle East if Iranian protests further escalate and a U.S. intervention of some kind…
Few debates in Brussels carry as much emotional charge as critical raw materials. Mention lithium, rare earths, graphite, or nickel and the discussion almost immediately turns alarmist. China dominates the supply chain. Europe is dangerously dependent. The energy transition is at risk. The tone often suggests inevitability, as if this imbalance were a law of physics rather than the result of political and industrial choices. Step back from the panic and a different picture emerges. Europe’s vulnerability in critical materials is not geological.…
U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 11 told Cuba that it should forge a deal with the United States now that Washington has pushed Venezuela to cut off its supply of oil and money to the communist-run island. After the U.S. military captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez has redirected oil deliveries to the United States. Cutting off Venezuelan oil supply to Cuba, which has historically relied on support from Caracas, would apply significant pressure to the Caribbean country,…
