China may be the reason the Iran war did not send oil to $150 or $200 a barrel.
After Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, China cut oil purchases by about half, keeping prices near $100 instead — The Atlantic. 1/
The Strait of Hormuz used to carry 20mn barrels of oil a day, about one-fifth of global supply.
China stopped buying about 5mn barrels a day, equal to all of India’s imports and about a quarter of the supply lost when the strait closed. 2/
China has not shown evidence of a huge drop in energy use.
Traffic has barely changed. A rapid clean-energy shift cannot explain it. Extra Russian oil on this scale is also unlikely, because giant tanker deliveries to Chinese ports would be visible. 3/
Kyiv may replace Lenin’s empty plinth with Ivan Mazepa.
The plinth has stood empty since Maidan crowds toppled Lenin in 2013. Zelenskyy proposed Mazepa, a Cossack leader who broke with Moscow and fought for Ukrainian independence, The Guardian. 1/
Russia depicted Mazepa as a traitor for centuries.
Zelenskyy: Where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firm. The goal was to make Ukrainians view their own history through the eyes of others. 2/
Kryvda [Kyiv culture-history professor]: Ukraine is going through unfinished decolonization.
The USSR absorbed national cultures and tried to make one Soviet nation. Russia still says Ukrainians and Russians are one people.
Browder: Putin does not care much about what Russians think.
He has sent 1.5 million men to death or disability and destroyed the economy. The Kremlin’s claim that Russia is fighting the entire West is aimed more at Western countries than at Russians. 1/
Browder: Putin has reached a stalemate in Ukraine. Russia is no longer making progress.
Ukraine is inflicting real economic pain by striking oil refineries, military depots, shadow-fleet ships and other targets. 2/
Browder: My fear is that Putin will test NATO to see whether it actually works, possibly expecting the US not to honor Article 5.
Without the US, the response would come from a coalition of willing countries rather than NATO as a whole. 3/
Russia is losing this war, and still refuses to end it. Every plan Putin built to win has collapsed, yet he keeps fighting.
The 2026 deficit blew past $73 billion in six months, overshooting the Kremlin's full-year plan — Gabuev, Prokopenko and Stanovaya, Foreign Affairs. 1/
Putin set three paths to win. Plan A used Trump to force a deal on Kyiv, Plan B waited for Trump to drop Ukraine, and Plan C won on the battlefield.
In his June interview Putin no longer mentioned Trump, whom he once counted on after their warm Alaska summit. Plan A is dead. 2/
Trump did cut Ukraine off. He stopped free US weapons in March 2025 and zeroed out financial aid by July.
Europe replaced the money and kept Ukraine making drones and missiles on EU soil. Washington still shares intelligence and blacklisted Rosneft and Lukoil. Plan B failed. 3/
Historian Sarah Paine: This is the Russian business model. Say your business is doing well. One of Putin's security-service enforcers comes to your house and says: I want a monthly payment from you.
That's a mafia shakedown, going back in Russian history forever. 1/
Paine: Putin's own circle owns the refineries Ukraine keeps striking, destroying Russian wealth. Putin wants Donbas, he wants Crimea. For what?
Russians need a legal system that lets them build wealth and live decent lives at home, not more territory. 2X