President Vladimir Putin’s extra-heavy emphasis on new strategic missile systems in his March 1 address to parliament was quite unexpected and rather out of character. 

HELSINKI (AFP) - A century after gaining independence from its powerful neighbour Russia, Finland continues to consolidate its ties to the West, as tensions flare between Moscow and the West. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and an uptick in military activity in the Baltic region have tested Finnish-Russian relations, painstakingly maintained over the years with scrupulous diplomatic efforts.

King Salman received at the Kremlin with his 1,000-strong delegation, including 100 businessmen. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's official visit to Moscow is the first visit to Russia for a Saudi head of state. Can this visit be seen as the signal of a shift in the region or is it just window dressing?

Russia is trying to “sow chaos” in Europe by betting big on Marine Le Pen and France's far right.
 

3 questions to Mark GALEOTTI, Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague, Director of Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

3 questions to Andrey KORTUNOV, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).

3 questions to Stephen SZABO, Executive Director, Transatlantic Academy.

What are the Current Challenges for Gazprom and Russia’s Energy Policy? What are the Gas Risks for Europe? Is the Nord Stream-II a Risk or an Opportunity for Europe?

"Past year has been marked not only with the Ukrainian crisis and unprecedented tensions in political relations between Russia and the West, but also with somewhat radical change of Moscow’s approach to international energy affairs. Widely promoted new energy partnerships with countries like China and Turkey were supposed to demonstrate that Russia has a choice of alternatives for mass-scale international energy cooperation, as compared to previous domination of European dimension, and if West wishes to cut ties with the Kremlin, Russia has somewhere else to go.

Does Russia really have an option of developing new international energy partnerships comparable in scale and significance to those with Europe as the consumer of energy, and with Western IOCs as key agents helping to secure further exploration and development of Russian oil & gas resources?"