In a controversial move, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2023. Orbán, the leader of Hungary’s right-wing party FIDESZ, was even photographed shaking hands with Putin, drawing the ire of other Western leaders.

In a sharp reversal of trends since the COVID-19 pandemic, Central European Schengen area countries (i.e. European Union member states who have joined the visa-free and, essentially, internal border-free zone) have opted to reintroduce border controls of various intensity temporarily.

In the run-up to the election, the public media network Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) showed that 41% of respondents thought that Ukraine should accept territorial concessions to Moscow, should it mean an end to the conflict.

The Russian government blamed Ukraine for an apparent drone attack above its capital building.

On Monday, April 17, Moscow City Court sentenced opposition activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony after finding him guilty of spreading 'fakes' about the Russian army, operating an 'undesirable' organization for working with the Open Russia Foundation, and committing high treason.

Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last Tuesday after remaining militarily non-aligned since the end of the Second World War.