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maxbergmann.bsky.social
Director of the Europe, Russia, Eurasia Program at CSIS. Podcasts EuroFile and Russian Roulette. Fmr State Department official. DC sports, Tottenham
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Big deal this. For years I have heard continuous speculative chatter that Germany would turn back to Russian gas. European solidarity would break down, etc, etc. I thought it nonsense. There was no going back. And this ban on Nord Stream confirms that. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/w...

This is what every great catch makes you say but I really feel like this is maybe the best catch of this kind that I've ever seen.

60 days into Trump’s 90 day tariff reprieve, we have: - No Japan deal - No South Korea Deal - No EU deal - A UK deal that has not yet led to a lowering of tariffs - A tit-for-tat mess with China asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trad...

Sorry to see this. Ageing Italy especially needs to get better at integrating its migrant population, and a faster path to citizenship would have helped that. www.ft.com/content/434e...

👀

"Poland’s electorate remains sharply divided, and its branches of government will be too," writes @erep.csis.org on the results of Poland's recent election. Read more on the implications of Karol Nawrocki taking office:

Zelensky announced today that more than 20,000 American anti-drone missiles, which had been approved as aid for Ukraine by the Biden administration, were never delivered and instead, these missiles were sent to the Middle East. Trump is not delivering even what Congress has already approved!

In Russia, the number of working-age men who die is usually three times greater than the number of working-age women who die. Russia's war has changed this. Among those aged 20 to 35, the ratio is now 1:4-1:5.

On a new episode of Russian Roulette, @erep.csis.org experts @maxbergmann.bsky.social and @msnegova.bsky.social discuss the evolution of the Ukrainian economy since February 2022. Listen here:

Huge new report out for us on Russia's war economy from @msnegovaya.bsky.social, @nicholasfenton.bsky.social, Tina Dolbaia and me. Maria breaks down the conclusions, in short, Russia can sustain the war unfortunately.

Big addition to our program!

Where different BDA assessments seem to converge. Destroyed: 7 Tu-95MS, 4 Tu-22M3, 1 An-12. Damaged: 1 Tu-95MS, 2 Tu-22M3 , 2 A-50s (probably non-operational). Additionally attacked & possibly damaged: 4 Tu-22M3 (status unclear), and 1 Tu-95MS.

Couldn't agree more with this @adamtooze.bsky.social banger. "The scandal is not that European defence budgets have not already doubled. The scandal is that Europe spends so much and gets so little for it." The European defense enterprise is a total mess. www.ft.com/content/f450...

If the future is electric, China is building a big advantage quickly.

Post of the day.

BFD this.

NEW: @eribakova.bsky.social returned to Russian Roulette to discuss the evolution of the Ukrainian economy since February 2022. Tune in for her conversation with Max and Maria, below! 🎙️ @maxbergmann.bsky.social & @msnegovaya.bsky.social www.csis.org/podcasts/rus...

The Implications of Poland’s Presidential Election by our very own Donatienne Ruy www.csis.org/analysis/imp...

When folks say that the US is slow to build much-needed transmission lines to take advantage of new sources of very cheap renewable electricity, they do not exaggerate. In 2024 the US was completing 30-50 miles per month! All of it low voltage.

The smart thing to do would be to work on a NATO plan for a transfer of responsibility from the US to Europe. We risk getting fake spending targets to appease Trump instead and then a gap when the US withdraws forces.

The great irony is Euros are agreeing to these spending targets to appease Trump and keep America in. But by agreeing in principle to radically increase def spending (even though it’s all fake) it allows the US to walk away.

it cuts against much of the dominant contemporary discourse about American society, policing, and criminal justice, but for precisely that reason I wish there was more work on the massive national success story of plummeting crime rates since 2021 www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

My new piece, on Europe’s need for new defence arrangements. I used to think enthusiasts for reviving the WEU were quaint, but with the US an unreliable ally & the EU unable to run real defence operations, for those who want to be serious about defence something like a new WEU looks more attractive.

Europe and the Philippines will set up a new “security and defense dialogue" as the EU strengthens ties with Asian nations amid threats from China and Russia. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

It's Monday. You might hate your job but at least you're not a Russian general about to explain to me how 1/3 of my strategic aviation got blown up in a morning by some cheap Alibaba drones.

"This is the most significant attack against a national nuclear enterprise in the history of nuclear weapons."

Cards

If even a fraction of this is true, it’s a remarkable achievement & a mark of how far Ukr deep strike has come. ‘An operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has hit ‘more than 40" Russian bombers at air bases “in the rear of the Russian Federation”…’ kyivindependent.com/enemy-bomber...

SecState Rubio claims that no on has died because of USAID cuts and suggested that I had lied in my reporting. So here I show him photos of specific children who have died because of the Trump administration's reckless cancelation of aid: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/o...

Jamon’ing

“In just a few years, U.S. consumers may go on vacation abroad and discover that their rental car or taxi is running on a technology that looks different and is in many ways more attractive than what is available at home.” www.csis.org/analysis/wha...

💥SCOOP: Orbán’s government is spooked by the EU possibly suspending Hungary’s voting rights (Article 7). A source confirms Orbán's “blocking coalition” isn’t solid at all. This is why, in desperation, Orbán endorsed Romania’s George Simion. 🔗More on @vsquare.bsky.social: vsquare.org/presidential...

On the rise of the shallow state: danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-rise-o...

There’s soon gonna to be a lot of people in chicken taco suits following Trump around

The illiberalism of the Trump administration is going to create a huge collision with the liberalism of Europe. There increasingly won’t be a sense of “shared values” of to bind the NATO alliance. The question is what will trigger the collision.