Moscow has close relations with Tehran and condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year that were carried out with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. The Reuters Gulf Currents newsletter brings you the latest on geopolitics, energy and finance in the region. Sign up here.

Direct conflict between Russia and NATO was once unthinkable, but preparations and defense spending have been stepped up in nervous Baltic states.

President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy outlined a plan for U.S.-Russia tunnel connecting Alaska and Siberia through Bering Strait within eight years at $8 billion cost.

A court in southern Russia convicted 15 captured Ukrainian soldiers on terrorism charges Friday after a trial that Kyiv denounced as a sham and a violation of international law. The military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 15 men from the Aidar battalion, which Russia has designated a terrorist group, to prison terms ranging from 15 to 21 years.

Russia was the first to deploy decoy drones to bolster its Shahed force. Now Ukraine is doing likewise, and Russian air defenses are struggling.

On Sunday evening, Russian forces hit an energy facility in the Koriukivka district of Chernihiv Oblast, leaving around 55,000 consumers without electricity. Source: Chernihivoblenergo Quote: "At 19:00,

Former Soviet Union expert Dr. Ronald Suny, and Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago,