After his conciliatory speech in Munich last week, Marco Rubio set sail for Hungary and Slovakia, where he will get some strong promises. shorturl.at/p0ldY Can he condition them on decoupling from Moscow? Read the Weekly Outlook to find out.

EU’s latest Russia sanctions may proliferate the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea. It can stop most of Russia’s oil traffic in the basin. Yet it will also end the utility of the global oil price cap and G7 control mechanisms. shorturl.at/etSab

Russia is China's useful idiot. By conducting joint military exercises and enhancing information sharing, Beijing is using Russia as a geographic and operational force multiplier. shorturl.at/vMY0z

European leaders will retreat to a Belgian castle this week to define boundaries for the EU economic security strategy. Will CEE seize the opportunity? visegradinsight.eu/eu-leaders-r...

Hungary's parliamentary elections are set to take place this April. For the third year in a row, the country's GDP growth is expected to remain below 0.5 per cent. Could this bring the end of the Orbán era? Watch the new episode of the Voices of Visegrad series: youtu.be/ro0hRztzIVY

Poland 🇵🇱 and Romania 🇷🇴 will benefit most from the 150-billion-euro EU defence modernisation plan. Subscribe for more insights: shorturl.at/Egw3G

If Warsaw were to choose friends, it might pick America. While Western Europe breathed a sigh of relief after pushing back against Trump’s plan to seize Greenland, Poland took comfort in the fact that a deeper rupture between the US and Europe had been avoided: shorturl.at/ktP5F

President Petr Pavel accuses Foreign Minister Petr Macinka of blackmail, triggering a potential constitutional crisis. Listen to our podcast with Pavel Havlíček. YT: shorturl.at/txMgl Spotify: shorturl.at/98ZwY Apple Podcasts: shorturl.at/AqXhN

The scandal between the new foreign minister and the president exposes cracks in the foundations of Czechia's foreign and security policy. Read our interview with Pavel Havlíček: shorturl.at/gp2PE

Russia’s wartime economic ‘stability’ is fading. Russia has sold 71% National Wealth Fund's gold. Borrowing costs are now 25% due to a record-high 21% CB interest rate in 2025 and 16% in 2026. The economy can function only if household deposit inflows continue Read the recap: shorturl.at/QlVzQ

Warsaw asked the European Commission to intervene after Ukraine banned steel scrap exports to the EU. Poland was its largest importer despite having a formidable market – with less competitive pricing. Any price increase translates into surges in Poland's steel production costs. shorturl.at/fOD6x

SAFE funds for defence industry among EU #3SI countries 🇪🇺 🇵🇱 Poland 43.7B 🇭🇺 Hungary 17.4B (conditional; rule of law violations) 🇷🇴 Romania 16.7B 🇱🇹 Lithuania 6.4B 🇱🇻 Latvia 3.5B 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 3.3B 🇪🇪 Estonia 2.3B 🇸🇰 Slovakia 2.3B 🇨🇿 Czechia 2.0B 🇭🇷 Croatia 1.7B 🇬🇷 Greece 0.8B 🇦🇹 Austria 0 shorturl.at/Ect8M

Conflict between Czechia's Foreign Minister Macinka and President Pavel has turned into a House of Cards ploy. Pavel accused Macinka of blackmail over a ministerial appointment and released text messages in which the FM warns of 'serious consequences' to Pavel. shorturl.at/Xuoad

What does the world and CEE look like after Davos 2026? Wojciech Przybylski sat down with Radu Albu-Comanescu to discuss what the WEF revealed about geostrategy, defence & new rules of engagement from Washington. YouTube: lnkd.in/e52Hd5wR Spotify: lnkd.in/eBf-BCvv Apple Podcasts: lnkd.in/eKpbznBr

Russia's current economy is a pyramid scheme: – It strongly depends on wartime cash injections via mobilisation pay and war-related wages. – But consumption is too weak to absorb that cash. – The state relies on household bank deposits instead and recycles them into bonds. shorturl.at/ewuFL

Trump's 'Donroe Doctrine' is a wake-up call to Europe. Only the enormous amount of work, perseverance and sacrifice will help Europeans to achieve a stronger, militarily-unified alliance that commands respect at the level of power politics. shorturl.at/lwpzb

The new US National Defence strategy concludes that ‘Germany’s economy alone dwarfs that of Russia’ and that Europeans must build the conventional forces and the military-industrial complex to contain Putin themselves. That will not be taken lightly by the Polish far-right. shorturl.at/dacpt

Karol Nawrocki didn't rush to accept the invitation to the so-called ‘Board of Peace’ meeting on Thursday. Despite Warsaw’s warm relations with Trump, Nawrocki took part in the inaugural meeting, but didn't sign the ‘Board of Peace’ charter. Read the commentary: visegradinsight.eu/board-peace-...

Davos kicks off today. Poland is among the few CEE countries whose head of state has so far confirmed to be represented, alongside Serbia and Ukraine. Will Europe rise to the occasion and address Trump's brinkmanship over Greenland? Read to find out: visegradinsight.eu/davos-2026-g...

Central Europe is caught between the machtpolitik of global powers and the club of free-riders. We all build up militarily, but we undertake this effort for the sake of a rules-based world order for practical reasons – to make our security affordable: tinyurl.com/4u4hhvt5

Did Orbán just abandon Hungarians for the sake of bromance? Slovakia's Criminal Code amendment caused a stir where it was least expected. As Bratislava escalates its anti-Hungarian policy, Orbán's muted response means that protecting ethnic Hungarians is optional: visegradinsight.eu/benes-decree...

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's hardline 'America First' adviser, laid out the perspective: we live in a world 'governed by strength, by force, by power'. Coming from the US administration, that's grim news for CEE. Read our new Weekly Outlook to find out why: visegradinsight.eu/venezuela-ce...

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's hardline 'America First' adviser, laid out the perspective: we live in a world 'governed by strength, by force, by power'. Coming from the US administration, that's grim news for CEE. Read our new Weekly Outlook to find out why: visegradinsight.eu/venezuela-ce...

Europe ended 2025 under compounding pressure from Russia’s war against Ukraine, a more volatile leap in transatlantic relations and deepening discontent across CEE. All of this will have an impact on 2026. Read the Q4 Policy Brief to find out why: visegradinsight.eu/eu-values-fo...

Andrej Babiš's populists are back in power in Czechia and the new US National Security Strategy now seeks to empower the hive-minded. Europe made baby steps to protect itself. Watch our reporting from Kyiv, Budapest & Warsaw to find out how these will impact 2026: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Rf...

Is 2026 Europe’s last year of ‘strange peace’ or the opening act of a much larger confrontation over systems, values and survival? Election shocks, America's brinkmanship and deliberations over EU economic security will shape the impact of 2026. visegradinsight.eu/2026-last-ye...

Will Babiš pivot towards Brussels-sceptic allies like Viktor Orbán, or hedge with pragmatism? In our last post of this year, we invite you to read the summary of several online events with Czech civil society representatives and defence experts to find out what may lie ahead: lnkd.in/dyxTHDE9

This September, we hosted a public debate between former ministers and EU commissioners from Visegrad and the Baltics to discuss the role of CEE in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework. Read the recap of this year's most popular Europe Future Forum side event: lnkd.in/d_hZmbp5

'My primary concern is to stop Russian imperialism' – Anne Applebaum We sat down with the author of 'Gulag: A History' to discuss the sustainability of political culture upholding Putin’s regime and the possibility of its collapse. Read our most popular interview from 2025: lnkd.in/dGWsrSQU

The world is moving forward, but military thinking remains stuck in the past. As Poland looks to double its army size, ignoring half the population is strategically unsound, Magda Jakubowska argues in one of our most-read pieces this year: lnkd.in/e2KmEMBX

Russia's plans won't stop with Ukraine. Putin seeks to reclaim parts of Europe that once belonged to the Soviet juggernaut. Poland has invested in troops, equipment, and civilian training. This should be treated as a model for EU. Read one of our most popular pieces from 2025: lnkd.in/exp9qD_e

In 2025, we saw how foreign and domestic interference have been converging – powered by AI, amplified by extremists and spilling into the real world. Read one of our most-read analyses on the topic from this year by Alina Inayeh: lnkd.in/gWjW_7ZC

What can Europe learn from Ukraine's anti-corruption ecosystem? In a Europe facing its own governance fatigue, Kyiv’s model deserves serious attention, as Valeriia Novak wrote in her analysis this summer. Have a read of our most popular story from 2025, if you haven't yet: lnkd.in/gS6AkqiW

Hungary and Poland are at each other’s throats. And the EU's decision to use qualified majority voting to approve 90 billion for Ukraine confirms that. Read this year's last Weekly Outlook to find out why: visegradinsight.eu/eu-support-f...

Europe must finally begin to consider civil society seriously, as this will shape what the EU will look like by 2030. The EU Strategy for Civil Society is a positive step. Read the interview with Wojciech Przybylski and Magda Jakubowska to find out why: visegradinsight.eu/future-of-eu...

Since 2022 South Korea has demonstrated what Europe lacked – the ability to deliver major weapons systems in months. Poland seized the opportunity and procured tanks and howitzers at scale. Read the new analysis by Ju Hyung Kim on why other countries should follow the lead: lnkd.in/g4TrT9GJ

Any glimmer of hope from Berlin means little more than a smokescreen without action. The Kremlin is using the new 'peace proposal' and its maximalist demands as a theatre to divide the West and stall aid to Ukraine, William Dixon and Maksym Beznosiuk argue in their new commentary: lnkd.in/gz25E47W

Europe told carmakers to go green by 2035, but forgot about batteries. Hungary, however, has not. Wespoke with Vilmos Weiler about the surge of Chinese and Korean battery investments in Hungary. YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZV... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5rS9...

Orbán's theatre opposition to helping Ukraine is just a distraction from a child abuse scandal in Hungary. In today's Weekly Outlook, we argue that Hungary's PM is Russia’s most valuable frozen asset in Europe. Read it on our website and claim your Christmas subscription bonus: lnkd.in/dp6c_W8g

The new US National Security Strategy outlines American priorities pivoting to ‘Western Hemisphere’ and China. But it also falls short of calling Russia part of the problem and warns of ‘civilisational erasure’ in Europe. So, what do we make out of it? Read to find out: lnkd.in/dZfDGg4p

"Imperialism was damaging to them in the Soviet period, and now it is holding them back and preventing them from being a normal European country" Read the latest interview with @anneapplebaum.bsky.social by @wojciechprzybylski.bsky.social 🔗 visegradinsight.eu/anne-appleba...

Poland has placed its first military radar satellite into orbit. But MikroSAR is only the opening salvo in Poland’s and Europe’s bid to become a space power. Read the new Visegrad Insight editorial analysis by Arslan Suleymanov to find out why: lnkd.in/dywmi-2Y

Democratic security comes at a cost. We monitor it for you. 👉 Take advantage of our Black Friday promotion and subscribe at 50% off! Our regular subscription prices will increase soon. This is the last moment to lock in your subscription at our lowest rate! visegradinsight.eu/black-friday...

Next April, Hungarians are heading to the polls to decide if they want to continue with Orbán. But would a potential victory for the opposition really mean plain sailing? Read our interview with András Simor and Péter Ákos Bod: lnkd.in/drt45nVw Learn more about the initiative: lnkd.in/dsgM3PnM

In April, Hungarians go to the polls again. But is Hungary’s real problem that its oligarchs are not independent tycoons at all, but extensions of the state itself? Check out our new podcast episode with András Simor and Péter Ákos Bod to find out. Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

How did the leaders from Central and Eastern Europe react to the so-called 'peace' proposal for Ukraine? Read our Weekly Outlook to find out: lnkd.in/dapv_-p3

Georgia deleted gender from its constitution but kept gender-based violence, smear campaigns and autocratisation. What's next? Read our new analysis by Kerry Longhurst and Vanessa Tinker: visegradinsight.eu/gender-equal...

Ukraine has great anticorruption plans – it just needs to implement them to join the EU. In our new commentary, Visegrad Insight Fellow Valeriia Novak asks uncomfortable questions about Ukraine's EU accession and reforms that follow: visegradinsight.eu/ukraine-corr...

Nationalism in banking is simply stupid. When Andreas Treichl says this, Europe should listen. Check out the new Visegrad Insight interview: visegradinsight.eu/treihl-erste...

Europe spends more on imported fossil fuels than on the entire EU budget. But is there a holy grail that can turn things around? Read the Europe Future Forum debate recap to find out: visegradinsight.eu/energy-trans...