Julian Popov

Closing @RFERL will be a massive retreat from the democratic US and European soft power across the world. European and any democratic government around the world must step in and try to fund its survival and expansion.

The electricity generation in Bulgaria last week: export and lower prices as a result of high solar and wind generation balanced with hydro. RES is growing and by 2030 it is likely solar to increase x3 and wind x5.

Well, for some people it is a traditional remedy 🙂

I asked the Chinese AI chat Kimi what is the domestic approval rating of Trump and Zelenskyy. The answer:

Seeking appeasement from a position of strength is not just strategic failure — it demonstrates a fundamental misreading of the geopolitical, economic and legal logic.

Its military budget far exceeds Ukraine’s, even factoring in Western aid, yet it suffers heavy losses and struggles to advance on the battlefield.

Russia today, even before the invasion, was and is a mid-sized economy—11th in the world—marked by industrial decline, deep corruption, entrenched criminality, and profound moral decay by its own metrics (as reflected in statistics on disease, life expectancy, divorce, abortion, prostitution).

By the late 1930s, Nazi Germany was an industrial and military power, the world’s second-largest economy (after the US) alongside the Soviet Union (excluding Britain with its empire), economic recovered from the First World War yet deeply embittered by it.

Trump’s approach to Putin is often compared to Neville Chamberlain’s dealings with Hitler. There are parallels, but there is also a crucial difference.

Chamberlain engaged with Hitler from a position of reason and relative weakness.

Imperial War Museum, London.