@dimitarbechev.bsky.social
Director of the Dahrendorf Programme St Antony's College, Oxford and Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe Author: Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe and Turkey under Erdoğan (Yale)
Voice of the Kremlin, Dimitriev means.
06.12.2025 19:14 — 👍 147 🔁 31 💬 8 📌 5@ecfr.eu
17.11.2025 13:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We just published a paper on Europe-China by @jankaoertel.bsky.social
www.sant.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/u...
What is ironic about a great power like Russia is the persistent status insecurity and need of recognition by the US and Europe. If you really parted ways with the West and are fighting for a multipolar order what do you care how people in the West see you?
14.11.2025 11:23 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0Just read another book which boils down the discussion of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to "oh God, why are Americans so Russophobic!?" Won't name names but some people in academia are beyond redemption.
14.11.2025 11:22 — 👍 18 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0
Streets have been renamed, Ukrainian monuments removed, and murals painted over. Bellingcat investigates how apartment blocks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have been demolished to make way for a new Russian suburban utopia… www.bellingcat.com/uncategorize...
14.11.2025 11:18 — 👍 431 🔁 213 💬 14 📌 22
🔔BiEPAG member @dimitarbechev.bsky.social
for @carnegieeurope.bsky.social
"The #WesternBalkans are on the path to become a net contributor to EU security, but much more needs to be done.
The 3 NATO members - Albania, North Macedonia, and Montenegro - should lead the way.
tinyurl.com/29cd6fj7
Amazing. The architect and urban planner who built Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, was born in Bulgaria. Constantinos Doxiadis came from a Greek family in Stenimachos (Assenovgrad) in 1913, moving to Greece two years after.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan...
New: Trump cancelled his Budapest summit with Putin after a Russian memo to Washington holding firm to hardline demands on Ukraine was swiftly followed by a tense call between Rubio and Lavrov. Moscow would not negotiate.
w/ @maxseddon.bsky.social @a-mackinnon.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d665...
“The fate of China, whose maritime gates have for a century been sagging under the pressure of the West and are now being battered down by Japan, will largely be determined by what happens at the inland gates that open toward, or from, Central Eurasia and Siberia.” Owen Lattimore in 1935.
31.10.2025 18:21 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thanks for the heads-up ;)
31.10.2025 18:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Charles King writing more than 20 years ago. The Black Sea: A History (Oxford UP: 2004), p. 4.
31.10.2025 18:03 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Up there with the historic Delors one.
31.10.2025 17:56 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Picture of a venerable naval tortoise with a sign tied to her shell
The last survivor of the Crimean War died in 2004.
"Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl.
She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".
Netflix is on it.
31.10.2025 13:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The closing chapter in my forthcoming book The Scramble for Europe: Russia, China and Turkey Challenging Regional Order discusses rearmament @oxfordacademic.bsky.social
31.10.2025 12:31 — 👍 10 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Indian Oil Corp resumed buying Russian crude purchasing five cargoes from non-sanctioned entities for December delivery despite US pressure to stop, while other major Indian refiners paused purchases after sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Reuters reports.
www.reuters.com/business/ene...
Another meaning in Bulgarian would be horse trader. Biser (meaning Pearl) Dzhambazov is a bit of all three I suppose.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...
Listened to an old episode on
@restisclassified.bsky.social
on Russia's Bulgarian spy ring in the UK. At some point,
@gordoncorera.bsky.social & D. McClosley
struggle with the surname "Dzhambazov".It actually comes from the Persian jānbāz /جانباز (veteran) -> Turkish cambaz (daredevil/acrobat)
For my part, I've been angling for setting up a sultanistic regime in Abingdon-on-Thames.
31.10.2025 11:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0"Saying buccaneering a lot" - Ganesh is in top form!
30.10.2025 06:14 — 👍 37 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
My new piece:
New measures from the United States and European Union confirm why Russian energy exports were always a double-edged sword. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/29/p...
The Western Balkans' defense industry can contribute to Europe's security.
But first, governments must modernize their militaries, attract investment, & gradually integrate into the EU's initiatives, say @dimitarbechev.bsky.social & @ilirianagjoni.bsky.social.
carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...
⚡️Ukrainian drones target Moscow in overnight attack, mayor says.
Moscow's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports have temporarily suspended operations in response to the drone threat.
A Chinese LNG tanker owned by Pacific Gas was spotted receiving fuel from a sanctioned Russian vessel off Malaysia, the first documented case of a Chinese ship assisting blacklisted Russian LNG transport, Bloomberg reported.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
BIG NEWS if true: the Commission looks to have found a solution to use the frozen 🇷🇺 assets to fund 🇺🇦!
www.politico.eu/article/eu-d...
The President likes Pechenegs better.
21.10.2025 20:41 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0The EU is about as likely to break up economic ties with Israel as Middle Eastern countries severing relations with Russia.
21.10.2025 19:46 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Interesting article. Paradoxically, Tufan Erhürman's victory in the presidential election in Northern Cyprus against the candidate supported by the AKP could benefit Ankara, which has not abandoned the negotiating table and intends to improve its relations with Europe.
t24.com.tr/yazarlar/bar...
Trump and Putin do what they know best: smoke and mirrors.
open.substack.com/pub/scramble...
