Russia Policy Monitor No. 2684
More Regulation of Russian Science;
Russia's Partnership With Iran Reaches Its Limits;
A Step Toward Belated Justice For Russian Aggression;
Russia Takes Aim At Ukraine... Via Signal;
Iran's Loss, Russia's Gain
More Regulation of Russian Science;
Russia's Partnership With Iran Reaches Its Limits;
A Step Toward Belated Justice For Russian Aggression;
Russia Takes Aim At Ukraine... Via Signal;
Iran's Loss, Russia's Gain
What a difference a year can make.
Last summer, Iran appeared to be well and truly on the march. Its chief Palestinian proxy, Hamas, had succeeded in bogging Israel down in a costly ground war in Gaza – and turning global public opinion against the Jewish state in the process. The United States, under the Biden administration, didn't appear to have much of an answer to Iran's persistent pursuit of nuclear status, or to the growing regional threat posed by its other proxies, like Yemen's Houthi rebels. And vulnerable Gulf states, acutely aware of this dynamic, were increasingly seeking some sort of accommodation with Tehran. As a result, the Iranian leadership's strategic ambitions had begun to expand dramatically.
China Sends Scores of Planes Into Taiwan Strait...;
...While Japan's Nacy Navigates It;
Deployments To The South China Sea;
Hong Kong's Last Pro-Democracy Party Disbands;
Hong Kong's Crackdown Extends To Small Businesses
When President Trump returned to the Oval Office earlier this year, he confidently proclaimed that he could broker an immediate end to the Russia-Ukraine war. But the White House has gotten a better sense of the potential for meaningful compromise in the months since, and revised its expectations down — way down.
From June 27 - July 5, 2025, the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) supported a high-level delegation to Ukraine. The bipartisan group—including senior experts from the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—traveled to Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, and Warsaw. Herman Pirchner, AFPC President, led the 9-person delegation. The delegation, organized and staffed by AFPC Vice President for External Relations Annie Swingen, met with Ukrainian government officials, military leaders, civil society representatives, and international partners (a full list of delegation meetings is available at the end of this report). The discussions were wide ranging, but mostly focused on the current state of Ukraine’s war effort, the country’s evolving national identity, and the outlook for continued Western support. What follows is a summary of the delegation’s key findings.