Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping enter the hall during a signing ceremony on May 20, 2026, in Beijing, China. (Getty Images)
Supporters of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) chant slogans and wave flags at a rally celebrating the end of the US military presence in Iraq on September 30, 2026, in Baghdad, Iraq. (Getty Images)
Presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro for the Partido Liberal speaks to the press after the votes are tallied on election day on October 4, 2026, in Brasilia, Brazil. (Getty Images)
Diplomatic envoys of ASEAN countries to China watch an intelligent robot during a visit to the China-ASEAN AI Application Center on July 22, 2026, in Nanning, China. (Getty Images)
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a news conference in New York after she addressed the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2026, in New York City, US (Getty Images)
Migrants storm a barbed-wire fence as they attempt to cross the land border with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Getty Images)
Servicemen conduct a land operation on the Oleshky Sands military training ground close to Crimea as part of the Sea Breeze 2021 maritime exercise held by NATO and its partner nations from June 28 through July 10. (Photo by Stringer\TASS via Getty Images)
Former Fellow and Director, Kleptocracy Initiative
Casey Michel
Former Adjunct Fellow, Kleptocracy Initiative
Paul Massaro
Former Adjunct Fellow, Kleptocracy Initiative
Nate Sibley, Casey Michel & Paul Massaro
Podcast
Caption
The DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle is displayed during a military parade at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China. (The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
Ships belonging to the Chinese naval fleet pass through a naval mine threat area during the Joint Sea-2021 China-Russia military drill near Vladivostok, Russia on October 15, 2021. (Photo by Sun Zifa/China News Service via Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet for talks at the Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel\TASS via Getty Images)
A Russian Moskva guided missile cruiser participates in a naval parade near a Ukrainian military base in Sevastopol. (Vasily Maximov/AFP via Getty Images)