World Review from the New Statesman

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We won't be releasing regular World Review episodes any more. Interviews about the biggest foreign affairs stories will now be included as part of a rotation of interviews on the New Statesman podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts.

As the European Union weighs new sanctions on Chinese companies, which could be announced later this week, Katie Stallard speaks to Bruno Maçães, a former Portuguese Europe minister andthe New Statesman's foreign affairs correspondent,about his recent interview with Fu Cong, China's ambassador to the EU.They also discuss Beijing's likely response to the new measures, what the fall-out would be for EU-China relations, and about the difficult balancing act Chinese diplomats have sought to strike since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine. Plus, how the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency in the US is provoking unease in the corridors of Brussels. Read more: Ambassador Fu Cong: “Europe will not become a vassal to China” The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin China’s hollow peace plan for Ukraine

On Tuesday (30 May), several drones damaged buildings in Moscow in by far the largest attack on the Russian capital since the war in Ukraine began. Kyiv denies carrying out the strikes – at least one of which affected Rublyovka, a wealthy suburb home to many of Russia's elite, and close to where Putin has an official residence. Megan Gibson and Katie Stallard discuss the strategy behind the attacks, how they might be viewed by Ukraine’s allies, and whether further strikes on Russian territory are likely. The discussion then moves to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election as Turkish president and what it could mean for Sweden’s bid to join Nato.Read more:Katie examines the domestic pressure on Putin. Jeremy Cliffe on the limits of ErdoğanismKatie on Ukraine's coming counter-offensive.

This week our guest is the historian Serhii Plokhy, a professor and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard and the author of a number of books, including his latest, The Russo-Ukrainian War. He speaks to Megan Gibson about Putin’s war on Ukraine, the end of the Russian empire and what the new world order could look like.

Last week British adherents – including several prominent ministers – of a traditionalist political movement with origins in post-Trump US politics attended the National Conservatism conference in London. It is a major influence in America but remains on the fringes of British political thought.Will Lloyd joins Megan Gibson in London, and Ido Vock in Berlin, to discuss whether National Conservatism could ever catch on in the UK. Then, they discuss attacks by anti-Kremlin militias in the Belgorod region of western Russia, which neighbours Ukraine. They ask: what effect might this raid have on the next phase of the war?Read more: Will Lloyd on “dark new factions” in the Conservative Party:Katie Stallard asks: who was behind the drone attack on the Kremlin?

With international arrest warrants now active against Vladimir Putin, Ido Vock speaks to Philippe Sands, professor at UCL, about his attempts to force a prosecution of the Russian president. They discuss the crime of aggression, whether international tribunals could hear the case against him, and what efforts are being made to encourage more countries to help bring Putin to justice.  Read more:Putin on trial

The Ukrainian army this week announced gains around Bakhmut, its first substantive advances in about six months. That progress has prompted analysts to ask: has Ukraine’s much-vaunted counter-offensive already begun? Not yet, perhaps. But it is coming.   Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss what the next phase of the war could look like. Will Ukraine’s army make rapid progress – as it did in the Kharkiv region last September – or get bogged down in attritional battles, as has been the case at Bakhmut? Katie and Ido also discuss Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s increasingly voluble complaints about the Russian ministry of defence, and whether the cracks in Vladimir Putin’s system are starting to show. Read more:  Katie Stallard on what to expect from Ukraine’s coming counter-offensive  Ido Vock asks: has Prigozhin turned on Putin?  Ido again, on the Wagner Group’s brutal tactics Lawrence Freedman on Russia and Ukraine's attempts to control the narrative of the war   

Fourteen months into Russia’s war against Ukraine, Katie Stallard speaks to Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the co-author of Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire, about how the geopolitical landscape of Central Asia has changed. They discuss China’s growing influence, Vladimir Putin’s efforts to court regional leaders, and how the West could play a more significant role. Read more:  The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir PutinWhat would it take to make Vladimir Putin feel secure?Xinjiang: a region of suspicion and subjugation