Why have politicians often described as ‘teenagers’ and ‘hand puppets’ risen to power in the European Union? Who truly governs Europe? How are the actions – and seeming incompetence – of figures like Annalena Baerbock, Ursula von der Leyen, and Kaja Kallas harming the EU’s economy and undermining its geopolitical influence? And what’s behind the sharp decline of the United Kingdom, from the collapse of the pound to the deterioration of its armed forces? These questions are explored with Aleksey Zubets, Director of the Centre for Social Economics Research, and Nikolay Novik, Deputy Director of the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
