Letter From the Editors

Everyone loves a good Western. The iconic genre, which was the quintessential American export of the 1950s, spawned a series of subgenres, like the Ostern in the USSR and Eastern bloc. The definitive film in this category is “White Sun of the Desert,” where untamed Western frontiers are swapped for the endless expanses of Central Asian desert. The film’s dialogue is now woven into the very fabric of everyday speech in the post-Soviet world.

Both the Western and the Ostern are overshadowed by themes of neocolonialism and bringing “civilization” to untamed territories and peoples. These echoes were heard loud and clear in the capital of Mali this week, as antigovernment rebels affiliated with Al Qaeda attempted to seize power. While Jeune Afrique reports that the country’s defense minister may have been killed, that has not been confirmed officially. According to expert Akram Kharief, the attack was one of the most well-coordinated ones in recent years, and similar to the one that rocked western Mali in July 2025. Russian expert Georgy Lukyanov accused Paris of being behind the unrest (which has been simmering for over a decade now). Because borders were drawn artificially by France, the country remains divided between the country’s nomadic north, which is populated by Tuareg tribes, and the largely agrarian south. Paris has leveraged this divide as “another tool of French influence” by weakening Mali’s statehood and thereby making it dependent on foreign aid, writes Lukyanov.

Talk of another “soft invasion” disguised as economic assistance resurfaced this week in Armenia, which hosted an EU-Armenia summit. Heading into an election, Premier Nikol Pashinyan has leaned strongly on moving the country away from the festering open wound of Nagorno-Karabakh and toward a future within the EU. However, expert Yegor Sergeyev draws parallels to the EU’s Eastern Partnership program, which was designed to entice former Soviet republics like Moldova and Ukraine to reorient themselves toward the EU. In his opinion, the program was little more than empty promises. “The perpetual carrot of EU membership translates roughly as ‘the master has appointed me his favorite wife,’ ” writes Sergeyev in another nod to “White Sun.” But while Armenia used to be merely a blip on the radar compared to Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, which received about 80% of Eastern Partnership funding, this week’s summit demonstrates that Brussels is stepping up its presence in the South Caucasus. What’s more, “over the past couple of years, the EU has updated its system of agreements with nearly all Central Asian countries,” the expert says. If he were still roaming the desert, Fyodor Sukhov may have run into a Brussels bureaucrat or two. Another Western spinoff was of course the spaghetti Western. If you’re looking for a remake of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (or Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, if you’re a purist), look no further than the social-media-driven standoff between Pope Leo XIV and Trump. After the latter called the Pope “terrible at foreign policy,” Italian PM Giorgia Meloni spoke up and called the US leader’s remarks unacceptable. She also barred US aircraft from refueling at the Sigonella base in Sicily. From all indications, Meloni just went from one of Trump’s darlings (suffice it to recall their convivial White House meeting in April 2025, a far cry from the Zelensky meltdown a few months prior) to a renegade. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to Rome to try mending the rift between the White House and Italy/the Vatican, he has his work cut out for him. Or as Mikhail Kucherov puts it, “the upcoming trip is more reminiscent of a diplomatic dinner in a burning house than a Roman holiday.” If he cared to emulate Clint Eastwood, Rubio could ask himself, “Do I feel lucky?”