The “no-limits partnership” flexes its muscles, as China and Russia collaborate on military industry, espionage, exercises: Reuters reported Friday that Russia is producing “kamikaze” drones with Chinese-manufactured engines and parts. This echoes similar reporting from early July, and follows on the heels of US allegations on 10 September that China is providing direct support to the Russian military-industrial complex in exchange for Russian technology. In May, the UK alleged that China was providing “lethal aid” to Russia, which the US questioned at the time. Also on Friday, Politico reported a senior European intelligence official’s claims that China is seeking to cooperate with and exploit access to Russian espionage and influence networks in Europe, in an interesting potential example of an attempt by the two authoritarian powers to collaborate on the spread of strategic corruption. The news came a few days after China and Russia announced the start of combined naval exercises in the Pacific, which ended Monday, and Russia claimed it would “combine” with China if threatened. However, as Newsweek pointed out Sunday, despite the rhetoric and material aid to Russia, Chinese banks are at the same time increasingly reluctant to fall afoul of US sanctions and thus rejecting many transactions with Russian banks, leading to increased fees for Russian transactions in the yuan. 

US accuses RT of role in Russian espionage and covert action: On Friday, the US State Department announced further sanctions against entities and individuals connected to the destabilizing influence of Russian state media outlet RT. The announcement, which followed the previous week’s revelation of RT payments to the US right-wing media organization Tenet Media in an attempt to influence US political discourse, alleges that RT has gone beyond a mere disinformation and propaganda outlet to a part of Russia’s intelligence apparatus, including cyber capabilities, covert influence operations including attempts to influence the upcoming Moldovan election, and procurement of lethal aid for the Russian military. The announcement capped a week that saw substantial reporting on Russian disinformation operations, which according to Axios are more insidious than ever, and, along with Chinese information operations, worryingly prevalent in Africa. 

Venezuela arrests Americans and alleges US plot after US sanctions Venezuelan officials, as Gonzalez flees amongst post-election fallout: Weeks after Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro declared victory in Venezuela’s July elections, despite overwhelming evidence that the opposition won, the Maduro regime announced the detention of three Americans and three Europeans on Saturday, accusing them of plotting violence against Maduro under the direction of US and European intelligence agencies. The announcement came two days after the US announced sanctions on 16 Maduro-linked Venezuelan officials for their role in the election fraud and human rights abuses. The last week also saw the news that the official opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, had fled into exile in Spain while the de facto opposition leader, María Corina Machado, remains in hiding in Venezuela. Not only does Venezuela’s fading hope for democracy hang in the balance, but so does the argument for the coercive power of US sanctions, which were imposed on Venezuela’s state oil company during the Trump years, lifted in 2023 in return for promises to hold free and fair elections, and reimposed in April 2024 after Machado was barred from running. While recent in-depth reporting by the Washington Post suggested that US sanctions likely exacerbated the immiseration of the country caused by Maduro’s mismanagement, the Post’s Editorial Board nonetheless called last week for additional such measures to pressure the regime.