Russian Security Index

🆑 PIR Press News

PIR Center invites to explore the materials of an online course "Artificial Intelligence and Other Advanced Technologies: New Opportunities for Russia and Security Challenges".

🤖Is artificial intelligence a resource or a threat to national security? How does the Iranian crisis affect the NPT and regional stability? How are nuclear technologies changing in the context of global competition? What is the link between new technologies and arms control? The answers to these and other questions are presented in the PIR Center online course, the materials of which are available for viewing on the PIR Center website in the section: "Artificial Intelligence and Other Advanced Technologies: New Opportunities for Russia and Security Challenges".

The course program covers a wide range of topical issues, including:

◻️Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Weapons: The Transformation of International Security and Russia's Interests. Lecturer: Mr. Vadim Kozyulin, Member of the PIR Center Executive Board, PIR Center Consultant, Chief Research Fellow at the Center for Military-Political Studies of the Institute for Contemporary International Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

◻️The Development of Artificial Intelligence and Prospects for its International Legal Regulation in the Context of International Security. Lecturer: Ms. Yulia Tseshkovskaya, Member of the PIR Center Advisory Board, Head of Marketing at Evocargo.

◻️Prospects for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime. Lecturer: Dr. Vladimir Orlov, Academic Director of the XXIV International School on Global Security Problems, Founder and Director of the PIR Center, Professor at MGIMO University.

◻️Iran. Uranium. War and Peace in the Middle East. Experts: Dr. Leonid Tsukanov, PIR Center Consultant; Mr. Adlan Margoev, Research Fellow at the Institute for International Studies and Lecturer at the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO University.

◻️A New Era in Nuclear Technologies: Opportunities for Russia in the Context of Global Competition. Lecturer: Mr. Gleb Efremov, Deputy General Director – Head of New Technologies Development at JUSTA Group of Companies, Member of the PIR Center Advisory Board.

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💻 Watch the course (in Russian)

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🆑 PIR Press News

🔥 PIR Center and MGIMO University jointly conducted a crisis simulation game incorporating negotiation elements and the UN Security Council meeting entitled “Iran on the Brink? The Nuclear Crisis – September 2026”. Within the simulation, participants represented delegations from the United States, Iran, Israel, Russia, China, Pakistan, and the IAEA Board of Governors. Adlan Margoev, Research Fellow at the Institute for International Studies, served as the expert for the simulation. The seminar was moderated by Alexandra Zubenko, Deputy Director of PIR Center.

For the first time since May 1974, the IAEA safeguards agreement with Iran is no longer in effect. It remains operational only at a single facility – the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, where Russian specialists rotate on a regular, monitored basis. For the first time, both UN Security Council resolutions and IAEA General Conference resolutions have been violated, and this violation was committed by a NPT depositary state – the United States. – Adlan Margoev, Research Fellow at the Institute for International Studies, MGIMO University; Lecturer at the Department of Asian and African Studies, MGIMO University.

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🔥 Outcomes of the 2026 BRICS Summit in New Delhi

🇮🇳 As the dust settles on the landmark 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, the global geopolitical landscape stands at a critical crossroads. In an exclusive interview, Mr. Maksim Nosenko sits down with leading strategic analyst Dr. Nandan Unnikrishnan, Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, to unpack the summit’s major breakthroughs, the shifting dynamics of multipolarity, and what India’s next presidency might look like.

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🇷🇺 Statement by Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrey Belousov under Agenda Item 18 of the 70th Session of the IAEA General Conference «Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea»

📍Vienna, 17 September 2026

💬 We regret to note that a certain group of Member States has failed to draw any lessons from the last year’s General Conference, when the Russian Federation for the first time called the draft resolution on the DPRK submitted by this group to vote. The sponsors of the document have not only failed to reconsider their politicized approach, but are now also attempting to portray Russia as the party responsible for undermining a long-standing consensus. Let us recall that at the previous session, 22 countries withheld their support for the resolution: 5 voted against it and 17 abstained.

Nevertheless, the co-sponsors continue to insist on using the time of the General Conference to discuss this issue, which, by and large, has already ceased to have any substantive bearing on the IAEA’s mandate. The sole purpose pursued by the co-sponsors is to have the General Conference endorse an entirely false and reality-detached narrative of the situation surrounding the DPRK, according to which Pyongyang is portrayed as responsible for developments on the Korean Peninsula and in the adjacent region. We consider such use of the Agency’s policy-making organ inappropriate, harmful and destructive.

As for the role of the IAEA, there has been no Agency inspectors' presence at nuclear facilities in the DPRK since 2009. Without conducting verification activities, the IAEA cannot draw any reliable conclusions regarding the state of the country’s nuclear infrastructure. The Director General makes this clear in his latest report. The information used by the Agency’s Secretariat is based solely on information derived from satellite imagery and open sources, the completeness and reliability of which remain subject to serious questions. Yet the group of countries actively promoting the IAEA General Conference resolution against the DPRK is manipulating these fragmentary and, in many respects, questionable data in order to intensify political and, even more disturbingly, military pressure on Pyongyang. We consider the adoption of such a resolution to be inconsistent with the purposes, objectives and status of the IAEA, as well as detrimental to the authority of the Agency.

In the Agency’s policy-making organs, Russia is being criticized for failing to contribute to the goal of the «denuclearization of the DPRK». In order to understand who bears responsibility for the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, it is important to recall that the objective of denuclearization — and I emphasize, of the entire Korean Peninsula, rather than the DPRK alone, as our colleagues claim — was established in 1992 by the DPRK and the Republic of Korea. This objective has always comprised two key elements: first, Pyongyang would give up its nuclear ambitions; and second, the United States would de-escalate military tensions on the Peninsula and cease threatening the DPRK. For Washington, fulfilling its part of the arrangement has proved to be an insurmountable task.

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In light of the foregoing, we consider the draft resolution proposed by the group of co-sponsors to be entirely inappropriate and harmful. It does nothing to help creation a constructive environment for the possible launch of negotiations on a comprehensive political and diplomatic settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

❗️The Russian Federation opposes politicized steps and initiatives that lead to further discrediting of the Agency. We are calling for the draft resolution on the DPRK to be put to a vote and will vote against it. We call upon other delegations that recognize the harmful nature of this document to withhold their support for it.

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🇮🇳 In the wake of the New Delhi summit, we invite our readers to revisit PIR Center's materials dedicated to BRICS and related international security issues.

🔎The featured publications suggest that the trends highlighted in PIR Center's works as early as the middle of the last decade are now reflected in the 2026 declaration.

👉 You can explore these materials in our "Nothing New Under the Sun" section.

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☢ We invite our readers to explore the review written by Mr. Dominik Albert, 2nd-year student of MA Program in International Security implemented jointly by PIR Center and MGIMO, on Nuclear War: A Scenario by Ms. Annie Jacobsen:

In March 2024, American investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen published Nuclear War: A Scenario — a work whose scope surpasses all her previous writings. The book’s premise is at once simple and audacious: to reconstruct, minute by minute, what would happen if a single nuclear warhead were launched at the United States. – Dominik Albert, 2nd-year student of MA Program in International Security implemented jointly by PIR Center and MGIMO.

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🇿🇲 We are pleased to publish the article "The Status of Nuclear Safety and IAEA Safeguards in the Republic of Zambia"(In Russian) written by Andrey Kupriyanov, 2nd year student of MA Program in International Security implemented jointly by PIR Center and MGIMO University, in Lusaka. For those who would like to learn more about the details of the trip and the drafting of the article, we invite you to read Andrey Kupriyanov's notes in the 'Travel Notebook' section (in English).

The key element of the trip was an immersion in the country’s energy sector, and specifically its nuclear dimension. The Embassy staff helped me to verify many of the assumptions and hypotheses I had formed earlier concerning Zambia’s readiness to undertake its first nuclear power project. – Andrey Kupriyanov, 2nd year student of MA Program in International Security implemented jointly by PIR Center and MGIMO University.

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🇷🇺🇭🇺Atom and Politics: Will Paks II survive the course change?

◻️In February 2026, the Paks II NPP project entered an active construction phase. However, due to the change of government in Hungary, a review of previously reached agreements was initiated. This calls into question the future of the project and poses a set of legal, financial and technological challenges to Hungary’s energy strategy.

◻️What are the legal and financial risks for Hungary in the event of unilateral termination of the Paks II contract? How can the new geopolitical background and environmental arguments affect the project? What could be the consequences of terminating the contract for Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation? Is Hungary’s abandonment of nuclear power plants in favor of renewable energy and gas realistic, and will this lead to the country’s increased energy dependence?

◻️These and other questions were discussed by Gabor Stier, foreign policy columnist for Demokrata, the founding editor of the moszkvater.con portal and member of the Valdai Club, and Ksenia Smertina, international political scientist, expert on Central and Eastern Europe and visiting lecturer at the HSE Institute of Media.

👤The polemics was moderated by Anna Tishina, PIR Center intern.

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Ⓜ PIR Center congratulates friends and colleagues who celebrated their birthdays in June! (Part 2)

Dear friends and colleagues! On behalf of PIR Center, we cordially wish you a happy birthday! We wish you good health, energy, and inexhaustible optimism to achieve the most ambitious goals. May every day bring you joy and new opportunities. May success and inspiration accompany you in any endeavor.🦏

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Ⓜ PIR Center congratulates friends and colleagues who celebrated their birthdays in June! (Part 1)

Dear friends and colleagues! On behalf of PIR Center, we cordially wish you a happy birthday! We wish you good health, energy, and inexhaustible optimism to achieve the most ambitious goals. May every day bring you joy and new opportunities. May success and inspiration accompany you in any endeavor.🦏

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#pir_toast