How Russian and American signaling turned nuclear again It’s October 30, 2025. Here are three stories worth your attention.

Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines

Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in 33 years. The announcement, made during the president’s tour of Asia and following Moscow’s recent tests of two nuclear-powered weapons, appears intended as a message to rival nuclear powers China and Russia. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed concern that Trump had been improperly briefed on Russia’s tests of its Poseidon super-torpedo and Burevestnik cruise missile. “They certainly cannot be viewed as nuclear testing at all,” Peskov explained, warning that Moscow would respond in kind if another country broke the global moratorium on nuclear testing.

Americans should know that Russia is developing the Burevestnik and Poseidon largely for political and even psychological reasons. Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations’ Institute for Disarmament Research, told Meduza that he sees parallels between Vladimir Putin and Nikita Khrushchev in their approaches to weapons development. Under both leaders, the Kremlin grasps at devices and technologies it can tout as unique and unrivaled. Engineers are happy to play along, Podvig said. At the same time, these are long-term, ongoing programs, and it’s misguided to treat their existence as direct responses to some recent event (such as talk of the U.S. supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine). 

Podvig compared Russia’s nuclear-powered missiles to America’s “Golden Dome,” describing it as an equally unrealistic military project whose significance is primarily political. Russia has long harbored the same concerns about U.S. missile defense that Washington now expresses about the Poseidon and Burevestnik. Each side is sending its own “unfriendly signals,” Podvig said. “So what we’re seeing is an exchange of sorts.”

Two more stories worth your attention

Putin wants you to see Pokrovsk’s encircled Ukrainians 

The information war surrounding Russia’s latest advance toward the strategic hub of Pokrovsk is intensifying. Moscow claims to have encircled Ukrainian units near the city’s railway station, saying they refuse to surrender. However, according to Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Kyiv’s troops aren’t trapped in the city.

You should know that Putin has ordered the Russian military to allow foreign journalists — including Ukrainian reporters — to travel freely to Pokrovsk and two nearby towns, Myrnohrad and Kupiansk, where the Kremlin claims Ukrainian troops are surrounded. Putin even proposed a brief ceasefire of 5–6 hours in those areas to ensure journalists’ safety, provided that security guarantees can be coordinated with Ukraine’s Armed Forces. 

U.S. sanctions force Lukoil’s sale and Germany to consider nationalizing Rosneft Deutschland

“Lukoil has agreed to sell most of its international assets to Swiss commodity trader Gunvor after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Russian oil producer,” The Financial Times reported on Thursday. Even non-analysts are likely to recognize the buyer for its storied history in Russia. “Gunvor rose to prominence in the 2000s as the world’s biggest trader in Russian oil,” writes Reuters. From The Wall Street Journal: “Gunvor was co-founded by Swedish billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist and Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, a former Soviet trade official and a member of the Russian president’s inner circle.” Timchenko sold his stake in the business in 2014 after the U.S. hit him with sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. 

Europeans should know that the “tremendous sanctions” the Trump administration imposed last week on Russian oil companies have also triggered developments in Germany. On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury issued a license exempting Rosneft’s German arm from America’s new sanctions until April 2026. According to Reuters, Washington’s new sanctions have “rekindled” discussions in Germany about nationalizing Rosneft’s local assets, though Berlin still has “concerns about having to pay compensation to Moscow.”