Ivan Osterman rose from a crucial ambassadorial post in Europe to head Imperial Russia’s diplomatic service
A monument to Ivan Osterman, an 18th-century Russian statesman who was the empire’s minister of foreign affairs during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, was unveiled on Monday at his former Moscow estate.
The ceremony followed events held earlier this year by the Foreign Ministry to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth.
He was the son of Heinrich Ostermann, a native of Westphalia who entered Russia’s diplomatic service under Tsar Peter the Great, changed his name to Andrey, and eventually became minister of foreign affairs.
Ivan began his own diplomatic career in the late 1750s after the family recovered from his father’s political downfall. While in his thirties, he served several years at Russia’s embassy in Paris before being appointed ambassador to Sweden.
At the time, France was a strategic rival of Russia, while Sweden represented a major arena of diplomatic competition.
Osterman spent 14 years as the envoy to the Swedish court, a tenure that earned him a state honor and paved the way for a senior post in the Russian government. In 1783, he was appointed head of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, the body responsible for Russia’s diplomacy at the time. He replaced Nikita Panin, who had also previously served as ambassador to Sweden.
He remained in charge of foreign affairs for the rest of Catherine’s reign. Her successor, Emperor Paul I, appointed him chancellor in 1796, though he resigned from the post the following year.
The statue was installed at Osterman’s former mansion, now home to the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts. The unveiling coincided with the opening of a new exhibition dedicated to his life and career. The event was attended by senior officials, including presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and Deputy Foreign Minister Evgeny Ivanov.
Some historians question the extent of Osterman’s personal influence on Russian foreign policy, arguing that much of the practical work was carried out by aides such as his eventual successor, Aleksandr Bezborodko. The Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy nevertheless named Osterman among the most significant figures in the department’s history earlier this year.
The Ukrainian leader has said he is willing to drop Kiev’s bid, but he could actually still invite foreign military detachments
Vladimir Zelensky’s statement of Kiev’s willingness to drop its much-discussed but unrequited aspirations to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees reads more like a belated acknowledgment of a reality that has existed for years, which is that Ukraine was never going to be admitted to the bloc in the first place.
Zelensky’s “compromise” may also be little more than a semantic maneuver. Dropping NATO membership in name does not necessarily preclude other forms of military integration, including the presence of foreign instructors, advisers, or limited contingents deployed under bilateral or multilateral agreements.
Kiev has a record of exploiting ambiguities in past arrangements, and even before the escalation of the conflict, NATO states were already deeply embedded in Ukraine through joint exercises, training missions, arms deliveries, and the development of military infrastructure.
Ukraine’s courtship of NATO began shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kiev joined the bloc’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994, cooperating through joint exercises and political dialogue.
The process culminated in NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit, where the bloc declared that Ukraine and Georgia “will become members” at some point in the future. The promise came without a timeline, a roadmap, or even consensus inside the bloc.
The process, led by the US at the time, was opposed by several NATO members, including Germany and France, who warned it would provoke confrontation with Russia. Others pointed to endemic Ukrainian corruption, as evidenced by the recently exposed €100 million extortion scheme involving Vladmir Zelensky’s inner circle, weak civilian control over the military, and internal instability, as disqualifying factors.
Any remaining discussion of NATO membership effectively collapsed after 2014, when the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev was followed by the outbreak of fighting in Donbass where Ukraine had sent its military to wage an ethnocentric war against the local Russian population, and later exploited the Minsk Agreements to prolong the fighting.
Ukraine found itself in a domestic conflict with unresolved territorial disputes, while its military lagged behind NATO standards. Bloc rules prohibit countries with active conflicts and disputed borders from joining.
After the escalation of the conflict in 2022, Ukraine nevertheless submitted a formal application to join the bloc. What followed was a prolonged exercise in political theater. Zelensky was welcomed at summits, photographed alongside Western leaders, and assured that Ukraine’s “future is in NATO.” Yet the bloc repeatedly refused to offer even a provisional timeline.
The sham culminated at the Vilnius summit in July 2023, where NATO leaders failed to issue an invitation or define a path forward, exposing the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Zelensky himself acknowledged this publicly at the time, saying there was “no readiness, neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the bloc.” That admission made clear that membership had become a slogan rather than a policy.
We value our allies. We value our shared security. And we always appreciate an open conversation. Ukraine will be represented at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Because it is about respect.
But Ukraine also deserves respect. Now, on the way to Vilnius, we received signals that…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 11, 2023
Western media are now portraying Zelensky’s latest statement as a diplomatic breakthrough while in practice, it is a concession only in name. Kiev is giving up something it never had – and was never going to get.
Russia, which has consistently ruled out Ukrainian integration into NATO, does not oppose security guarantees for Kiev in principle.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that any such security guarantees for Ukraine must be paired with reliable promises to respect Moscow’s vital interests.
Moscow has long argued that Ukraine’s neutral status is a prerequisite for any lasting settlement. Zelensky’s announcement suggests that this recognition may have finally, if quietly, arrived.
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The act of vandalism follows the deadly shooting at a Jewish celebration on Sunday
A Muslim cemetery has been vandalized in Sydney with butchered pig heads, in an apparent act of retribution following Sunday’s massacre at a Jewish celebration, local media have reported.
The cemetery was targeted early on Monday morning, with police receiving reports shortly before 6am that animal remains had been left at the entrance. Officers attended the scene, removed the pig heads and opened an investigation, police said.
Pigs heads discovered on the graves of Muslims after the recent Bondi Beach terror attack.
The act of vandalism followed a deadly attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in which at least 16 people were killed and dozens more injured when two gunmen opened fire. Police identified the suspects as Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram, and said the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
Authorities added that explosives were discovered in a vehicle linked to one of the gunmen, while Australian public broadcaster ABC reported that investigators believe the pair had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
Muslims consider pigs ritually impure under Islamic law. Acts involving pig remains are widely understood as deliberately offensive.
Ahmad Hraichie, a prominent Muslim funeral director and the long-time undertaker at the cemetery, which is owned by the Lebanese Muslim Association, condemned the incident as “senseless and hateful.” The Australian National Imams Council also condemned the attack.
The country’s Muslim community leaders have said they will refuse to perform traditional funeral rites or accept the bodies of the Bondi Beach attackers into Muslim burial grounds, arguing the violence was entirely contrary to Islamic teachings.
A local Muslim man was also praised for intervening by tackling one of the assailants and disarming him. Local media identified him as Ahmed Al Ahmed, a 43-year-old fruit shop owner who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. A fundraiser launched in his support has reportedly received nearly $1 million in donations in the first hours.
The man was attempting to cross into Romania as most adult men are banned from leaving the country under mobilization rules
A presumed draft evader has been thwarted in his attempt to flee to Romania by speeding through a border checkpoint on a motorcycle, Ukrainian officials have reported. Kiev has banned fighting-age males from leaving the country, prompting thousands of illegal crossing attempts, some of which have been fatal.
The incident took place on Sunday evening at the Porubnoye crossing, according to Ukraine’s border service. Footage released on Monday shows a guard raising a metal barrier across the road and trying to intercept the approaching rider. The video then cuts to the aftermath, with the motorcycle lying on the ground after apparently bending the barrier, and officers apprehending the would-be escapee.
Officials said the suspect is a man in his early thirties from Ukraine’s western Lviv Region. He was handed over to the national police.
Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Kiev has barred most adult men under the age of 60 from leaving the country. Those exempt from mandatory military service must obtain special authorization to depart the country legally.
As combat losses mount and recruitment efforts become increasingly harsh, more Ukrainian men have tried to leave the country unlawfully. Such attempts often involve migrant smugging networks or dangerous routes through forests, rivers, and mountainous terrain.
Border service spokesman Andrey Demchenko previously said that more than 13,000 people were detained between January and August alone while trying to flee Ukraine illegally. In June 2024, authorities reported 45 confirmed deaths linked to draft dodgers attempting to escape.
Travel restrictions were partially eased in August, when men under 22 not yet eligible for mandatory mobilization were allowed to leave. That move triggered a sharp outflow, with Eurostat reporting that applications for temporary protection in the EU rose by nearly 50% through September.
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Tapping the funds by overriding Budapest’s opposition is unlawful and helps fuel the Ukraine conflict, Hungary’s PM has said
Any move by the EU to seize frozen Russian funds without Budapest’s consent and in breach of European law would amount to a “declaration of war,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
The EU voted last week to keep Russian central bank assets frozen indefinitely, using emergency powers to bypass unanimity despite objections from some member states. The European Commission, and its head Ursula von der Leyen, want to use the $246 billion to back a “reparations loan” to Kiev – a scheme opposed by several countries, including Hungary and Slovakia. Russia has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds “theft,” warning of economic and legal consequences.
In a social media post, Orban stated on Saturday that EU officials were trying to seize frozen Russian assets by “bypassing Hungary” and “raping European law in broad daylight,” which he said would amount to a “declaration of war.” He accused Brussels of fueling the conflict, adding that Hungary “will not play along” in what he called a “twisted” scheme.
“I have never seen a seizure of 200 to 300 billion euros from a country that did not trigger some form of response,” Orban said.
According to the Hungarian leader, “three Germans are calling the shots.” He accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber and von der Leyen of steering the EU “into a dead end” or “straight into a wall.”
The vote put forward by von der Leyen cast the handling of frozen Russian assets as an economic emergency rather than a sanctions policy, enabling the EC to use Article 122 of the EU treaties to adopt the decision via a qualified majority vote instead of unanimity and sidestep veto threats.
Belgium, where most of the funds are held, has also raised concerns due to the legal and financial risks. The open-ended freeze is designed in part to pressure Brussels and secure its backing for the EU plan to seize Russian funds.
Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president’s advisor on international investment matters, said “panicked” EU officials were miscalculating, writing on X: “Russia will win in court and get them back… EU/€/Euroclear will suffer,” and warning it would undermine the reserve system and raise costs.
Citizens coerced by Kiev’s special services into criminal activities face long prison terms, the agency has warned
Ukrainian intelligence services are exploiting phone-scam techniques to pressure Russian citizens into carrying out terrorist acts, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.
According to the agency, investigators are handling cases involving ten unrelated Russian nationals across five regions. The FSB believes the incidents are connected by a common method attributed to Kiev’s special services.
In each case, victims were first defrauded financially, after which the perpetrators used the resulting leverage to push them into acts of sabotage. Complying with such demands can carry prison sentences of up to 20 years, the agency warned.
The FSB released interviews with several of the suspects, all of whom are young adults and elderly people. Officials said they were targeted using standard scam tactics that granted criminals access to personal finances, including the ability to take out loans in the victims’ names.
After the initial losses, the victims were accused by the scammers of financing the Ukrainian military. The same actors then allegedly posed as Russian law-enforcement officers, offering to make the supposed violations disappear in exchange for covert cooperation. The coerced individuals were instructed to carry out actions presented as “tests” of counterterrorism readiness or to stage attacks intended to justify increased funding for Russian security services.
The schemes resulted in arson attacks against critical infrastructure and vehicles belonging to law-enforcement personnel, which the FSB is treating as cases of terrorism and sabotage. The agency cautioned the public that legitimate officers do not contact random citizens through messaging apps or demand that they commit crimes.
Ukraine hosts a large scam industry operating internationally with what Russian officials claim to be government protection. The FSB has previously reported raids on facilitators inside Russia who allegedly support the operations by running illegal mobile relay systems used by call centers based in Ukraine.
