Trump considers a Russian oil sanctions exemption for his good chum seeking reelection in Hungary Meduza breaks down today’s biggest Russia-related news stories, November 7, 2025

🗞️ Top story: Trump considers Russian oil sanctions exemption for Hungary

President Donald Trump confirmed he is “looking at” an exemption for Hungary from recently imposed U.S. sanctions on Russian oil. The discussion took place during his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House on November 7, 2025. Trump noted the geographical difficulty for Hungary to secure oil and gas from alternative sources, stating, “We’re looking at it, because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don’t have, they don’t have the advantage of having sea.”

Orban, who relies heavily on Russian energy (Hungary imports 86 percent of its oil from Russia), is hoping the U.S. president will exempt Hungary from American sanctions. The issue poses a sticking point in their otherwise chummy relationship, something the Hungarian leader has tried to highlight as a strength in his re-election campaign. | Reuters / NYT

💥 Analyzing the fall of Pokrovsk 

Russian forces have concentrated more than 100,000 personnel at the midsize Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, seen as their next critical target following the capture of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in prior years. While a Russian victory would be a significant political and symbolic win for President Putin, the strategic outcome for the war is complex, writes Bloomberg Opinion columnist Marc Champion.

The question is not whether Pokrovsk will fall, but what that will mean for the war, Champion argues. Moving from Avdiivka to Pokrovsk has taken Russia 20 months and resulted in a sharp increase in casualties, demonstrating a slow, costly advance. The author suggests Pokrovsk’s capture could be seen as another stage in a Ukrainian strategy to bleed Russia’s advantages in manpower and equipment to exhaustion. He urges Ukraine’s allies not to let the Kremlin’s propaganda drive policy and to ensure Putin does not use a win in Pokrovsk to succeed — on the second try — in persuading Donald Trump that the best deal Ukraine can get is surrender.

The article warns that if the war ends soon, Russia’s commanders will emerge with equipment, doctrines, and experience for the next war that our Western militaries currently lack, stressing that the stakes are high because, as Putin repeatedly says, “this is not just about Ukraine.” | Bloomberg

🇪🇺 Coming soon: An E.U. counter-disinformation plan

The European Commission plans to establish a Center for Democratic Resilience to counter the escalating disinformation threat from Russia and other authoritarian regimes, such as China, according to a leaked paper. The center, intended as the centerpiece of the “democracy shield” promoted by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will act as a hub for E.U. institutions and member states to share information and early warnings.

The move comes after the E.U.’s foreign service identified dozens of Russian information manipulation instances, including the Doppelganger campaign, which used copycat media sites to spread anti-western narratives. China has also been identified as a threat, alleged to use private PR companies and influencers “to create, amplify, and launder content aligned with China’s political interests worldwide.” | The Guardian

🇩🇪 A house divided: The German-Russian gulf 

Thirty-five years after reunification, a persistent cultural divide remains in Germany regarding attitudes toward Russia.

• East vs. West: While most West Germans broadly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and support arming Kyiv, many in the former East Germany hold a more sympathetic or “nuanced view.”
• Poll findings: Polls show East Germans are less likely to favor military aid for Ukraine and more likely to believe Kyiv should give up land for peace with Russia.
• Post-socialist affinity: Experts attribute this sympathy to decades of Soviet ties and a feeling of disillusionment since reunification. The fact that reunification and the ascent of a Western capitalist system failed to live up to its promise for many has led to a “post-Socialist community of shared destiny” and a nostalgia for Moscow. | NYT

🌍 Global Notes 

Tougher visas. The European Union has adopted stricter multiple-entry visa rules for Russian nationals, citing the “weaponization of migration, acts of sabotage, and potential misuse of visas.” | Reuters

Russian asset debt. The European Commission warned that if E.U. countries fail to reach an agreement on a €140 billion ($161.9 billion) loan package for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets, they will have to make interest payments of up to €5.6 billion ($6.5 billion) a year indefinitely, until a deal on the frozen assets is reached. Heavily indebted France would be liable for almost 18 percent of that. | Financial Times

Tank maker restructures. Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), a giant Russian tank and freight railcar manufacturer sanctioned by the West, announced it is restructuring its operations to reduce costs after a local report indicated plans to cut staff by up to 10 percent. | Reuters

7 years

The prison sentence handed to “James Bond fantasist” Howard Phillips for trying to spy for Russia by passing information about former British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps to what he believed were Russian intelligence agents. | AP

Six vs. 32

Last week, the Russian Luge Federation managed to overturn the International Luge Federation’s ban on “Individual Neutral Athletes” participation at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which means six luge athletes can now at least attempt to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Russia is also challenging a ban by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). Half of the 32 medals won by Russia’s athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics were in events organized by FIS, which oversees popular competitions such as cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, and snowboarding. | The Athletic

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📚 Something from Meduza’s archive

“Fantasy is not history”: Historian Victoria Smolkin assesses Vladimir Putin’s claim that modern-day Ukraine is a “gift” from the Bolsheviks, whose “October Revolution” was 108 years ago today.

Smolkin’s essay examines the flaws in the Russian president’s historical narrative, which argues that Ukraine owes its territory to the “generous gifts” of the Bolsheviks, particularly Lenin. Smolkin explains that the possibility of Ukrainian statehood was created by the collapse of the Russian empire in 1917, not the Bolshevik Revolution, and that the Soviet structure itself was an “empire of nations” with Russia as the de facto first among equals. | Read