The Victory Day parade on Red Square went ahead this year without tanks for the first time since 2008, the hardware replaced by giant screens and mobile internet shut down to block Ukrainian drones. Wikistrat surveyed eight leading Russia specialists on whether Putin's grip is genuinely fracturing or just visibly strained. The panel's verdict: erosion is real, rupture is not, and the one variable Western policy cannot touch may matter most.

Washington is ready to declare victory, but inside Iran the picture is far less conclusive. The regime has absorbed the worst of the air campaign, installed Khamenei's son as successor, and is already planning to rebuild its deterrent underground. The opposition is fragmented, the diaspora is discredited, and the ethnic fault lines that could reshape the country remain poorly understood. Ahmad Hashemi breaks down why the real strategic challenge begins the moment the bombing

Six days into the U.S.-Israeli air campaign, the Islamic Republic is battered but functioning. Dr. Sina Azodi assesses the regime's resilience, the opposition's limitations, and why bombing alone has never produced regime change.