GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE

Russian financial intelligence service looks to recruit new generation of analysts 

As it is gradually pushed out of international financial surveillance organisations, Russia's financial intelligence service Rosfinmonitoring is counting on its connections with local and Central Asian universities to provide new recruits and keep up its foreign partnerships.

Polish diplomatic think-tank carves niche in Washington 

The PISM, close to the Warsaw government, is developing its influence across the Atlantic. Its main targets are security decision-makers and Republican circles in Washington, but it also has Canada in its sights.

Pro-Damascus Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce makes Paris comeback 

The Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce, the industrial and commercial arm of President Bashar Al Assad's regime, attended the recent Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce summit in Paris, despite continuing French hostility to a rapprochement with Damascus.

Informal Fidesz lobby starts to take shape in Brussels 

Two young Hungarians, sent by the government in Budapest, have been organising informal evenings for their compatriots in the "Brussels bubble". This embryonic lobby can only be good news for the Hungarian authorities, which are mobilising hard in the European Union capital.

FSB comes back in from the cold 

Benefitting from the rising number of incidents on Russia's periphery and the careful staging of its response to these, the national security service has returned to the forefront of Russian politics after being given the cold shoulder over its strategic errors on Ukraine.

Chinese threat rekindles focus on climate-related intelligence 

Both to cater to his electoral base and develop US surveillance capacities, Joe Biden is making climate intelligence a priority, not only to anticipate climate change-related disasters but also to get a step ahead of China on the issue.

• BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON - Italy's chances fade for NATO top post

• JORDAN - Abdullah II's National Security Council struggles to emerge

• POLAND - Pressure on information and communication systems

• FRANCE - Comcyber remains blind to Beijing's cyber divisions

New PM Li Qiang further boosts Zhejiang faction in CCP  Free

This group of loyal Xi Jinping's elites, formed from the time the president was CCP secretary for the region south of Shanghai, continues to gain ground in the key areas of the economy, security and propaganda.