Axios

Joshua Yaffa argues in the New Yorker that Russia’s threats of retaliation in advance of U.S.-led strikes in Syria may have prevented direct confrontation with the U.S. “for now.”

What Russia was doing, per Yaffa: Delivering “a measured dose of faux insanity…to make up for a gaping disparity in conventional military and economic strength.”

Money, weapons and geopolitics are colliding all over the world as Russia — the world's second-biggest arms exporter — seeks to narrow the gap with the U.S.

Snapshot: Standing beside Vladimir Putin earlier this month in Ankara, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the purchase of an advanced Russian S-400 air defense system was a “done deal,” despite protests from Turkey’s NATO allies. Putin said delivery of the system would actually be accelerated.

Russia has taken a slower tack on legislation that would ban imports of a list of U.S. products in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarchs revealed ten days ago, per Bloomberg. The vote on the plan, which was introduced Friday, is now delayed until May 15.

Why it matters: It might just be a signal for the U.S. — the Kremlin has not announced whether it backs the legislation, and per Reuters, the “Russian parliament is often used to send assertive messages to foreign states, but these do not always translate into concrete measures.” This comes the same day President Trump walked back threats of imposing more sanctions on Russia.

Russia is hacking routers inside U.S. and U.K. government agencies, companies, critical infrastructure, and ISPs to spy and steal data, the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and Britain's National Cyber Security Centre announced in a rare joint Technical Alert on Monday.

Context: Russia’s relations with both the U.S. and the U.K. are at an all-time-low following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England and the chemical weapons attack in Syria. “This is yet another example of Russia’s disregard for international norms and global order," a U.K. government spokesperson said.

The Commerce Department is barring American companies from selling components to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE for seven years in retaliation to the company violating terms of a $1.19 billion sanctions settlement, the Department announced Monday

Why it matters: ZTE is a top smartphone seller in the U.S., and the ban will not only be a big hit to the Chinese company, which is reliant on U.S. products and software, but will also affect major U.S. suppliers, like Qualcomm, which will no longer be able to sell chips and other equipment to ZTE.

President Trump is holding off on rolling out sanctions announced yesterday by UN ambassador Nikki Haley that would punish Russian companies that manufactured equipment used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government in its alleged chemical weapons attack, per The Washington Post.

Why it matters: The decision is sure to add to the perception that Trump is often unwilling to harshly punish Russia, especially after WashPost's report yesterday that detailed his anger over the scope of the expulsions of Russian diplomats from the United States in response to the Skripal nerve agent attack in England.

Weibo, China's version of Twitter, reversed its ban on "homosexual content" on Monday after a mass of complaints from its users, CNBC reports. The company had previously announced Friday it would ban homosexual content along with pornographic and violent images.

The reasoning: Weibo claimed its initial announcement was in compliance with a 2017 government data surveillance rule.

The British and French governments both took domestic political heat for joining the U.S. strikes in Syria last week. But U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron found a defender in President Trump, who praised their involvement.

Between the lines: The strikes happened to occur one month before Trump must decide whether to renew the sanction waivers of the Iran deal, which he has long disdained, or let it collapse. Britain's and France's decision to participate in the strikes may have been influenced by the need to curry his favor ahead of the deadline.

The world is reeling as China — which once imported 9 million metric tons of foreign plastic waste per year — implements new regulations that ban 24 different types of garbage from its shores, reports CNBC.

Why it matters: The measure, implemented in January, is forcing the United States, the U.K., Japan and the EU to find a new destination for their trash. Chinese customs data for the first quarter of 2018 showed that the country's solid waste imports dropped 54%.