Kommersant: Russia’s sanctioned space chief to visit Austria
Head of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation Dmitry Rogozin will take part in the United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE) scheduled to be held in Vienna next week, several sources close to the corporation informed Kommersant.
Rogozin who has been under personal Western sanctions for several years will visit a EU member-country in his formal status for the first time to hold talks with his counterparts from India, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Japan, the space corporation’s press service confirmed.
Within the three weeks since his appointment as Roscosmos CEO, Rogozin paid an official visit to China where he met with Vice President Wang Qishan and familiarized himself with the Chinese space industry’s production capacities. Also, Rogozin met at Baikonur Spaceport with US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman and William Gerstenmaier, the Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate at NASA Headquarters. According to Kommersant’s sources, the parties discussed the prospects for cooperation as part of major projects such as the Deep Space Gateway Lunar orbital platform.
A Roscosmos source told the paper that Rogozin also had contacts with other key partners, specifically, representatives of the Italian Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center and the European Space Agency.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Trump threatens to reignite trade war with China
Washington is set to release the final list of Chinese goods to be subjected to tariffs on Friday. US President Donald Trump earlier said the proposed moves are going to hit bilateral trade. For its part, Beijing warned it would impose adequate tariffs on all US goods - from soybeans to aircraft.
China can take tit-for-tat steps that would be comparable to the damage from the US tariffs, Vladimir Portyakov, Deputy Director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "Negotiations have been held in Beijing, and later on in Washington. The parties seem to have agreed on everything, but the US continues to push ahead with its line," the expert noted.
Beijing stresses that relations must be predictable, but the whole world is talking about Trump’s unpredictability, Portyakov recalled.
"It’s not implausible that the Chinese can now respond to the Americans in the same vein, the way it was at the initial stage of the standoff, when Beijing warned it will impose tariffs on soybean imports, just about the main import item from the US, and some other goods," the expert stressed. "However, all that has not been put into effect, while currently the two sides are going over from words to deeds."
Moreover, disagreements between the US and China on the Taiwan issue are piling up as well. Of course, Taiwan and trade are completely different problems, but they cannot fail to affect trade negotiations, Portyakov concluded.
Vedomosti: Russia boosts oil exports to China amid declining supplies to Europe
Russian oil exports dropped 16% to 51.1 mln tonnes from January to May 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, Sergei Andronov, Vice President of Russia’s Transneft oil pipeline operator, told Vedomosti.
The reduction in exports stems from a number of factors, including compliance of the deal with the OPEC member-countries on cutting production, redirection of oil exports from the west to the east and the growth of domestic oil processing, he explained.
Russian oil supplies to Europe can drop 14% to 119.8 mln tonnes, while exports to China can see a 45% growth to reach 38.3 mln tonnes, Andronov said. The redirection of oil supplies from Europe to the east is caused by Rosneft’s export contracts with China. They are expected to grow 20% to reach 50 mln tonnes this year.
Refining in Russia is unlikely to grow in the coming years, so there are no reasons to reduce exports, BCS analyst Kirill Tachennikov said, adding that supplies to China will continue to grow at a slower pace.
The declining exports to Europe can hardly have a substantial impact on the largest consumers of Russian oil, the paper quotes Dmitry Marinchenko from Fitch corporation as saying. Oil has traditionally been supplied to Europe mostly from Russia and the Middle East. Some of the consumers have switched to oil from Iran and Kazakhstan, he explained, adding that the latter has not actually complied with the OPEC deal, even though it signed it.
Izvestia: Europe needs to regain its identity, top Greek diplomat says
Greece is working to improve relations between the European Union and Russia, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias who visited Moscow to have talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov told Izvestia.
"I believe that, in general, sanctions are not the most rational diplomatic tool. I often say that the European Union has imposed sanctions on so many countries that the group of states, which has been sanctioned, will eventually turn into the world’s most powerful economies."
The minister noted that over 900,000 Russians visited his country last year, adding that Greece is expected to beat the record in terms of the number of tourists in 2018. "We expect more than 32 million tourists from all over the world. That’s approximately three times more than our country’s population. I hope that the number of Russians will grow this year too."
Referring to the challenges facing the European Union, the minister noted that the EU’s agenda is now more negative than positive, and it has lost its attractiveness. In his view, it is necessary to make sure the EU is not limited to trade and economic cooperation or sanctions against third countries. We need to regain our identity, he emphasized.
When asked about the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Russia on Thursday, Kotzias noted he wished Russia’s national team to achieve the best results during the tournament. He also hoped that all people who came to attend World Cup matches would enjoy their stay in Russia.
RBC: Macedonia’s government agrees to change the country’s name
The Macedonian and Greek prime ministers have agreed to end the long-standing dispute over Macedonia’s name changing it to the Republic of Northern Macedonia, thus paving the way to the country’s accession to the EU and NATO. Although the decision has sparked criticism in both countries, but it is unlikely to crumb the deal, experts interviewed by RBC said.
They agreed that the domestic political situation in both countries will not prevent the agreement from being signed, because the global community played a key role in securing a compromise.
Alexander Pivovarenko, a Research Associate at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Slavic Studies, does not rule out protests could erupt in Greece or Macedonia but expressed doubt that they will affect the final decision. "The situation is unstable, but everything is being done to ensure that the conflict is resolved, including by foreign mediators who have arranged the agreement," he said.
The protest sentiment in Greece stemming from the economic situation in the country is strong, but Athens is heavily dependent on Brussels and is unlikely to opt for a standoff, the expert explained.
Once an agreement with Greece is signed, the negotiation process on Macedonia’s accession to NATO and the EU will begin. This is a weighty argument, because a sizeable part of the Macedonian establishment supports the country’s integration into the European alliances. This view is shared by the population, Pivovarenko pointed out.
This point has also been made by Maxim Samorukov of Carnegie Moscow Center who noted that many people in Macedonia welcomed that move. After all, all of them continue to call themselves Macedonians, while the new name will only appear in the official documents.
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