Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Landmark Putin-Trump summit unlikely to halt arms race
The upcoming meeting in Helsinki between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in mid-July is unlikely to put the brakes on the arms race and reduce global military tensions, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes on Friday, judging by the statements made by US officials preparing for the summit.
After his meeting with Putin earlier this week, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said Washington would not give up its plans on deploying its missile defense system in Europe and would even boost spending on it. Washington's position on Syria also remains very rigid. Although Trump’s adviser said a military standoff between the US and Russia in Syria is unlikely, Washington would not make any concessions, the paper says. The US continues accusing Russia of whipping up military tensions in Syria, especially in the southeast, where the Americans jointly with Russia and Jordan have established the so-called southern de-escalation zone.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Damascus have condemned the attempts by the Syrian opposition, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State (terror groups, outlawed in Russia), backed by the US, to create an autonomous region in southern Syria.
"As far as we know, the US and its coalition allies have occupied a significant part of Syria and do not want to leave it under the pretext of the anti-terror fight," Russian military expert Colonel Vladimir Popov told the paper. "With the Americans’ help, new hotbeds of separatism will be created in Syria. They are bolstering their military potential and it’s unlikely that at the upcoming Russian-US talks, when negotiating on Syria, Trump will agree to the legal demands of Moscow and Damascus to pull out his forces from the country. This poses neither geopolitical nor economic benefits for the US.
So, Moscow and Washington won’t be able to resolve their key military differences on Syria and Europe in the near future. The forthcoming meeting between Putin and Trump will be apparently devoted to searching for some insignificant compromises and concessions, analyst at the CIS-EMO (Commonwealth of the Independent States - Election Monitoring Organization) Stanislav Byshok said.
"The mere fact of a meeting between the presidents of great powers is symbolic and valuable, and no one is expecting any breakthroughs in bilateral relations," the expert said, noting that the summit should at least show the ability of the US and Russia to hold negotiations and would be a stepping stone for the future, when the global situation changes and the sides could launch a substantive dialogue.
Kommersant: US, China need to create crisis communication channels
Beijing and Washington have come to terms on the need to build mutual trust, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Wu Qian said, commenting on the outcome of the trip to the country by Pentagon chief Jim Mattis. This was the first visit by the US Defense Secretary to China since 2014. Kommersant writes that his arrival was long-awaited. China, which used to be a tough partner for the US, has become one of its key rivals, and the two countries are engaged in a standoff economically, in cyber space as well as on the Asian seas. However, the trip has not produced any serious outcome. Washington is apparently aiming to ramp up confrontation with Beijing, the paper says.
According to Vasily Kashin, Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Far Eastern Studies, "in this situation the sides have to establish crisis communication channels, like the ones set up between the US and Russia." In Beijing's case, communication with foreign military is hampered as the structure of its military agencies seriously differs from those around the world, the paper says.
Head of the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center Alexander Gabuyev told the paper that the Mattis visit was aimed at outlining bilateral relations in the military sector. Trump’s policy in the Asia-Pacific Region does not significantly differ from that of his predecessor, ex-US President Barack Obama, but it is pursued with a greater zeal, the expert noted. Mattis arrived in Beijing to explain that Washington is not seeking confrontation for the sake of confrontation but wants China to abide by certain rules. This enables clarity on the boundaries of a conflict, separating spheres of rivalry from cooperation.
Izvestia: Russia eyes counterweight to OSCE’s election watchdog
Public figures from Russia, Italy, Germany, France and some other countries plan to set up an international organization for monitoring elections, coordinator of the National Public Monitoring Roman Kolomoytsev and international observer and Italian MP Simona Rossotti, who will join the new body, told Izvestia.
Experts say that the new organization may become a counterweight to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election watchdog, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which has been relentlessly critical of Russia. Nevertheless, the organization’s activity must be based on the principles of transparency and democracy, and work within the framework of a major international platform such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, political scientists say.
The idea of setting up this counter watchdog was conceived by the representatives of Russia, Italy, France and Germany after the March 2018 presidential election in Russia where observers from different countries got acquainted, Kolomoytsev explained.
The organization is expected to be headquartered in Italy - either in Venice or in Lombardy. The new structure will consist of national public organizations and independent public figures, said Rossotti, who is a deputy at a city council in Italy’s Como. The watchdog will start working this fall, the coordinator of the National Public Monitoring said.
The new international organization could serve to offset anti-Russian sentiment, President of the Association of Political Lawyers Roman Smirnov said. The OSCE’s election watchdog does not always take a constructive stance, the expert noted.
"New people and organizations are in demand, and they ought to show their independence and diversity of opinions. They should be oriented towards the international public, and then they’ll have substantial prospects," he said.
The new watchdog may become an alternative to the ODIHR if it operates within the framework of an organization equal to the OSCE, Director of the International Institute of the Newly Established States Alexey Martynov said. Among these organizations are BRICS, the SCO and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which also take part in monitoring elections.
Kommersant: Gazprom defeats Naftogaz in Swedish court, Ukraine’s company vows to fight on
Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, has won a case against Ukraine’s gas company Naftogaz in the Swedish Court of Appeal, Kommersant writes. The court confirmed that Naftogaz had no right to demand that Gazprom pay $2.6 bln upon the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court. So, Gazprom may protect itself from freezing its assets until the Court of Appeal delivers its verdict, but this is expected in late 2019. However, Naftogaz plans to challenge the ban and continue efforts to seize Gazprom’s assets in Europe.
This dispute is part of a greater legal battle between Gazprom and Naftogaz over the 2009 gas supply and transit contracts.
The latest ruling means that Gazprom is generally protected from Naftogaz’s actions and may not pay until a decision by the Court of Appeal. The Russian energy giant calls this an intermediate victory, the paper says.
The decision "significantly strengthens Gazprom’s position on appealing the court rulings, which have been delivered on implementing the arbitration decisions in the jurisdictions where the assets have been seized, and obstructing the new decisions," Managing Partner at the Law and Business company Alexander Pakhomov said. According to him, the threat of an enforced recovery is nearly over and the situation is not expected to change until the Court of Appeal considers Gazprom’s complaint on the merits.
RBC: FIFA World Cup Russia fans show their cards worth
US-based multinational payment system, Visa, FIFA’s official partner and global sponsor of the World Cup, has released its initial data on expenditures by foreign guests of the tournament in Russia, RBC writes.
The biggest spenders at the World Cup were visitors from the United States, China and Mexico. Football fans in Russia from around the world dug into their wallets and shelled out $38.4 mln during the first five days of the tournament, compared with $27 mln during the same period at the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
Foreign guests shelled out the biggest sums in St. Petersburg ($8 mln), Sochi ($1.7 mln), Kazan ($1.1 mln) and Yekaterinburg ($766,000). An average check in Russia among overseas Visa card holders was 3,575 rubles ($57). Tourists spent the biggest sums on hotels, clothes, restaurants and cafes.
Grocery sales during the World Cup hosts grew 22%, while the sales of strong spirits and beer rose 9% and 33%, respectively.
Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, where spectators spent 139 mln rubles ($2.2 mln), was the top location for the volume of transactions. Football fan spending at Kaliningrad Stadium was the smallest compared with the other 11 host cities (16.5 mln rubles or $263,000)
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