Press review: Will Putin join Israel’s Iran pullout bid and Trump-Kim 2.0 ends in no deal

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Putin, Netanyahu offer answer to Assad's Tehran visit

It seems that Russia and Israel have come up with an answer to the sudden visit of Syrian President Bashar Assad to Tehran. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow and Jerusalem have a plan to create a joint working group for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the Arab Republic in the offing.

The newspaper says the initiative was adopted at a meeting of two leaders - Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. According to experts interviewed by the daily, the formation of the group shows that the divide between Russia and Iran is steadily growing.

According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the initiative was primarily aimed at Iran and its loyal Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Their withdrawal from Syria is the main thing that the Israeli leadership is trying to get Russia to do in the negotiations on the post-war situation in the Middle Eastern country. Moscow recognizes the need for the "de-Iranization" of Syria, however, judging by the latest events, it becomes increasingly difficult to control the process, the newspaper wrote. Assad’s trip to Tehran, where he met not only with President Rouhani, but also with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was a blow to the Kremlin.

"Yes, apparently, Russian-Iranian contradictions on Syria are mounting," Head of the Islamic Research Center of the Institute of Innovative Development Kirill Semenov told the newspaper. "Most likely, Assad did not coordinate his visit neither with Zarif, nor with Moscow," he added.

Commenting on the initiative to create a bilateral group, expert from the Russian International Affairs Council Anton Mardasov told the newspaper that he considers the Putin-Netanyahu initiative to be an opportunistic decision, since a political settlement or the like implies the withdrawal of foreign troops. In addition, Mardasov believes that such a decision should be extremely painful for Tehran, because it shows that Russia would like to contribute to the pullout of various formations under its control.

Kommersant: Kim-Trump summit ends early with no deal

The inglorious conclusion of negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has left US President Donald Trump at a loss and, apparently, without a clear plan of action. Both sides are blaming each other for the talks' failure. Washington states that the North Korean leader demanded all sanctions be lifted for some concessions on the nuclear program. In contrast, Pyongyang said it demanded only a partial lifting of the sanctions to make life easier for the population, but the US wanted too much. According to Kommersant, now there is no talk of any denuclearization in the near future. The negotiations have been frozen and the parties must find a new strategy to get it off the ground again.

"The event makes such a shocking impression because this summit was real, not fake," professor at Seoul's Kookmin University Andrey Lankov told Kommersant. "Usually, summits have exclusively PR functions, they are needed to announce decisions taken earlier at the working level in a gorgeous setting. Here, the parties actually negotiated, and such a result was quite likely," he added.

According to Kommersant, the courage of the North Korean leader in the negotiations might be linked to the support that China has been rendering to Pyongyang. The Chinese-US trade wars made Beijing much less inclined to support Washington in its economic blockade of North Korea. Moreover, according to experts and Kommersant sources in Moscow and Seoul, in the fall of 2018, China reopened contraband channels blocked for almost a year, critical to the survival of the Kim regime.

According to leading research associate at RAS IFES Konstantin Asmolov, the political climate in the US may have undermined the Kim-Trump talks. At the same time, some American experts noted that even in the current, frozen state, the situation is not so hopeless. However, it is obvious that many countries in the region, interested in solving the North Korean nuclear problem, were deeply disappointed with the summit's outcome.

Izvestia: Nord Stream 2’s future to become clear in May

The updated EU directive may complicate, but not stop, implementation of Nord Stream 2. Right now, its construction is fully on schedule and in accordance with European legislation, a representative of Nord Stream AG, Jens Moeller, told Izvestia. Amendments to the directive are being approved in Brussels, but presumably, it may lower the productivity of the gas pipeline after its commissioning at the end of 2019. Nevertheless, experts interviewed by Izvestia stated that the updated European legislation does not pose a real danger to the project’s implementation.

According to Moeller, the operator is keeping a close eye on the EU energy legislation process. At the same time, the project itself is being implemented in full compliance with the current EU legal norms, he added.

Last week, the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives approved amendments to the EU gas directive. On March 4, the document should be approved by the Council of Ministers at the level of energy ministers, then it needs to be approved by the European Parliament and, finally, the Council of EU at the level of heads of state. According to the latest version of the document, a company independent of Gazprom should operate Nord Stream 2, and 50% of the pipeline’s capacity should be reserved for independent suppliers, which may indefinitely leave the pipeline half-empty. The most rigid option assumed that the European Commission would be the regulator of gas projects from third countries. However, at Germany’s request, the amendments were toned down.

Director General of the National Energy Institute Sergey Pravosudov told Izvestia that the EC still has the levers to delay implementing the project. The Commission must issue a special permit to the country within 90 days. However, as practice shows, it can take years.

Experts interviewed by the newspaper believe the amended issue has practically been given the green light, so making any changes right now would only create more red tape and the current composition of the European Parliament might not have time to approve the agreed on version since the elections to the Parliament will be held on May 23-26, 2019.

Izvestia: BRICS to develop unified payment system

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is working on a single payment system, which will be called BRICS Pay, and would be used to pay for any purchase in any country of the group, Izvestia reports citing the press service of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). The fund, representing Moscow, is acting as the coordinator of the working group on the financial services of the BRICS Business Council.

"Together with portfolio companies, RDIF is actively involved in the development of the BRICS Pay project. RDIF portfolio companies, as well as the fund’s partners from China and India, have the expertise and technology necessary to carry out the project," the RDIF’s press service told Izvestia. In addition, the fund is ready to consider participating in bankrolling the payment system together with its BRICS partners.

One of the likely scenarios to carry out the project is creating a special online wallet that will unite the payment systems of all the BRICS countries. The common wallet will work in the same way as existing payment services, such as, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay.

The Russian Central Bank’s press service told Izvestia that they are cooperating with the regulators of the EAEU, BRICS and SCO countries in developing a single payment space, including the idea of integrating national payment card systems. "However, creating a single online wallet has not yet been discussed," the Central Bank clarified. The National Payment Card System stated that the discussion on the integration of payment systems is underway, but creating a common online wallet was also not discussed with the organization.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Russia, US put forward conflicting proposals to resolve Venezuelan crisis

With the onset of a long weekend from February 28 to March 5, the Venezuelan government and the opposition have decided to take a time out. During the six-day fiesta, the parties to the conflict are not planning any major events. Meanwhile, According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russia and the United States are trying to find a way out of the crisis in Venezuela by submitting their draft resolutions to the UN Security Council.

Moscow and Washington have taken opposite approaches to the de-escalation of the political crisis in Venezuela. Thus, Washington is in favor of new ‘free’ presidential elections in the Bolivarian Republic, while Moscow calls for a peaceful resolution to the chaos through dialogue, the newspaper wrote.

According to the Deputy Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Rosental, opposition leader Juan Guaido hoped that he would succeed in pressuring the government into delivering humanitarian aid last Saturday. He wanted to show that the current regime does not control the border or the armed forces. "So far he hasn’t been able to do that. Guaido’s failure during the attempt to transport humanitarian aid across the border on February 23 can be considered to some extent a local defeat," the expert told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Guaido’s return to Venezuela will be a strong, albeit a dangerous step on his part, Rosental said. At the same time, despite the tactical victories of the current Venezuelan leader, his resources are being depleted. "Time is now playing against Maduro. Because of the American sanctions, the country's economy is under serious pressure, which is growing every day," Rosental said. He also pointed to signs of unrest in the military. "It is not only that some high-ranking military openly oppose Maduro, but also cases of desertion have become more frequent," the expert explained.

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