Media: Trump puts the ball in Putin's court

A US Federal Register notice is expected to be published on August 22, regarding new sanctions against Russia put together by the Trump administration in the wake of the alleged poisoning of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury. The new restrictions will include a total ban on the supply of electronic devices and other dual-use products to Russia. More tough measures may be taken in November, Russian media outlets report.

According to Washington, Russia may escape the harsher sanctions if it provides credible guarantees not to use chemical and biological weapons and allows the United Nations and other international organizations to carry out inspections on the country’s soil.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump told Reuters that he was ready to ease sanctions, provided that Moscow demonstrated willingness to meet Washington halfway in resolving the Syrian and Ukrainian crises.

Senior Researcher with the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Shumilin told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that "recalling Putin giving him a soccer ball, the US president is now sending the ball back to his Russian counterpart, hinting that he should find some behavioral alternatives on Syria and Ukraine that could be described to the US Congress and public as an example of Russia’s goodwill, which deserved at least a partial removal of sanctions," the expert said.

While speaking about the Syrian crisis, Shumilin noted that under the current circumstances, Russia was unlikely to take any major steps, apart from convincing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to postpone the planned offensive on Idlib and move on to negotiations aimed at resolving the situation in the Turkey-controlled opposition enclave. As for Ukraine, the expert believes that the possible deployment of UN forces to the country’s east and Moscow’s efforts to prevent the Donbass republics from escalating tensions may top the agenda.

 

Kommersant: Russian initiative on Afghanistan comes under attack

On Tuesday, downtown Kabul came under a barrage of missiles. Neither of the militant groups active in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack, but Afghan authorities blamed it on the Taliban (outlawed in Russia), which had pulled out of the ceasefire with the government, Kommersant writes.

Meanwhile, a few hours after the attack, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed media reports saying that on September 4, Moscow would host an international meeting on Afghanistan involving Taliban representatives.

"The Taliban are establishing their political capital through an offensive towards Ghazni, growing military activities in the Faryab Province, a hostage-taking incident in Kunduz, their withdrawal from the ceasefire declared by President Ghani and an attack on the presidential palace," Kazakh expert Alexander Knyazev told Kommersant. "The Taliban are flexing their muscles, while simultaneously pointing to the weakness of Kabul and its allies," he added.

Russian expert on regional affairs Arkady Dubnov, in turn, said that under the current situation, "Moscow seeks to prevent the Americans from seizing the initiative in resolving the Afghan issue."

According to US-based Uzbek political scientist Rafael Sattarov, an expert with Bilig Brains, apart from Washington, Kabul may also complicate the implementation of Russia’s initiative. "There is mistrust in relations between Russian and Afghan authorities. There were times when both the Afghan government and US officials actually accused Moscow of trying to reach an agreement with the Taliban behind the Afghan government’s back," Sattarov noted.

 

RBC: Russia eyes natural resources in arms deals with Central Africa

Russia’s Defense Ministry has clinched military cooperation agreements with the Central African Republic (CAR) and Burkina Faso on the sidelines of the Army 2018 forum in Kubinka outside Moscow. Russia will hardly get any revenues from selling weapons to these countries but it can benefit from gaining access to their natural resources, RBC wrote citing experts.

News about military cooperation between Russia and the Central African Republic came in March, when the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the deployment of five military and 170 civilian instructors to the country, who were tasked with training military personnel, as well as the delivery of ammunition and light weapons to the CAR's army, based on the CAR government’s request and with the UN Security Council’s consent.

According to Head of the Cultural Athropology Department of the Institute for African Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Bondarenko, there may be two major reasons for Russia’s efforts to extend its influence to CAR. The first reason is an economic one. "The CAR is rich in mineral resources, particularly uranium and precious metals," he said. Another reason for Russia’s focus on the CAR is that the country is located right in the middle of the continent, Bondarenko noted.

Moscow will hardly profit from direct military cooperation with the CAR and Burkina Faso since the two countries cannot afford major purchases of Russian-made weapons, expert with the Intexpertise company Vadim Zaitsev pointed out, adding that there also was an international arms embargo on the CAR. In his view, it is the African states who seek to boost military cooperation and not Russia, while Moscow is only responding to their interest, which means that Russia has begun to pay more attention to its African partners’ requests.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Search underway for compromise on Kosovo

On Tuesday, Sochi hosted a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic, the third this year. Kosovo topped the agenda since Belgrade believes it is impossible to resolve the conflict without Moscow’s support, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported.

As far as the Albanian-Serbian conflict goes, Russia has always stood in solidarity with Serbia, who considers Kosovo to be an integral part of its country. Nonetheless, today’s reality requires Belgrade to eventually iron out the issue, since the territorial dispute with Pristina is the biggest obstacle in Serbia’s path to joining the European Union.

On August 9, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced his ‘delimitation’ plan between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.

Should this scenario be implemented, Moscow would react positively, Senior Researcher with the Institute for Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Pyotr Iskenderov told the newspaper. "If Belgrade supports such an agreement, Moscow is highly likely to respond positively. Russian diplomats have said that a partition of Kosovo may ease regional tensions and help find a way to resolve the issue that both parties would accept," Iskenderov pointed out.

At the same time, the Serbian president may suggest another compromise. According to Iskenderov, Belgrade and Pristina may hammer out an agreement under the safeguards of the European Union, the US, Russia and China as UN Security Council members. The deal would imply that Serbia maintains control of the Serb-populated northern areas of Kosovo.

"If northern Kosovo is back under Serbia’s jurisdiction and the permanent members of the UN Security Council confirm that, Belgrade will not block further international recognition of Kosovo and its accession to the United Nations and other international organizations. In this case, Russia may also withdraw its objections against Kosovo’s UN membership," the expert noted.

 

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russia to the rescue: Moscow expands humanitarian relief

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is extending its humanitarian assistance services to more countries. Laos has requested help from Russia following a heavy flood, demining activities carry on in Serbia, while demining cooperation with Syria is under consideration, Director of the Emergencies Ministry’s International Activities Department Alexander Romanov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

According to him, nowadays, no country is capable of dealing with emergencies alone. In response to a question as to when and to whom the Russian Emergencies Ministry offered assistance, Romanov said, "it’s not a matter of selectivity." "The Emergencies Ministry offers assistance to almost all countries where disasters occur. However, not all countries accept our assistance. It is hard for me to gauge their reasons. Perhaps, they seek to cope by themselves or there are some political motives," the official noted.

When speaking about demining, Romanov said that the Emergencies Ministry, which had been active in Serbia, might also enter Syria. "Our mission will involve training de-miners and teaching safety precautions to the public, in addition to clearing explosives. The work will be done in coordination with the Syrian government and in accordance with the United Nations demining standards. Besides, we will definitely continue to deliver humanitarian aid there," said the Russian Emergencies Ministry official.

In addition, the ministry also plans to continue expanding its humanitarian response centers in Cuba, Serbia, Armenia and Nicaragua, Romanov added.

Russia has been recognized as one of the world leaders in the field of humanitarian assistance. Russia’s National Emergency Response Corps, established in 1995, plays a key role in emergency cooperation with other countries, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes.

Over the past several years, the Corps has carried out more than 450 emergency response missions, including 284 operations to deliver humanitarian aid to over 70 countries, 21 rescue, search and demining operations and nine medical assistance campaigns. In addition, the ministry’s teams helped fight wildfires 13 times and evacuated severely sick Russian citizens from other countries 110 times.

Since 1996, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has carried out 30 international humanitarian demining projects, which included large-scale programs for Serbia, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and some other countries.

 

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