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Press review: Global calls for reforming UNSC getting louder and Libya rocked by protests

Top stories in the Russian press on Thursday, August 27
Members of the United Nations Security Council at UN headquarters AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Members of the United Nations Security Council at UN headquarters
© AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

Izvestia: UN Security Council facing calls for serious structural reform

The United Nations Security Council, a body set up 75 years ago in order to prevent wars and serious conflicts, is facing one of the most serious crises in its history. Washington has once again accused Tehran of violating the nuclear deal and demanded the UN reinstate international sanctions against Iran. Given that the US withdrew from this deal three years ago, other UN Security Council’s members did not back Washington, but it is not going to give up. This situation only plays into the hands of the countries, which have been long demanding the UN Security Council’s reform, Izvestia writes.

The Group of Four - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan - has been long seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Tokyo and Berlin are the world’s third and fourth major economies, which pay serious contributions to the UN - nearly 10% of the entire organization’s budget, and their influence in global politics and the economy has grown. Besides, African states are also willing to join the structure. The key problem is which of the continent’s 53 countries deserves to obtain that desired veto right and how will the other 52 states react to this.

According to experts questioned by Izvestia, reforming the UN Security Council is unlikely to happen since it is hard to find an option that would satisfy most countries. Chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy Fyodor Lukyanov believes that the arguments the reform supporters back are clear: over the past 75 years the world has significantly changed. However, if earlier its permanent members were selected due to objective reasons - the veto rights were given to the victors of World War II - now it is difficult to find the principle and criteria for changing the Council. Besides, none of five permanent members want to give up their veto rights. "The Security Council, despite various complaints, is a very compact and capable body. By the way, it has coped well with the function vested in it of preventing major wars between countries," the political scientist said.

Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov shares this view, noting that some 10-20 years ago, the world was more united and now it would be much harder to carry out any reform of the UN.

 

Kommersant: Demonstrators take to the streets of Libya demanding change

Protests have been raging in various cities of Libya for nearly a week, engulfing both the western and eastern parts of the war-torn country. The activists demand the resignation of their leaders - both Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister of the Government of National Accord, and Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Popular unrest is an unpredictable factor in the balance of power in Libya, Kommersant writes. The situation may spiral out of control by the authorities in both parts of the country and disrupt the plans of international mediators, who are seeking to reconcile the hostile camps.

The protests in Tripoli on Sunday morphed into clashes: unknown men dressed in military camouflage opened fire on the demonstrators. According to Amnesty International, six people have gone missing. Libyan social networks say structures linked to the Interior Ministry were behind the arrests and shooting.

Kirill Semenov, an expert with the Russian International Affairs Council, told Kommersant that there are four groups divvying up power amongst themselves in Tripoli and formally all of them are part of the Interior Ministry, but each is playing its own game. However, many Libyans personally blame Interior Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Fathi Bashagha. Moreover, rumors are circulating along social networks that the security forces used Syrian mercenaries that Turkey earlier sent to fight the LNA, to quash the protests. The authorities blame "provocateurs" for shooting the demonstrators.

This popular uprising is an alarming situation, which demands urgent decisions both by al-Sarraj and Haftar. Despite political differences and different manifestations of protests depending on the region, the key reasons behind the discontent are the same in the entire country, Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher on Libya at the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute of International Relations, told the paper. According to him, the demonstrations could disrupt the balance of power in Libya, especially if repression is stepped up.

 

RBC: Strikes at Belarusian enterprises weaken amid state pressure

Strikes at Belarusian enterprises kicked off on August 11 over the official results of the presidential election and in response the authorities have cracked down on the protests. The Belarusian opposition has attempted to place its bets on the strike movement. One of the opposition leaders Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said the strikes were an absolutely legal and powerful weapon against the regime. The massive refusal to work was used in other countries to achieve changes, for example in neighboring Poland in the 1980s, senior researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and former British Ambassador to Minsk Nigel Gould-Davies, told RBC.

In response, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered to sack employees for their participation in the strikes and vowed to shut down all enterprises engulfed in the strikes. However, none of them have been closed so far.

According to RBC’s estimates, strikes were reported at least at 30 major enterprises, with their total revenues accounting for 27% of Belarusian GDP. One in five plants manufactures machinery, and one in six produces food. Others are engaged in oil refining, shipments, production of fertilizers, construction and manufacturing electrical goods. Among them is Belaruskali, one of the world’s largest producers of potash fertilizers, as well as the BelAz car plant and the Minsk Tractor Works.

The pressure exerted by the authorities has yielded fruit: the strikes and protests attended by workers have failed to grow into a nationwide movement. Protest activity at enterprises has started weakening. The Belarusian security forces have begun to detain strike committee leaders. So far, the strikes in Belarus have not morphed into massive ones that would seriously endanger the economy and force the authorities to make concessions.

 

Vedomosti: Putin orders to sort out conflict at Russia’s major soda producer

Russian President Vladimir Putin has personally intervened in a conflict in Bashkortostan, where green activists are protesting against works on Mount Kushtau, carried out by Russia’s largest soda producer, the Bashkir Soda Company (BSC). The prosecutors have been tasked with conducting checks into a deal, under which the state lost control over this company. The federal government and regional authorities must put forward solutions, which would satisfy both employees and the public. Regional Governor Radiy Khabirov has expressed gratitude to the president, saying that justice must prevail, Vedomosti writes.

The president spoke about the conflict in Bashkortostan at a meeting with government members on August 26. Putin noted that the current owners of the company were not interested in developing the plant or the region. The controlling stake at BSC belonged to private individuals and money was not being invested in any development; it was apparently funneled to offshore accounts, he said.

Following protests by activists, on August 19, Khabirov said that the government of Bashkortostan was preparing an agreement on buying the controlling stake of the enterprise, which accounts for 85% of soda produced in the country. After acquiring the controlling state, Bashkortostan’s government will decide on the fate of the plant, he said. Earlier, the governor ordered to halt geological exploration on Mount Kushtau conducted by the company. Clashes between workers and eco-activists were reported on August 15 and August 16, and two police officers were injured.

The struggle for BSC has been ongoing in the region for several years, political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko told the paper. This affair involves a coalition of elite players, both federal and regional ones. Putin’s goal was to iron out the conflict and stop the protest in Bashkortostan, he explained. The major task for Putin was to "end political instability in the region."

 

Kommersant: Russian TV ads overtake foreign ones for first time in five years

The share of Russian advertisers on national television in the first half of 2020 surpassed that of foreign companies for the first time in the past five years, Kommersant business daily wrote on Thursday, citing the Initiative agency’s estimates.

According to its data, Russian ads accounted for 52% of commercials in the first six months of this year versus 48% of ads by foreign brands. The company analyzed the share of 30-second ads on TV in the past five years. Earlier, the share of foreign commercials on Russian television exceeded 60%.

Russian ads on TV are mostly ordered by Internet giants such as Mail.ru Group, Yandex, Wildberries and Ozon, and new brands in the banking and telecom sectors with large advertisement budgets like Tinkoff Bank and Tele2 are actively being promoted on television. The legalization of ads by bookmakers also encouraged the growing share of Russian ads on TV, the newspaper writes.

Analysts believe that the coronavirus pandemic was one of the key factors behind the changing landscape in the TV advertising market. Some major domestic brands dominating the telecom market were less hit by the pandemic and were able to boost investments in ads, they noted.

In the first half of the year, Russian companies in the top 100 major advertisers boosted activity on TV 12% more than the similar period in 2019, the director general of the National Advertising Alliance said. Retail companies, including online firms, as well as financial and pharmaceutical companies demonstrated major growth.

 

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