Media: Putin connects Russia and Ukraine through Direct Line
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Q&A session, known as the Direct Line, as usual focused on the most pressing domestic issues. The COVID-19 pandemic, gas supply in the entire country, reforming waste management, the condition of municipal roads, the environment, the arbitrariness of local authorities, rising prices on food and building materials, mortgages and the crisis of small businesses. Putin spoke about this and many other acute issues — even about a possible future successor - for more than three hours and a half. It’s noteworthy that the president barely touched upon foreign policy. To be precise, just one issue here was discussed seriously and profoundly: why Ukraine has not yet been included in Russia’s list of hostile states along with the Czech Republic and the United States, Vedomosti writes.
It was not difficult to predict the Russian president’s answer. He cannot consider Ukrainians to be a hostile people in contrast to the current Ukrainian authorities. Most recently, Kiev passed a law on indigenous peoples of Ukraine, which included Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority, as well as Karaites and Krymchaks, who practice Judaism. However, Russians were left out of the indigenous people list.
Putin once against emphasized that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. It’s clear that this thesis by the Russian president has angered the majority of Ukraine’s authorities. However, Putin keeps saying at almost all public discussions that Ukrainians, Russians as well as Belarusians are one people despite all the attempts by different authorities to sever ties between them.
Putin also stressed that President Vladimir Zelensky has put Ukraine under foreign administration and all key issues are now resolved not in Kiev, but in Washington, Berlin and Paris. There must be a friendly environment for Russia and Ukraine to have any dialogue, Crimean Senator and a member of the Federation Council’s Foreign Relations Committee Sergei Tsekov told Izvestia. In particular, Kiev should leave behind its belligerent rhetoric and also recognize Crimea’s reunification with Russia. "If we talk about the short term, this sort of dialogue is hardly possible. Under Vladimir Zelensky, this is impossible, because he views Russia as an enemy and aggressor and follows all the instructions that come from other countries," the senator told the newspaper.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: British warship incident off Crimea may be rehearsal for Chinese scenario
Beijing is analyzing London’s reaction to Russia’s steps during the passage of British Royal Navy warship HMS Defender through the Crimean waters. The next act of this play is likely to begin in the South China Sea, where soon the advanced British aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth will head escorted by warships. The goal of the operation is to confirm the right to free navigation within a 12-mile zone around the islands, which China has proclaimed as its soil. The United States and its allies do not recognize these claims. The question is how will China respond, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.
Beijing is keeping a watchful eye on how Russia reacted to the British warship incident. The Chinese media wrote about this in detail. The Global Times newspaper claimed that the Chinese could use electromagnetic weapons against US vessels intruding into the South China Sea.
Leading researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vasily Kashin noted that incidents similar to the one in the Black Sea have occurred on numerous occasions in the South China Sea. US ships enter 12-mile zones around the islands controlled by China. The Chinese reaction is well-known. They usually escort the vessels and urge via a radio message to leave Chinese waters and send notes of protest. "Maybe they will toughen their approach and try to force US and British ships out, creating the threat of an encounter," he said.
There have been dozens of cases when the US displayed its flag. "But there was not a single occasion when the Chinese reacted in a similar way as the Russians did. The Chinese are more cautious and take steps to prevent an escalation. There was not a single case of a warning shot."
Russia’s steps are much tougher: the border guards more often use weapons and fire warning shots or even shoot to kill. "The Russian military has a reputation of people with whom it’s better not to mess around with," the expert said.
Izvestia: North Korea hints at admitting possible COVID-19 epidemic amid lack of food
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has lambasted officials for failing to fight the virus, which has led to a "serious incident" posing a threat to national security, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) state news agency reported. No details have been revealed on what could occur in the healthcare sector of the Asian country, which has so far not officially confirmed a single COVID-19 case.
Meanwhile, experts suggested that Kim Jong-un may be hinting that North Korea has faced the coronavirus outbreak, Izvestia writes.
It’s noteworthy that the incident was reported not by South Korean media, which are key newsmakers on the events in the neighboring country, but the official North Korean news agency.
"The most possible version, although this is not for sure at all, is that North Korea has indeed faced COVID and the authorities are ready to admit this. But this reprimand could be also because of another reason - amid a serious failure in the quarantine system, which has not led to any real infections, but created in reality, or in the leadership’s imagination the threat of an infection," said Professor Andrei Lankov, of South Korea’s Kookmin University. Meanwhile, the commentator noted that an honest, albeit rather vague, recognition of problems in the healthcare system could also be part of the North Korean leader's game "good tsar, bad boyars (nobility)."
"All of Kim Jong-un’s statements over the past year have raised the issue about irresponsible officials, who do not fulfill the party’s right decisions. Quite possibly, Kim believes this himself," the expert noted.
North Korea fully isolated itself from the rest of the world in January 2020 amid fears that the coronavirus outbreak could sneak into the country via cargoes. The price of saving the nation from the virus was extremely high. Amid suspended imports from China, North Korea’s key trading partner, the country faced shortages of food and essentials. The country’s authorities, which keep refusing to accept foreign assistance, do not give details on how the fight against COVID-19 and other unfavorable facts have impacted the food situation, just calling on citizens to "prepare for the worst." Pyongyang’s talks with the COVAX leadership on vaccine supplies over the past months have bumped into the country’s reluctance to allow foreign medical experts to enter the country, Lankov said. Besides, the talk was about delivering 1.7 mln doses of vaccines, which is not enough for 25 mln North Koreans. Even if Pyongyang now requests aid, the chances of getting it are not high.
Vedomosti: US, Russia embark on strategic weapons talks
Russian and US delegations will hold a meeting on strategic stability issues by mid-July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference in Antalya, Turkey. According to the top diplomat, both sides will start dialogue by discussing a possible format of new talks.
At the Geneva summit on June 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden agreed to begin consultations on strategic stability issues (control over strategic weapons), cyber security and normalizing the work of embassies and the mutual return of ambassadors.
The consultations are expected to begin with the announcement of how the sides view strategic security problems and which particular types of arms are subject to control and in what form, said Alexander Yermakov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council. "The best will be if during the consultations - and there will be several - the parties manage to achieve a common understanding in this sphere and on what is due to be discussed and what the sides want to achieve," Yermakov said. Dialogue on strategic stability with the team of former US President Donald Trump was far from a mutual understanding, the expert recalled. The US persistently sought to discuss the issues of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons, and Russia wanted to focus on US missile defense, which provoked mutual rejection.
According to Yermakov, dialogue on cyber security will be much harder since the stance of the US and its allies on Russia is much more hostile. However, it is important and there is hope that it will be carried out in parallel with the discussion on strategic issues.
Director of the Center for Applied Research of the Institute of USA and Canada at the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Sharikov notes that the mere fact that the talks on strategic stability are beginning signals that Russia and the US are willing to come to terms. The expert also pointed out that if the issue of further arms reduction is raised, Moscow and Washington should invite other official nuclear powers such as China, France and the United Kingdom.
Izvestia: Russian experts expect Moscow’s COVID-19 cases to peak by September
Russian mathematicians from the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) predict a new peak in the COVID-19 incidence in Moscow by mid-September. The number of the so-called active cases by that time in the Russian capital will reach 225,000-280,000, according to this forecast. Scientists note that this September, the peak could be 30-60% higher than in December 2020. In the event of the most pessimistic scenario, the cases could peak by late summer and the number of active patients in Moscow could reach 443,000.
However, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe that this forecast is too dramatic and provided a milder evaluation of the potential development of the pandemic. A leading research fellow at Moscow State University’s molecular biology lab Roman Zinovkin believes that the COVID-19 incidence should decline in a month thanks to mass vaccination and the end of exams at schools. "People in Moscow started getting vaccinated en masse, that’s why the capital’s residents will fall ill more rarely or at least won’t have a serious disease," he said.
Research Director at the Data Insight agency Boris Ovchinnikov agrees with this forecast. "In any case, this conclusion could be made taking into account the previous COVID-19 waves. Maybe this peak has already passed." However, he noted that there are fears over a new surge in cases this fall because non-vaccinated pupils and students will come back to classes and normal business activity will resume.
TASS is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews