Izvestia: What questions await Putin at his annual news conference

At his year-end news conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will traditionally dwell on all issues that are of concern for Russian citizens. The discussion with journalists is likely to focus on vital social problems, like the COVID-19 pandemic, major infrastructure projects, and international policy, Izvestia writes.

Putin will outline his stance on the most pressing domestic and international issues. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the format of the news conference was slightly changed. Although it will be held offline, the number of participants has been limited due to coronavirus restrictions. A total of 500 journalists will gather in the Manege exhibition hall in downtown Moscow, including representatives of the media designated as foreign agents.

The format of Putin’s big news conference is very important since it enables the media to get the full picture of the country’s policies and allows the president to get his message across to various audiences: the media, citizens, as well as the elites of other states, said Director General of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications (APEC) Dmitry Orlov. "If the Direct Line is a huge qualitative sociological study, the press conference can be seen as enormous qualitative research on the mindset of the media and elites, including the opposition and foreign ones," he noted.

According to the expert, the key issues for this year’s news conference will be Russia’s proposals for the United States and NATO in the security field, the pandemic and possible measures to contain it, the fight against poverty, the National Projects, and the methods of encouraging economic growth as well as the efficiency of regional authorities.

Galina Karelova, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council (Russia’s upper house of parliament), notes that the issue of strengthening and modernizing the healthcare system will be prioritized in the discussion. Putin regularly stresses the importance of federal programs and projects aimed at safeguarding the life and health of Russian citizens and their implementation is under the president’s personal control.

The news conference is a crucial format of communication since it always touches on top-priority issues, said Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) Boris Chernyshov. "The president will answer questions on international policy, which is very important now. Vladimir Putin is sending a clear message that the West won’t be able to cross those ‘red lines’ anymore."

 

Vedomosti: US okays negotiations on Russia’s security proposals

Moscow and Washington have reached an agreement to hold negotiations on security guarantees, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in an interview with reporters on Wednesday. The upcoming talks will kick off in January between Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The sides are also going to deliberate over a possible launch of contacts on these issues with European states through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as well as directly with them. Lavrov noted that the talks "must not be indefinite since threats have been mounting around Russia over the past decades on a permanent basis."

On December 21, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried confirmed that Washington was ready to discuss the proposals that Russia conveyed during her visit to Moscow. However, she noted that although the US was ready to hash over and work on some proposals, some other issues were unacceptable for Washington and Moscow was aware of this.

Russia’s draft agreements with the US and NATO, which the Foreign Ministry published on December 17, include legally binding security guarantees that NATO won’t expand further eastward, that Ukraine and Georgia won’t join the alliance and that no weapons will be deployed to the countries that became NATO members after 1997.

However, it’s too early to talk about de-escalation in Russia’s relations with the US and NATO, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov told Vedomosti. The outcome of the talks will largely depend on how Washington will shape the agenda. According to Kortunov, the Americans could refuse to discuss a range of issues that would fall with NATO’s purview. The most important of them is the potential accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO. The US is likely to limit this to a discussion on the non-deployment of new short-and intermediate-range missiles and strategic stability in Europe. The question remains open whether this format will be acceptable for Russia, but the fact that Moscow’s proposals were not rejected on the spot is encouraging, Kortunov pointed out.

The issue regarding the deployment of weapons to Europe certainly ranks high on the list for Moscow and seems to be the most promising at the negotiations, said Alexander Yermakov, a military expert with the Valdai Discussion Club. The sides are likely to reach a consensus in terms of discussing the issue related to the short-and intermediate-range missiles in Europe. Yermakov notes that despite all the tensions in Russian-US ties, China still remains a key foe for Washington. It’s irrational to keep missiles in Europe, which could be more useful in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Russia, Iran and Turkey agree on new summit as Syrian crisis escalates

Russia, Iran, and Turkey have concurred on holding a new summit in the Astana format in Tehran. The agreement was reached after the recent negotiations on Syria were held in Kazakhstan’s capital of Nur-Sultan. The high-level meeting is scheduled to be held in February-March 2022, as Iranian diplomats note. Russia could have ironed out many issues jointly with Turkey a long time ago, but the trilateral summit is valuable as far as getting experience in creating informal coalitions in the region is concerned, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

The last time these Astana in-person talks had been held before the coronavirus pandemic. After that, the leaders of Russia, Turkey, and Iran were forced to discuss certain issues via a video conference. The recent talks in Nur-Sultan coincided with missile attacks carried out by Turkey’s forces in Syria’s Al-Hasakah province.

Visiting researcher at the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) and Russian International Affairs Council expert Anton Mardasov notes that the Astana summit for Russia and Turkey has become a venue for talks mainly on the eastern Euphrates, rather than Idlib (which is partly controlled by the rebels). In this light, the sides discuss measures on how to weaken the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a pro-Kurdish alliance backed by the US. At a certain stage of the talks, the situation in this area turned out to be a unifying factor, which allowed the players to conclude on a positive note.

For Moscow, the Astana summit is important in terms of gaining experience in building informal coalitions with Middle Eastern and North African nations. "Amid the agreements between the US and other regional players - both historic ones and those confirmed by documents - Russia is trying to build a chain of alliances in order to have its own sphere of influence," the expert noted. This gives it the tools for playing on contradictions between Washington and its partners in the region.

 

Izvestia: Top NHL players to skip Beijing Olympics amid COVID-19 surge

The National Hockey League officially announced late on Wednesday that its players won’t go to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The growing number of COVID-19 cases among the hockey players left little hope that the NHL would allow them to attend the Beijing Olympics. Now it’s clear that the key sports event over the past four years will be held without the planet’s best players, Izvestia writes.

The Olympic Games were expected to become the first in the past eight years where NHL players were going to participate. For a long time, the situation with the Beijing Olympics seemed to be optimistic. However, in December COVID-19 struck Canada and the United States, not China. As a result, last week, the public was shocked by a long list of over 100 infected hockey players.

According to some media reports, the NHL’s decision was influenced by the fact that it had failed to come to terms with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on COVID-19 regulations for hockey players in Beijing during the Olympics. In particular, it disagreed with a tough COVID-19 protocol introduced by local authorities insisting that athletes with a positive coronavirus test have to quarantine up to five weeks. Although there were rumors that these measures could be eased, the final decision had not yet been made.

"I cannot say that this decision by the NHL was quite expected," renowned hockey agent Shumi Babaev told the newspaper. "Everyone kept resisting the circumstances and fighting. But as far as I understand, the decisive factor was that the league did not get a final answer from China on the COVID-19 protocol and the quarantine terms for players with a positive test. In addition, another reason is what is going on in North America now where many guys have contracted coronavirus. There are many cases, although they are asymptomatic. And if this happened in China, the guys and the NHL teams could face problems," he said.

Some NHL stars have expressed regret that they won’t be able to go to Beijing. For Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, Beijing 2022 could be the last chance to win the Olympics, the only major sports event that they have not won. By 2026 both of them will be in their 40s and their chances will be slimmer, the newspaper writes.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Europe falls into its own gas trap

Spot gas prices in Europe have hit a record high of over $2,200 per 1,000 cubic meters amid the freeze in gas flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline. Due to a hike in prices, LNG tankers are changing their routes and heading to Europe. The European Union prefers to blame Russia’s gas monopoly for all the continent’s troubles. Experts note that many countries had earlier refused to sign long-term contracts with the gas company while pinning their bets on low spot prices. Wind power is also not meeting the expectations, since the volumes are lower due to bad weather, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

Experts interviewed by the newspaper believe that Europe should blame itself for the current gas supply dilemma. The liberalization of the European gas market has led to a refusal to ink long-term deals on transit. Specialists also doubt that Gazprom is limiting the volume of supplies to Europe on purpose. "The current abnormally high prices for the long term are not advantageous for the gas giant since they may lead to falling demand and a forced shift to renewable energy or even sanctions against the company (even if it is not to blame de facto)," said Finam analyst Sergey Kaufman.

According to Svetlana Samoilova, co-founder of the Finliberty school of financial consultants, the situation on the EU energy market has been created artificially. "European states were so afraid of dependence on Russian gas supplies that they decided to switch from long-term contracts to buying gas on the exchange. Now it’s clear how detrimental this is. At the hub in the Netherlands 1,000 cubic meters of gas costs $2,000, while Gazprom supplies gas for $270," the commentator noted.

All disciplined consumers, who care about their energy security, have signed long-term contracts with Gazprom, and are receiving gas in full, said Artyom Tuzov, Executive Director at Univer Capital’s market department. According to him, the situation is whipped up by speculators, who ditched long-term contracts with Gazprom hoping that the gas price from alternative supplies would be lower. "Last year this was the case, but the reverse side of this is seen this year."

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