MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden will ask Congress for supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel; experts assess if widespread pro-Palestine protests may affect the West’s Israelophilic stance; and the EU is preparing to host a Brussels forum as a challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. These stories topped Friday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

 

Vedomosti: Biden to ask Congress for more aid for Ukraine, Israel

US President Joe Biden announced plans to ask Congress for $60 bln for Ukraine and $10 bln for Israel. Altogether, the White House’s additional funding request will total around $100 bln, which will also include aid packages for Taiwan and Mexico.

If Congress signs off on the supplemental funding, Kiev, Tel Aviv and Taipei will receive money for the next fiscal year. However, the opposition Republicans’ inability to elect a new speaker for the lower chamber House of Representatives is complicating matters. On Thursday, Representative Jim Jordan (Republican, Ohio) sought more time to bolster his bid for speaker after coming short in two floor votes. Meanwhile, some Democrats are also mooting the option of lending their support to Speaker Pro Tempore (temporary - TASS) Patrick McHenry (Republican, North Carolina) to take the position permanently, which would at least enable reopening the government.

Since February 2022, Washington has allocated $43 bln worth of aid to Kiev. Biden first announced plans to ask Congress for an extra $24 bln in late August, but House Republicans warned then that they could approve new tranches only after obtaining data on how funds already allocated to Ukraine have been spent. On September 30, Congress declined to include more funding for Kiev in its stopgap spending bill to keep government operations going. The Pentagon said earlier this month that it has more than $5 bln remaining in its coffers to provide weapons to Ukraine, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, would suffice for six months.

Biden’s move to ask Congress for such a large sum at a time when the House of Representatives is paralyzed looks like a publicity stunt intended for external consumption to Viktor Mizin, researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO RAS). "Biden is seeking to signal to the Arab world, as well as to Russia and China, that the US role globally cannot be discounted. It matters a lot to him [Biden] at a time when Washington is incapable of doing anything to resolve the situation in the Middle East," the expert explained. Moreover, by submitting such a huge request, Biden may stir up domestic political problems that could harm his chances for re-election, Mizin added.

 

Izvestia: Experts assess if pro-Palestine protests may affect West’s Israelophilic stance

Since hostilities broke out between Israel and the Palestinian radical group Hamas on October 7, large protests against Israel’s violent acts against civilians in the Gaza Strip have taken place in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris, Frankfurt, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona and several other cities. The latest protests were held after the rocket attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday, which left hundreds of people killed.

European Commission leaders, members of the European Parliament (MEPs), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have already visited Israel. On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden paid a visit to the Jewish state that experts called less-than-successful, mainly because, in the wake of the Gaza hospital attack, Jordan cancelled a planned four-way summit in Amman between Biden and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Palestine. And on Thursday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on an official visit to express his unconditional support to the country. Also, a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron will soon be announced.

However, despite attempts by Europe and the United States to present a united front, the West lacks unity on the Palestine-Israel conflict, Timofey Bordachev, program director of the Valdai Discussion Club, told Izvestia. "There are quite powerful forces in Europe, and even in the United States, who are seeking to make Israel stop and abandon its aggressive ambitions and actions. European and some US politicians have taken a rather ambivalent position that is already more pro-Palestinian than Israel would like it to be," he said. Meanwhile, ongoing protests benefit European leaders as they indicate a lack of unity among Europeans and prompt the United States and the EU take a more balanced stance, the expert maintained.

While pro-Palestinian rallies have not yet prompted any tweaks to the united-front policy, ignoring these problems further down the road may result in a polarized Europe, said Oleg Barabanov, professor in the World Economy and International Affairs Department at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University). "The wave of rallies in solidarity with Palestine will continue and it will gradually divide public opinion in Europe, one way or another, into pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian segments. Anyway, in terms of social instability, this split may play a major role in the EU in the future," the expert told Izvestia.

 

Vedomosti: EU planning Brussels forum to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative

The European Union is planning to bring leaders of some 20 countries to its Global Gateway forum in Brussels on October 25-26 to boost its global infrastructure plan, which is seen as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Beijing’s Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation wrapped up on October 18. The leaders of Bangladesh, Namibia, Senegal and Moldova have already confirmed their participation in the EU’s forum, while Egyptian and Congolese (Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC) representatives may also attend.

The EU’s forum will mostly focus on green energy, education, research, critical commodities, transport corridors, the production of medicinal goods and digital infrastructure. The bloc is seeking to boost interaction with the invitee countries, amid China and Russia’s growing influence on them, as well as for the sake of obtaining access to critical resources. In that vein, the EU may sign memorandums of understanding with the DRC and Zambia, in particular.

While the EU announced it would spend a hefty 300 bln euros on its initiative a couple of years ago, China has managed to demonstrate that its global infrastructure development initiative still has a healthy pulse, despite Europe’s growing skepticism toward Beijing’s plans, Vladislav Belov, head of the Center of Country Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, opined. He sees specific economic and political interests behind the EU’s project, with Brussels not going beyond international law here, as is the case with sanctions, Belov underscored.

The EU is obviously seeking to challenge China’s monopoly for similar infrastructure initiatives, said Andrey Kortunov, research director at the Russian International Affairs Council. It is difficult to say whether Brussels will succeed in that, as China has been active in this field over a longer period and it has so far invested much more, he added. Also, according to Kortunov, it is China that has become a key trading partner for many BRI participants over the past decade. Beijing will seek to prevent a direct confrontation between the two projects, though, as it still hopes to build constructive relations with the EU, he concluded.

 

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: AI use expected to help Russia save 1 trln rubles in 2025

Embracing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by government agencies and the public sector will be the next stage in making the technology part of everyday life, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev stated. At present, the official said, the technology is proving effective across a range of fields already. Experts say that AI-based data algorithms can be broadly applied, including in recruiting; however, they may play an auxiliary role only, without being used for decision-making purposes.

The key question now concerns who will develop AI solutions and to what degree will the developed solutions evince the confidence of users. Experts interviewed by Rossiyaskaya Gazeta expressed doubt that any decisions could be made based on AI-generated solutions. However, almost nobody harbors doubts any longer that data algorithms will prove more efficient than humans.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said the Russian AI market has been growing steadily. While it amounted to more than 550 bln rubles ($5.6 bln) in 2021, it rose to some 650 bln rubles ($6.7 bln) in 2022. Experts forecast that, in 2025, AI solutions will help the country save around 1 trln rubles ($10.3 bln).

While substituting government officials with AI will be difficult, the government and the Digital Development Ministry are working now to introduce AI in public administration, healthcare and education, said Ani Aslanyan, the founder of a Telegram channel devoted to covering blockchain and WEB 3.0 developments in Russia and worldwide.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: China turning into major buyer of Russian gas

On Thursday, Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had agreed in negotiations with China to provide additional supplies of natural gas before the year-end through the Power of Siberia pipeline. Beijing has yet to confirm its consent to purchase Russian gas through the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, currently being designed in Russia. Nevertheless, Gazprom is confident that, in the "near future," it will export to China a volume of pipeline gas comparable to pre-sanctions volumes going to Europe. However, whether China can quickly replace the portion of the global gas market lost to Russia due to sanctions is a matter of some doubt among Russian and international experts alike. "It will be impossible to bring Russian gas exports to previous volumes in the next three to five years. Reserves for increasing pipeline gas volumes are limited due to the capacity of existing facilities. And focusing on a limited number of major consumers may result in serious overreliance on them," gas market experts warn.

Independent experts also doubt if Russia can quickly find an alternative to supplies to the developed world, primarily to the EU. "According to official Russian forecasts, Russian pipeline gas exports will be halved in 2023 from 100 bln cubic meters to 50 bln cubic meters, with roughly half of the amount going to Europe and the other half to China," noted Tatyana Mitrova, research fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Ivan Petrov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, said that Asia could hardly have the capacity to replace the European market for Russia. "The main problem is that production volumes are falling as a result of declining exports, and this represents a major socio-economic and technological problem. In the next 3-5 years, Russia will not be able to restore gas exports to previous volumes," he said. And building new pipelines in Russia’s east or in the European part, with efforts to redirect gas flows southwards, is risky, he added.

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