MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine are ready to resume negotiations in Istanbul; Israel gears up for another military operation in Gaza; and the US seeks to strengthen ties with Russia’s OPEC+ partners. These stories have topped Friday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Media: Russia, Ukraine prepared for negotiations
Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky announced in the early hours of May 16 that Moscow’s delegation led by him would be waiting for Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul starting at 10:00 a.m. on Friday. He reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness for unconditional bilateral talks with Kiev, Vedomosti writes.
"The return to the Istanbul platform is symbolic and beneficial for Russia as it’s a reference to the talks held in early 2022. The message is clear: Moscow’s position has not changed because in Russia’s view, the root causes of the conflict are still there," Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, pointed out.
Since 2022, Turkey has gained experience in mediation between Russia and Ukraine, Ikbal Durre, associate professor at Moscow State Linguistic University’s Department of Foreign Regional Studies, said. He recalled that Ankara had played an important role in the grain deal and prisoner swaps. One of the reasons why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants the conflict to end is that it could provide Turkish companies with an opportunity to profit from Ukraine’s reconstruction .
Meanwhile, Kiev’s move to appoint Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as head of the Ukrainian delegation to the talks, as well as its declared goal of ensuring a 30-day ceasefire, makes it clear that Ukraine is not interested in ending the conflict but seeks a pause, Ivan Skorikov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of CIS Studies, observed. This runs counter to Russia’s interests as the underlying causes of the crisis remain unresolved, the expert stressed.
Russia’s strategy is clear: it’s about unconditional talks, that is, discussions of the entire range of issues, Ivan Loshkaryov, associate professor with the Department of Political Theory at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Izvestia. "As for Ukraine’s strategy, the only goal at the current stage is to delay the settlement process," the expert elaborated. "Kiev hopes that the Trump administration will slowly change its stance on support for Ukraine, which is what pressure from EU countries, the UK and the Holy See is aimed at," he added.
"The peace deal that is being offered to Ukraine looks much worse than the agreement that was almost adopted in the spring of 2022. Accepting the current conditions would most likely mean an end to Ukraine’s military and political leadership, including Vladimir Zelensky, because three years ago, they rejected a peace deal on much better terms," Tigran Meloyan, an analyst with the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the Higher School of Economics, noted. On the other hand, Kiev’s attempts to walk away from direct talks threaten to worsen Ukraine’s prospects on the international stage, where it risks losing Washington’s support, the expert concluded.
Izvestia: Israel readies new military operation in Gaza
The Israeli army has begun the construction of another corridor between the cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. The corridor is expected to be the centerpiece of a new Israeli operation. Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza are overcrowded, facing a critical shortage of resources, Izvestia reports.
Many medical facilities aren’t receiving any international assistance, which is significantly worsening the situation for the local population, Frank Mohrhauer, head of the delegation to Russia and Belarus at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, 58 Israeli hostages, including Donbass native Maxim Kharkin, remain in Hamas captivity. The Palestinian movement warned earlier that Israel’s actions essentially meant a death sentence to them.
Israel has dramatically increased its military activity amid a critical situation in Gaza. The Israeli military began constructing a new corridor between Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu announced plans to establish the so-called "Morag Corridor " on April 2.
Daniel Byman from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies believes that such corridors primarily serve Israel to quickly move its forces. Besides, they restrict the movement of Hamas fighters, actually trapping them in isolated areas, where it’s easier for Israel to target them with precision strikes. According to Byman, if Israel completes the corridor’s construction, it will be able to divide Hamas forces and restrict their operations. In addition, Tel Aviv will also manage to increase control over the delivery of humanitarian aid and other cargoes in order to curb access for radical groups.
Andreas Krieg, a professor at King's College London, points out that it’s not just about military tactics but also about a strategy of territorial control. According to him, the divide-and-conquer policy aims to further fragment Gaza, creating smaller zones that are easier to rule.
Media: US aims to deepen ties with Russia’s OPEC+ partners
Major deals have been signed during US President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East. What is striking is that the US leader’s program includes a tour of the main oil and gas exporting nations that have not been targeted by sanctions. Notably, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the leaders of the OPEC+ group along with Russia, while Qatar is the largest player on the liquefied natural gas market. One could assume that the US may try to leverage its increasing ties with the Middle East in order to put pressure on Moscow, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes.
Since the start of his second presidential term, Trump has been actively using the economy as a tool to achieve political goals, largely to ensure US global dominance in all areas. Russia, Ukraine, China, the Middle East crisis and Iran are currently in his way. The US has enough instruments to put pressure on Ukraine and China. Kiev is already dependent on US support, and as for China, the negative trade balance plays in Washington’s favor because losing access to the US market would be quite painful for Beijing. Russia, in contrast, does not depend on the United States as the volume of bilateral trade is small. This is why Trump did not impose any tariffs on Moscow. That said, the only reasonable step for the US to increase its influence on Russia is to secure the support of Moscow’s main partners on the oil market. Oil exports remain the main source of Russia’s budget revenues even with prices going down, so Trump seems to want to hinder them from growing.
Still, the US apparently has a need for the OPEC+ deal as an instrument to control the oil market, so Trump does not plan to break the group up. According to Valery Andrianov, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, the US would like the OPEC+ platform to persist because the alliance is in fact clearing a niche for US oil on the global market. A decline in oil prices is a natural process, and exporters need to prepare for it. In other words, the US is unlikely to obtain a strong tool of pressure against Russia following Trump’s tour of the Middle East. However, it would be naive not to notice that US influence among Russia's major economic partners is expanding.
Trump’s visit to the Gulf countries is a show of mercantile globalism, Andrey Yevseyenko, deputy research director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, told Vedomosti. The expert drew special attention to Qatar, which remains an important mediator between Washington and radical groups such as Hamas. The US continues to pursue a policy to diversify the system of military partnerships and alliances in the Middle East, of which Qatar is an integral part. Yevseyenko specified that Qatar understood Trump’s approach and therefore was seeking to strengthen its positions as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, too.
Kommersant: Upward momentum continues in Russian fertilizer production
The early months of 2025 proved favorable for Russian mineral fertilizer producers. The seasonal rise in demand and an increase in the prices of their key products made it possible for the companies to boost both output and financial performance. Market participants and experts predict that the positive trend will continue in the second quarter of the year, Kommersant writes.
Rupec chief Dmitry Semyagin notes that Russian mineral fertilizer producers have managed to make money on external markets due to a favorable situation and a rise in the prices of the main groups of fertilizers.
Phosagro, Russia’s largest manufacturer of phosphate fertilizers, increased the production of chemical goods by 3.6% to a record 3.1 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2025. Phosagro’s revenue rose by 33.6% as the sales of phosphate fertilizers went up amid a recovery of average prices on global markets.
Phosagro points to a seasonal increase in demand in Europe, North and Central America and China, as well as on the domestic market. Phosphate fertilizer prices, which remained at a relatively high level in the beginning of the year, started to grow at the end of the quarter, the company pointed out. Phosagro expects that seasonal activities will grow further on the key markets in the Southern Hemisphere, namely in India and Brazil, which is already pushing global prices up.
Experts at the MMI agency point to an intense price rally on the phosphate fertilizer market in the second quarter of the year. Similar trends are observed on the markets of other phosphate-based fertilizers and raw materials, the analysts added. That said, Phosagro’s indicators can be expected to continue to rise steadily in the second quarter, even though the global price rise will be slightly offset by a strengthening ruble.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Analysts outline reasons behind ruble’s strengthening
Russia’s national currency, the ruble, has strengthened against the US dollar and the Chinese yuan by about 30% since the beginning of 2025. The Central Bank attributes the upward trend to the balance of supply and demand for foreign currency. However, there is also another explanation: the country’s leadership could have abandoned the policy to artificially weaken the ruble, Nezavisimaya Gazeta notes.
Russia’s total exports have steadily been higher than imports since the time when market reforms were launched in the country. A consistently positive trade balance means that there have never been any objective reasons for the Russian currency to weaken, while the regular weakening of the ruble was due to administrative decisions, which stemmed from the need to replenish the budget, the issuance of rubles to purchase foreign currency on the domestic market in the interests of major exporters, and other reasons.
However, the economic situation changed after the start of Russia’s special military operation, altering many basic assumptions. In 2022, the authorities came to understand that the strengthening of the ruble effectively helps contain inflation in the country, even with defense spending increasing at a high pace. Still, the authorities retain certain tools to influence currency supply and demand.
An imbalance between supply and demand for foreign currency is another reason contributing to the ruble’s strengthening. "The imbalance is driven by tough monetary policy, which makes exporters sell more currency, while importers are forced to buy less," Dmitry Babin, a stock market expert at BCS World of Investment, remarked.
"Ruble volatility is nothing more than a tool for speculators to amass excessive profits," Russian Academy of Sciences member Sergey Glazyev emphasized. According to him, if the Russian authorities wished, they could easily maintain a stable exchange rate because the ruble is backed by major gold and foreign currency reserves and a positive trade balance.
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