MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. The Russian and French presidents hold a telephone call, breaking a long silence between them; Washington eases sanctions on Syria as reports surface that Damascus is in secret talks with Israel to restore relations; and Ukraine's attacks on Russian soil intensify amid renewed peace dialogue. These stories topped newspaper headlines across Russia on Wednesday.
Izvestia: Russian, French leaders discuss Middle East, Ukraine in phone call
On July 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, held a phone call, their first in nearly three years. One of the main topics of their talk was the recent 12-day war in the Middle East. The two former guarantors of Iran’s nuclear deal affirmed their responsibility to uphold peace and stability in the region. And they discussed Ukraine, too: Macron called on his Russian counterpart to work toward a ceasefire with the neighboring country as soon as possible. The Russian leader explained that a lasting settlement requires the removal of the root causes of the conflict, which stemmed from Western policies.
The Kremlin described the phone call, which the Elysee Palace said lasted more than two hours, as meaningful. The French side expects continued contacts with the Russian leader, according to an official statement. The United Nations welcomed the resumed communication between Putin and Macron.
Macron is now trying to act as a link between the West and Russia, political analyst Dmitry Yelovsky says. According to him, with US President Donald Trump the only Western leader talking to Putin, everyone else is left in the background, waiting to see what they say and do. "Macron, too, is trying to act as an independent player and somehow maintain dialogue with the Russian president," the expert believes.
The two leaders agreed to stay in touch on the Ukraine issue and hold more talks soon, the Elysee Palace said in a communique. Ukrainian media reported later that, following his conversation with Putin, Macron called Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to brief him on the details of his call with the Russian leader.
To Moscow, the conversation was valuable in giving yet another opportunity to make its position and terms for any peace deal with Ukraine clear to Western elites, Yelovsky noted.
As regards discussing in detail the situation in the Middle East in the context of the Iran-Israel confrontation and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, another major topic of the phone call, there is much common ground between Russia and France on this issue. Moscow and Paris favor reviving the JCPOA deal, taking existing realities into account, and both sides are critical of escalatory steps by the United States and Israel. And yet their approaches differ: like the others in the European troika, France believes that pressure must be periodically put on Tehran, while Moscow favors talks without pressure. Actually, Paris agrees with the United States in that Iran should curb its missile program, a goal that is not on Moscow’s agenda, Leonid Tsukanov, an expert in Middle East studies, explained to Izvestia.
Vedomosti: Washington starts lifting sanctions on Syria, following Europe's lead
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order lifting economic sanctions on Syria. The decision will promote "a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors," the White House said in a press release on its website. Simultaneously, several Arab and Israeli media outlets said Israel and Syria are in secret talks to restore bilateral relations.
Trump mentioned his intention to revoke anti-Syrian sanctions in mid-May, before he met with the Arab Republic’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in Riyadh. Later that month, the European Union removed Syria’s Central Bank, media and oil and cotton companies from its blacklist.
As most of the sanctions against Syria are written into law, they will require congressional approval for a full repeal, Associate Professor at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics Lev Sokolshchik pointed out to Vedomosti. A number of US government agencies, the expert continued, can ease sectoral sanctions against Syria at their own discretion. Meanwhile, Trump’s executive order could be followed by Syria’s removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Sokolshchik added.
Trump’s decision comes amid Syria-Israel talks to normalize ties with the Arab republic potentially joining the Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Even as Syria is not seeking a continued conflict with Israel, it is not ready for any peace deal with it either, Ruslan Suleimanov, an expert in Middle East studies, argued. "Syrian society has quite negative sentiments toward Israel. <…> Therefore, I don’t expect any breakthrough here as long as hostilities in Gaza continue," he noted. Nor does Suleimanov expect Syria to join the Abraham Accords any time soon. Damascus may keep a dialogue going with Israel while not rushing toward signing a deal with it, the expert maintained.
Murad Sadygzade, president of the Center for Middle East Research, disagrees. He said the Abraham Accords could be expanded to include Syria with a peace deal signed. Putting an end to the conflict would benefit Syria as it would enable Damascus to legitimize its government, reinforce its position in the West, and protect itself from potential Israeli attacks, the expert in Arab studies argued.
Izvestia: Ukraine ramps up attacks on Russia to undermine renewed peace push
In the second quarter of 2025, Ukraine intensified its attacks on Russian soil by almost one-third, Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. The number of civilian casualties increased 15-18% over that period, he noted. Ukraine is using terrorist methods in a quest to create unbearable living conditions for the population, the diplomat emphasized.
Ukrainian troops use drones in attacks on civilians as they target not only border areas. A Ukrainian drone attack on an industrial site in Izhevsk caused casualties on Tuesday, the head of the Republic of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, reported. In addition, Ukrainian militants use 152mm and 155mm artillery shells, including with cluster munitions, as well as mines and grenades. Monitoring showed that the overwhelming number of weapons used by the Ukrainians in their attacks on civilians are Western-made.
Kiev has intensified shelling on Russia to provoke a harsh response from Moscow and present that to its Western partners as an argument for continued or resumed financial and military aid programs. Or else Kiev may have opted for an asymmetric strategy from the very start, preferring sabotage to combat operations on the front line, drone attacks on civilian targets to strikes on military facilities, and domination in the information field to the fight to retake land, Ivan Loshkaryov, associate professor with the Department of Political Theory at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Izvestia.
Intensified Ukrainian attacks come against the backdrop of the revived Moscow-Washington dialogue and the resumed Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, too. Increasing the scale of attacks may affect the negotiation background ahead of a third round of Moscow-Kiev talks, Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of Moscow State Pedagogical University’s Institute of History and Politics, pointed out. According to him, Kiev and its Western patrons are not interested in any peaceful settlement, therefore opponents of the peace process have been seeking to disrupt that by conducting terrorist attacks, prompting a forceful response from Russia. Britain and the EU, for one, continue to take a hard line on Moscow as they impose more sanctions and reject dialogue.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: As Denmark takes over EU presidency, militarization is the word in Europe
On Tuesday, Denmark took over the presidency of the European Union for the next six months. Its chairmanship, the eighth in its history, will be held under the motto "A strong Europe in a changing world," and will focus on security, competitiveness and the green transition. Danish Minister for European Affairs Marie Bjierre shared that efforts to increase the bloc’s defense capabilities, support to Kiev, and accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova, and a number of Balkan countries will define the kingdom’s EU presidency.
Enhancing preparedness across the EU to respond to potential threats posed by Moscow, she continued, will also be a priority. It should come as no surprise that Copenhagen will seek to inflict maximum sanctions damage on Moscow. And Denmark may even pursue a tougher policy here than Poland, during whose presidency the bloc imposed the 16th and the 17th sanctions packages. The kingdom advocates for a total ban on Russian energy imports and placing more restrictions on tankers carrying Russian oil. And it is Denmark that will have to persuade Slovakia and Hungary to be more flexible in coordinating an 18th package of anti-Russian sanctions.
According to Vladimir Olenchenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Denmark has a plan of long-term support to Ukraine that envisages establishing weapons production for Ukrainian troops on its soil. "Taken together, the course toward military support for Ukraine and prioritizing ramped-up defense budgets transform the Danish agenda as EU chair into an openly militarist and aggressive one. Given the Danish presidency will focus on strengthening unity in the EU, it seems that such unity will be based on the general militarization in Europe," the expert told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Meanwhile, the new EU chair may have difficulty building relations with the United States which has pursued an unpredictable policy under Trump. "Copenhagen is concerned about US claims over Greenland, which is a part of Denmark. Those have been repeatedly voiced by Trump, who went so far as to say he would use force to gain control over the island," Olenchenko said. And the US president’s ambitions to impose unfavorable trade tariffs on the EU may make things hard for Denmark as well. According to him, Denmark hopes to avoid a war of words or any diplomatic altercations with Trump, which is perhaps why Denmark did not mention Greenland in its EU presidency program.
Vedomosti: How rift between Russia, Azerbaijan may hamper their economic cooperation
The latest political crisis in relations between Russia and Azerbaijan may affect bilateral economic cooperation, experts interviewed by Vedomosti warn. Azerbaijan buys Russian Urals oil (1.53 million metric tons in 2024) for domestic needs as it exports its own Azeri Light crude and "earns good profits" from these operations, Alexey Gromov, principal director for Energy Studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, explained. In addition, Russia is a key market for Azerbaijani vegetables and fruit.
Actually, trade between the two countries has been developing at quite a dynamic pace, Alexander Daniltsev, head of the Institute of Trade Policy at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University), told Vedomosti. Between 2020 and 2024, bilateral trade saw a more than 1.5-fold increase from the period between 2010 and 2014, he said. The increase mostly came from a growth in Russian exports by nearly two times. Russia is Azerbaijan’s third-largest export partner after Turkey and Italy and the second-largest importer of its goods, behind only China, Daniltsev noted.
Russia is a major market for Azerbaijan, Alexander Knobel, Director of the Center for Studies of International Trade at the Russian Presidential Academy, agrees. Losing this market would mean plummeting revenues for farmers and processing companies, he explained. "And finding an alternative market quickly will be difficult, for Europe and Gulf countries have strict quality requirements, and logistics there are even more expensive," he said. And any cessation of Russian imports would be even more painful, Knobel warns, as Russia accounts for 17% Azerbaijani purchases, including of fuel, metals, and fertilizers.
While Russia has had precedents cutting trade ties, say, with Georgia, hopefully, this time around, the two countries will find a way out of the crisis, Farid Shafiyev, director of the Baku-based Center of Analysis of International Relations, concluded.
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