MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin highlighted the SCO’s role in Eurasian security, Israel may annex the West Bank, and Donald Trump may involve private military companies in Ukraine. These stories topped Tuesday's headlines across Russia.

 

Media: Putin highlights role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Eurasian security

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will help lay the foundations for the creation of a new security system in Eurasia, Vladimir Putin said on September 1 at a meeting of the Council of Heads of the organization's member states in China. Today, the status of this venue is noticeably growing, including due to the expanding economy, with the total volume already approaching $30 trillion. The expansion of the association is also possible: some leaders are actively advocating for bringing in new members, and applications from ten countries are already being considered. The schedule of the head of state on this day included a series of bilateral meetings, in particular, with Narendra Modi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Both leaders are expecting Vladimir Putin on an official visit and express their willingness to help resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

However, at least publicly, the organization has not offered any mediation in settling the recent Indian-Pakistani conflict (between its member states) or, for example, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict (dialogue partners). The SCO is still seeking the niche where it may be helpful to member states, Andrey Vinogradov, deputy director and leading researcher of the Center for Chinese Economy and Social Studies at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.

The Tianjin Declaration clearly reflects the SCO’s diversity, including the development of the economic track.

"That is, the economic orientation of the SCO is underway because many points, even more than in the previous years, are devoted, for instance, to developing artificial intelligence, energy stability, food security. The organization is heading toward ‘pragmatism.’ By doing so, the SCO is showing that it is perceiving security issues in a much broader sense," Alexander Korolev, Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, told the newspaper.

It is important for the association’s member countries to know about the situation in Ukraine firsthand from the Russian president, experts say. The fact is that the SCO is no longer only a regional, but also a macro-regional platform for discussing security issues in Eurasia, Yekaterina Koldunova, director of the ASEAN Center at MGIMO University, told Izvestia. Russia was initially one of the main driving forces of the organization, therefore, in an expanded format, its voice is of particular importance.

"It is precisely through cooperation with key global players such as China and India, as well as other SCO regional partners, that Russia can promote its initiatives in Eurasia, including the idea of indivisible and equal security," she said.

That said, the absence of any mention of the Ukraine crisis in the SCO summit declaration is understandable: the countries of the Global South are trying to distance themselves from this issue, as exemplified by its fleeting mention in the final document of the Kazan BRICS summit, Andrey Kortunov, expert with the Valdai Discussion Club, told Vedomosti. The fact that Putin has discussed the situation around the conflict at length in his public statements is also explained by the dynamic and timing of attempts at settling it. According to the expert, the optimism following the Alaska meeting has morphed into "shifting responsibility" onto Russia after the meeting between EU and Ukrainian leaders and Trump in Washington on August 18.

"Even while the countries of the Global South are skeptical about the narrative promoted following the latest Washington meeting about Moscow being responsible for drawing out the conflict, still, it was apparently decided to take the situation over and present the Russian viewpoint which is absolutely logical," Kortunov believes.

 

Vedomosti: Israel may annex West Bank in response to Palestine recognition

Israel’s authorities are considering the option of annexing the occupied West Bank in response to the potential wave of Palestine’s recognition by some Western countries. This issue was one of the key topics on the agenda of a meeting of the Israeli cabinet of ministers overnight on September 1, the Times of Israel, Reuters and Axios reported, citing Israeli, US and European sources. It is still unclear whether the Jewish state is planning to annex the entire territory or only part of it. Implementing this scenario in any way may threaten the prospects of creating a unified and independent Palestinian state with the capital in East Jerusalem.

Any participation of the Trump administration in the development of the Israeli annexation plan is improbable, Lev Sokolshchik, a leading researcher at the HSE Center for Comprehensive Economic and Social Studies, told Vedomosti. On the Middle Eastern track, the US is conducting unsystematic and situational policy - it benefits from having a regional player which Washington can use to project its influence in the region without having to be directly involved, the expert noted. "For quite a while, the White House has been consistently giving less attention to the Middle East and trying ‘to leave in order to stay.’ Yes, the annexation of the West Bank by Israel will lead, among other things, to the Americans losing face, however, they will not resist such initiatives and will continue to provide military and diplomatic assistance to the Israelis," the expert asserted.

The possibility of Israel annexing the West Bank is very low, disagrees Lyudmila Samarskaya, researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations. First of all, the Israeli leadership will end up with a hard-to-resolve issue of governing the annexed territories given the Palestinians’ clear lack of desire to live under Israeli control. Secondly, the expert added, the resulting status of the Palestinians residing on that territory is uncertain, while annexing even a part of it will trigger broad international condemnation. "Most likely, Israel will intensify its settlement activity in the West Bank," the expert added.

The annexation of the entire West Bank or its part threatens Israel with opening a second front in its war with the Palestinians, Middle East expert Ruslan Suleimanov noted. According to him, radical Palestinian groups, ready to resist, are present in that territory. If Israel’s plan is implemented, Arab countries will not interfere in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, limiting themselves to criticizing Israel, the expert believes. "They have not dared entering into a direct clash with Israel during almost two years of the war in Gaza. Moreover, the authorities of some Arab states actually value their relations with Israel and are waiting for the complete failure of the Palestinian radicals."

The Arab states are unlikely to completely break off ties with Israel but they are sure to try to use these threats as an instrument of pressure on the Jewish state, Samarskaya concurs.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US private military firms may act as guarantors for Ukraine

Greece does not intend to provide military security guarantees for the Kiev regime, the country’s Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said. According to him, Turkey has greater capacity for participating in this initiative as it has the second-largest army in NATO. The UK’s Telegraph used a similar line, reporting on US President Donald Trump’s intention to deploy private military companies (PMCs) instead of a regular army in order to ensure security guarantees for Ukraine.

"Obviously, the British timed this bit of news to coincide with the SCO summit in Tianjin in order to alarm the leaders gathered there with Washington’s new plans and additionally undermine the agreements on a peace settlement of the Ukrainian conflict achieved during the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Anchorage on August 15," military expert Alexey Leonkov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

He added that these are fabrications launched within the framework of an information war. It is well-known that the services of the American PMCs are very expensive and require advance payment. However, it is hardly possible for European countries, which are experiencing increasingly serious financial difficulties and problems with their own rearming slated by 2030, to pay for them.

"At some point of the current military conflict, Kiev already tried to push the issue of the PMCs participating. Back then, the Russian military managed to identify their temporary stationing locations and carried out strikes on them. After that, conversations on the matter were again reduced to deliberations about Colombian mercenaries. That said, Moscow confirmed with its actions that it is against the presence of any foreign contingents on Ukrainian territory, and made clear that visiting PMCs have no business being there either," the military expert emphasized.

 

Vedomosti: Gas supplies via TurkStream to EU up by 7% in January-August

The supplies of Russian gas to the European Union through the TurkStream gas pipeline rose by 5% in August 2025 compared with the same month last year and reached 1.55 billion cubic meters, or 50.2 million cubic meters per day, according to calculations by Vedomosti based on data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).

In January-August, exports totaled 11.46 billion cubic meters, which is 7% more than during the same eight months last year.

The increase in Russian gas exports to the EU via TurkStream in August and in 2025 overall is linked to the redirection of some volumes that earlier were delivered via Ukraine, Sergey Kaufman, an analyst at Finam Group, noted. Another factor behind the higher supplies is the need to fill European underground gas storage facilities before the 2025-2026 heating season, Igor Yushkov, leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, pointed out.

Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia are currently major customers for Russian gas in Europe, Kaufman noted. That said, Hungary and Slovakia are lagging behind the average European rates of filling up their storage facilities, he noted. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), on August 30, Hungary’s storage facilities were 68% full, while Slovakia’s were at 70.6%.

As a result, in the coming months, deliveries via TurkStream will remain at a level of 1.5-1.55 billion cubic meters per month, the analyst believes. Yushkov concurs that the current elevated level of deliveries will continue in the next few months.

 

Izvestia: Houthis threaten strikes on Netanyahu’s residence

The Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, issued a stern statement: key Israeli government facilities will not remain out of reach of their armed forces. Even the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under threat, sources in the movement told Izvestia. Earlier, the Houthis announced the launch of a ballistic missile at an oil tanker in the Red Sea. The strike took place on August 31, after Israel confirmed the killing of the chairman of the Houthi government and several ministers in the bombing of Sanaa. Netanyahu vowed to continue the attacks until the remaining members of the Houthi leadership are fully eliminated.

Sergey Serebrov, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Studies, told Izvestia that among those killed in the Israeli air strike on Sanaa were representatives not only of the Houthis, but also of another segment of the coalition government.

"Among those whose deaths were reported are the foreign minister and the prime minister, who did not belong to the Ansar Allah movement, but represented Saleh's General People's Congress party. If the aim of the strike was to weaken this particular component of the coalition government, then Israel has achieved it. However, the result will be a strengthening of the Houthi element in the leadership," the expert emphasized.

Muhammad Miftah, representing the Houthi unit, has already become acting prime minister, the expert stressed. "Previously, the government focused mainly on economic and organizational tasks, but now ideology is entering the cabinet. This shift is dangerous even for the intra-Yemeni relations between the north and the south," Serebrov concluded.

According to the expert, the further development of the conflict is fraught with consequences not only for Yemen and Israel, but also for the entire region. "This conflict can escalate into a very big problem, because the Yemenis view the Palestinian issue not only as an ethnic, but also as a civilizational one - as the struggle of Islam against Zionism. From this point of view, if combat escalates, the attention of the entire Arab and Islamic world will be drawn to the confrontation. And it is almost impossible to avoid escalation," the expert noted.

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