MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. BRICS countries held an extraordinary online summit, the EU seeks to tighten anti-Russian sanctions, and NATO launched exercises near Turkey’s coast. These stories topped Tuesday's headlines across Russia.

 

Media: What BRICS countries discussed at extraordinary online summit

The introduction of secondary sanctions hampers the strengthening of trade ties between friendly countries, but this will not prevent further cooperation within BRICS, Brazilian leader Lula da Silva said on September 8, opening the group’s extraordinary online summit as chairman. Vladimir Putin also joined the event. Today, against the background of the "divide and rule" strategy of individual states, BRICS must demonstrate their commitment to boosting cooperation. According to Chinese President Xi Jinping, nations waging trade and tariff wars are inflicting a serious blow on the global economy. The Iranian president suggested creating a mechanism to counter sanctions, the South African leader called for reforming the WTO, while the Egyptian president questioned the current role of the United Nations altogether. However, overall, the leaders unanimously view BRICS as the main driver of reform in the system of international relations.

"WTO rules should be binding for the collective West too, including the United States, no matter how unrealistic it may sound at this stage. Otherwise, why does the rest of the world need it? After all, the United States and its allies created the WTO to force all other countries to comply with the West’s demands to open their markets. But as soon as opening Western markets became more profitable for non-Western countries, the West stopped following them. Thus, either all WTO members comply with the rules, or it will cease to exist," economist Valery Korneyev told Izvestia.

According to the Brazilian president’s press service, the leaders agreed on the need to build a fairer international order that reflects ongoing changes and responds more effectively to the priorities of the Global South, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

This BRICS summit confirmed the Global South’s refusal to play second or third fiddle to the US. Even though no specific resolutions or joint statements were adopted, the general sentiment of the participants was clear - the world is rapidly changing and BRICS countries are at the forefront of these global transformations, the newspaper concluded.

 

Izvestia: Point of confrontation - EU seeks to tighten anti-Russian sanctions via US

Representatives from the European Commission (EC) visited Washington on September 8 to persuade the United States to join new restrictions. By attempting to impose sanctions against Russia through the United States, Brussels is aiming to derail peace talks on Ukraine, Vladislav Maslennikov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Director of the Department of European Cooperation, told Izvestia. The expert community, however, believes that Donald Trump is unlikely to yield to the EU’s demands and endorse the 19th package of measures against Russia, which the EC plans to unveil as early as the end of this week.

The Europeans aim to negotiate new anti-Russian restrictions with the Americans. However, Brussels is unlikely to manage to persuade US President Donald Trump to support the sanctions that the European Union is pushing, according to Andrey Kortunov, expert with the Valdai Discussion Club.

"It is not without reason that Trump accuses the European Union of hypocrisy - as he himself is not ready to fully abandon economic cooperation with Moscow, including purchases of Russian petroleum products through third countries such as India. It seems to me that Trump will urge the Europeans to start with themselves," he said in a conversation with Izvestia.

In addition, the US leader said earlier that he plans to have a conversation with Vladimir Putin in the coming days. He recalled the August 15 meeting in Alaska as excellent.

"I don't think he will be ready to take any particularly tough measures against Russia that would make this conversation more difficult and less productive," Kortunov believes. "Although Trump says from time to time that he is ‘disappointed’ and ‘unhappy,’ he does not abandon attempts to move forward toward resolving the conflict," the expert added.

Kortunov believes that the United States will agree to join the 19th package of EU sanctions only if it includes a full rejection of oil imports from Russia and secondary restrictions against the countries that actively buy energy products from Russia.

"It is now more strategically advantageous for Trump to step up pressure on those countries against which he has already imposed higher tariffs. He would like for this tariff hike to become universal. And it is clear that the European Union joining in would create a certain cumulative effect. Then, it would be possible to pressure both India and Brazil, and, in the future, potentially China, with greater confidence," the analyst noted.

 

Izvestia: NATO countries to rehearse blocking Russian bases in Syria during drills off Turkish coast

Dynamic Guard II 2025 exercises began in the Eastern Mediterranean. Officially, their goal is to sustain NATO members’ proficiency level in the field of electronic warfare and missile defense. However, military experts interviewed by Izvestia believe that the alliance will rehearse the blockade and electronic suppression of key Russian facilities in Syria — in Khmeimim and Tartus. According to them, these actions can be perceived as a direct provocation that risks exacerbating the already tense situation in the region.

NATO forces in the Eastern Mediterranean may test a scenario of the impact of electronic warfare on Russian facilities in Khmeimim and Tartus, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.

"These bases play an important strategic role for Russia," he explained. "Not only our bases in Syria shape developments in the Middle East, they are also good logistics points for supplying Russian forces in Africa, the Africa Corps, for instance. The skies of Europe are closed to us, and we support our forces concentrated there by using the eastern route," the expert added.

"They will practice blocking sea routes to the base, which makes it impossible for ships to deliver reinforcements and supplies, while creating electronic interference can disrupt our communications, navigation and enemy detection systems, which is a critical element of a modern military conflict," military expert Dmitry Kornev explained to Izvestia. "From the point of view of military practice, such actions are expected. Any armed forces train such scenarios to be prepared for potential threats. The Russian military is also conducting similar exercises," he added.

If these actions do not create real problems for the operations of the Russian base and its electronic systems, then they can be viewed as standard training practice. However, if the drills pose a real threat and interfere with the current operations of equipment at the Russian military base, this can be regarded as a violation of the Russian Federation’s sovereignty. In this case, an immediate diplomatic intervention will be required to resolve the situation, the expert noted.

 

Media: French government’s resignation may strengthen advocates of dialogue with Russia

A political crisis is escalating in France: on September 8, the parliament voted to remove the government, just nine months after the previous one stepped down. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou himself initiated the vote of confidence mechanism, trying to gain support for his economic policy and the draft budget for 2026, which includes reducing social spending and boosting military expenditures. This vote of no confidence in the government takes President Emmanuel Macron to a political stalemate: it will be difficult for him to form a new cabinet, and at the same time, he cannot dissolve parliament, as this, according to experts, will strengthen the position of the National Rally Party, which favors dialogue with Moscow.

According to experts, Macron may form an alliance with the Socialist Party, which holds 66 seats in parliament, to create a new government. Olivier Faure, the party's first secretary, said he was ready to take over after Bayrou's departure.

However, the chances of such a scenario are extremely slim, since the "Republicans" in parliament will not support a Socialist prime minister, French political analyst Herve Juvin told Izvestia. Macron faces a tough task: he will need an alliance of moderate conservatives, centrists and socialists, but in the current climate, it will be very difficult to achieve such unity, the political scientist stressed.

The French parliament is completely paralyzed, as it is divided into three blocs of parties that "detest" each other, political analyst Sergey Fedorov believes. In his view, the only option left to Macron in the current situation remains the dissolution of the National Assembly, but even this will not change the outcome, since Macron's rival Jordan Bardella’s National Rally would gain, the expert told Izvestia.

"I am afraid that the path many other governments have chosen in a crisis will be followed: to seek a solution to a domestic problem by exaggerating the external threat. I see Macron's temptation to involve France in the Ukraine conflict against Russia in order to get out of the political crisis, for which he is largely responsible, and from which he has no chance of emerging victorious," believes Juvin.

"The authorities justify the necessity to cut spending by citing the Russian threat. However, most French people see Islamic radicals, not Russia, as the main danger. After all, from their perspective, Russia is quite far away while the issue of religious extremism persists domestically," Yevgenia Obichkina, professor at the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

She also ruled out any major change in the country’s foreign policy course due to Bayrou’s departure. "The president, not the prime minister, is the one who defines foreign policy. Some adjustments may occur but they will be tied to shifts in the international environment and the necessity to react to them, not to the change in the government," the expert argued.

 

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: When will Power of Siberia 2 be completed?

A memorandum on constructing the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Russia to China via Mongolia, signed in early September, marks the sides’ clear stance - the project will move forward. However, there are still more questions than answers surrounding it. Construction timelines, financing sources and even the pipeline’s exact route remain uncertain.

As for the construction start, according to Alexey Grivach, deputy head of the National Energy Security Fund, some pre-construction work on Russian territory is quite possible within the framework of expanding gas infrastructure in Russian regions, particularly, the south of the Krasnoyarsk Region and Krasnoyarsk itself, the only Russian city with over one million residents still off the gas grid.

However, according to Maria Belova, research director at the Implement company, it is necessary to take a balanced approach when defining the future parameters of the regional fuel-energy balance without aiming to provide gas supply everywhere at any price. In some cases, alternative energy resources, such as coal, may prove more economically viable.

Valery Andrianov, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, pointed out that, in addition to the Krasnoyarsk Region, the construction of the pipeline could become an incentive for developing gas infrastructure in the Trans-Baikal region and Buryatia. Along with Krasnoyarsk, these are the regions where the transition from coal to gas is the most pressing.

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