MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. President Donald Trump’s nuclear ambitions trigger alarm bells in the United States, as Palestine is getting ready to present a draft of the constitution. Meanwhile, China cautions Japan against any Taiwan interference. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

 

Kommersant: Trump’s nuclear plans alarm US public and officials

The insistent albeit not very well-articulated ambitions of US President Donald Trump to restart nuclear testing have alarmed US public. A group of US officials and experts close to Republicans are seeking an audience with the Trump administration in the White House to voice their concerns about the pernicious plan. Over the past two weeks, Trump’s rhetoric raised a question mark not only over the sustainability of the decades-old arms control system but also over whether the US establishment can restrain their own leader’s impulses.

Trump has persisted in his ambitions: "We will do nuclear testing like other countries do," the US leader told reporters on board Air Force One for travel to Florida last weekend. "We have more nuclear weapons than any other country," he added. "I’m the one that renovated them and built some, and I hated to do it, but I had no choice, because they [other countries] have it," Trump stressed.

Late last week, CNN quoted two officials familiar with the matter that US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) leader Brandon M. Williams and officials from the US National Laboratories are planning to tell the White House that they do not think detonating weapons for nuclear warhead testing is tenable.

The US expert community, from professors with the leading universities to former National Security Council officials, has confirmed that neither Russia nor China has exploded their nuclear warheads for decades as masking a nuclear blast is next to impossible.

In an interview with Kommersant, Matt Hoh, a former USMS Captain and State Department Officer, noted that Trump’s orders to resume nuclear testing show how poor the US president’s comprehension of the institutional architecture of the US nuclear industry is. The expert explained that the Department of Energy (DOE) and its affiliate, the NNSA, not the Pentagon, are responsible for nuclear warheads, design, production, maintenance, subcritical testing and the keeping of testing infrastructure in readiness in the United States. While the DOE ensures the storage and technical serviceability of the arsenal and the test site in Nevada, the president and the Department of Defense make decisions on the use of nukes and nuclear carriers.

Trump’s plans have raised concerns among the US community, with human rights and environmental activists discussing the grim legacy of Nevada where decades of underground nuclear explosions have led to radioactive contamination and a surge in cancer rates. Any additional tests will inevitably trigger protests and legal action.

It would have been extremely interesting to watch all this had it been a Netflix series, but, unfortunately, the stakes are too high as this involves a threat to the planet, Hoh concluded.

 

Izvestia: Palestine to present draft of the constitution by November 24

Palestine has advanced toward establishing a state of its own as it intends to present the final draft of the constitution to President Mahmoud Abbas by next Monday, Ahmed Majdalani, a senior member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Izvestia. The document will cover governance of the Gaza Strip, among other territories. As soon as the draft of the provisional constitution is approved, it is planned to be discussed with all Palestinian forces, including Hamas. The Constitution would also lay a legal basis for holding general elections for parliament and president.

While Hamas is not part of the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas official told Izvestia when the constitutional committee was launched that the radical Palestinian movement would be ready to transfer control of the enclave to the national authority after a ceasefire. According to him, the plan implies "an unconditional transfer of administrative control to a Palestinian agency that would be agreed at the national level." Such a step could reduce intra-Palestinian divisions and facilitate the creation of a unified governance system in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

For its part, Israel has rejected the idea of establishing a Palestinian state. Last year, the Knesset adopted a declaration against proclaiming it. Later, the Jewish state presented a settlement plan to build 3,500 apartments next to E1 east of Jerusalem, an initiative that may essentially divide the West Bank. Israel’s ultra-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the plan "a historic move" and a response to the willingness by a number of Western countries to recognize Palestine.

"For a political settlement plan to be truly effective, it is necessary to demolish Israeli settlements and address the aftermath which would make it possible to form an integral and viable Palestinian state," Mohammed al-Masri, a Palestinian expert, told Izvestia. Suspending settlement activities is a fundamental condition toward a two-state solution, he added.

Russia supports the idea of restoring negotiations between the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as Moscow sees the prevention of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as one of the most urgent and priority steps. The negotiations, Moscow insists, should also result in the creation of an independent Palestine that would peacefully coexist with the Jewish state.

 

Vedomosti: China cautions Japan against interfering in Taiwan

China has launched a pressure campaign against Japan after the latter’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, stated that a potential military conflict around Taiwan may lead to direct interference from Tokyo. On November 16, Beijing dispatched its coast guard to the disputable islands of Senkaku (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China). On November 12, according to information from Tokyo, a Type 055 destroyer of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) passed near the Japanese island of Kyushu, and China will hold a military exercise with live-fire training in the Yellow Sea from November 17 - November 19, the China Coast Guard announced.

Beijing has increased diplomatic and economic pressure, too. On Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on citizens to avoid trips to Japan after which China’s largest air carriers, including Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, announced a free-change and refund policy for flights to Japanese cities.

Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, vowed a crushing defeat against the "steel-willed PLA" should Japan "dare to use force" to interfere in the Taiwan question and warned that Tokyo would "pay a heavy price." The People’s Daily, the main mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, argued that Japan has issued an open military threat against China for the first time since 1945.

Previously, only retired generals but not prime ministers could afford rhetoric similar to that of Takaichi in Japan, Vladimir Nelidov, a researcher with the Center of Japanese, Korean and Mongolian Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Vedomosti. Nationalist conservatives in Japan believe that their country should play a larger role in the international arena and support a US-led `rules-based world order’. And Washington, too, is quite willing to bring its allies into this, the expert said.

Takaichi became the first Japanese head of government to make a statement like this as a politician, not as an expert, according to Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics. The military build-up and maneuvers were already an indication that Japan is getting ready for a potential joint operation with the United States in the event of a conflict around Taiwan, he added.

 

Izvestia: Bulgaria eyes seizing Lukoil’s assets

Bulgaria is provoking a fuel crisis, with support from the EU, and it is making attempts to seize Lukoil’s assets in order to address that, an opposition party leader told Izvestia. Earlier, the ruling coalition adopted a bill introducing external management for the company's property. The law has already entered into force, and strict security measures are being introduced at the oil refinery in Burgas. Romania, the Netherlands and Finland, too, may take control of Lukoil's assets in their jurisdictions if they fail to get US waivers from sanctions.

While the latest US restrictions on Lukoil, a Russian oil major, will come into effect on November 21 only, they have already caused an emergency in Bulgaria. The Balkan country relies on the Lukoil-owned Burgas oil refinery for about 80% of its fuel. According to local media reports, Bulgaria has gasoline reserves to last for 35 days only, and a risk of shortage may arise.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorized operations with a number of Lukoil entities in Bulgaria until April 29, 2026, and Britain, too, issued licenses to the Burgas refinery operator allowing lender and businesses to work with them until February 14. Operations related to the sale of Lukoil’s other global assets can be carried out through December 13.

However, a complete nationalization of Lukoil’s assets remains a highly unlikely scenario exactly because of the US stance, Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia. "During nationalization, they will have to pay compensation to Lukoil, something that the Americans would not like. They would like these assets to be bought by a US company at a cheaper price," the expert argues.

Bulgaria decided to take control of Russian assets at the suggestion of the European Union and the United States, for Washington is seeking to replace Russia as an energy supplier to Europe, and the likelihood that Russia could block the nationalization of the assets of its companies is now tending to zero, and other EU countries can follow Bulgaria’s suit, political analyst Vadim Trukhachev explained to Izvestia. "It’s high time we switched to short-term contracts with Europe, not excluding Hungary and Slovakia, where Viktor Orban and Robert Fico do not last forever. The governments may change to more anti—Russian ones there," Trukhachev believes.

 

Kommersant: Bitcoin prices fall back to levels of early 2025

Since Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $126,200 on October 6, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has dropped below $94,300/BTC on November 14. The digital coin managed to climb to somewhat below $95,000/BTC, or almost a 25% decline from the October peak, in the next few days. Therefore, the bitcoin price has revisited the level seen at the start of 2025.

Despite record growth rates in the second and third quarters of this year, following a major crash, Bitcoin appears a very weak currency, experts note. "Bitcoin is a safe asset on the cryptocurrency market, but it is not the safest asset globally," Roman Nekrasov, an independent expert in digital technology, explained to Kommersant.

Bitcoin prices are mostly under pressure from selling by investors who were buying the cryptocurrency in 2022 when BTC traded at $16,000. "Over the past few months, large players have sold around $100 billion worth of Bitcoins, or some 1 million Bitcoins," Rufat Abyasov, founder and CIO of GBIG Holdings, said.

The fundamental factors preventing the cryptocurrency from rising include investor anxiety over the US monetary policy course, according to Raphael Polansky at BitMEX, who is responsible for Retail Growth. "If the pace of rate cuts is slower than expected by investors, risk assets will lose their appeal," he said.

According to Abyasov, should Bitcoin prices fail to hover at the level of the beginning of 2025, it could collapse even below the March lows - to as low as $75,000 per Bitcoin, he warns.

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