MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. The United Nations proposes more flexible nuclear arms control, while the UAE seeks to assume civilian control of Gaza. Meanwhile, China’s Xi Jinping looks to make the yuan a global reserve currency. These stories topped Tuesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Izvestia: UN calls for a more flexible arms control
With just days remaining before the expiration of the New START Treaty, the world is on the brink of a nuclear vacuum, as the United Nations warned that the risk of using nukes has risen to a decades-high. It would be necessary to establish an arms control regime that would match the rapidly changing situation, the office of the UN Secretary-General told Izvestia. While there is no constructive dialogue on the issue between Moscow and Washington, the other members of the five largest nuclear powers, or the P5, are not in a hurry to join the negotiations. However, experts from Russia and NATO are discussing the future of strategic arms control, with a scenario of exchanging data amid looser quantitative restrictions.
"Washington does not consider the treaty useful to itself. And the track record of recent decades (the exit from the INF and other treaties) shows that the United States has effectively adjusted its approach to policy in this extremely sensitive sphere," Natalya Kharitonova, professor with the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and senior researcher at the Russian State University for the Humanities, noted in an interview with Izvestia.
A situation may occur where negotiations on New START are no longer held and nuclear tests begin. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) made it clear to Izvestia that it cannot force the issue in any way.
The expert community argues that the current version of New START no longer reflects reality and that it would not be enough for just Russia and the US to adhere to the quantitative limits, and everybody in the P5 should be invited to join.
"I don't think the UN or any other international organization will be able to play a significant role in finding a solution here. The START treaty series has been the result of bilateral efforts by the two countries in the wake of a sensitive crisis when they stopped short of exchanging nuclear strikes (during the Caribbean Crisis). Therefore, this practice can only be continued through the efforts of Moscow and Washington. The countries that the United States or Russia would like to see as signatories are hesitant to participate," Kharitonova maintained.
The situation around New START has clearly reached an impasse, and a fundamentally new solution is needed. "A potential modification of the concept of limiting nuclear weapons, rather than an extension, should be discussed. And the concept is not clear, as everybody - the Americans, the Chinese, the French and the British - has its own approaches," diplomat Andrey Baklanov told Izvestia.
Vedomosti: UAE seeks to take over Gaza’s civilian governance
The United Arab Emirates is seeking to assume civilian control over the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the country is ready to allocate part of its funds for reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed in the war in the Palestinian enclave and attract additional investments in the future. Abu Dhabi is currently discussing the implementation of this plan with Israel, the Jewish state’s Channel 12 reported, citing Israeli government officials. The UAE is planning to take control of the local markets and trade, the TV channel said.
The Emirati authorities have proposed assuming civilian control of the enclave, a source told Channel 12. The two sides are currently busy agreeing on an interstate agreement and have already exchanged draft documents. However, the final details of a potential deal will need to be approved by Israel.
A potential role for the UAE in Gaza administration would be the most acceptable option for Israel, as Abu Dhabi is one of the Jewish state’s key partners in the Middle East, Lyudmila Samarskaya, a research fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' World Economy and International Relations Institute, told Vedomosti. Another thing is that such measures would make sense given the likelihood of long-term stability in the region, which has not been the case so far, the expert continued. "It would be no use making any financial or organizational investments in the enclave as long as Hamas maintains its military capabilities there. These are perhaps hypothetical scenarios of how the situation may develop," she contended.
Orientalists argue that there is currently intensifying competition between the leading Muslim states for a leading role in resolving the Palestinian issue.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: China’s Xi set to make yuan a global reserve currency
Chinese leader Xi Jinping wrote in Qiushi Journal that the yuan will be given the status of a global reserve currency. According to him, the Chinese state would need a "powerful currency" for international trade and investment. By setting this goal, Xi challenged the hegemony of the US dollar, economists told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
China would need a "powerful central bank" and competitive financial institutions capable of attracting foreign capital and influencing prices in global markets to achieve the goal, Xi added.
While assigning the status of a global reserve currency alone will not help the yuan substitute the USD, Washington may take changes in the global financial system hard, for the United States will have a weaker influence on global trade if there is a serious alternative to the dollar.
In practice, the yuan is already the world’s second-largest currency for global trade after the dollar, but it has a limited share in foreign reserves. The main reason for this is because the yuan is not a freely convertible currency due to the specifics of national regulation in China.
Russia and China have almost 99% embraced settlements in the yuan and the ruble in bilateral trade already, and the Chinese currency has a large share in Russia’s foreign reserves. However, the dollar looks more preferable to many other countries that do not maintain such a close trade relationship with China.
Xi’s statement came as the United States released a new report on foreign exchange policy in which the Americans again called on China to strengthen "its substantially undervalued exchange rate," economist Yegor Susin told the newspaper. A weak yuan exchange rate gives China an advantage in global trade, which irritates the United States.
While China has already laid the necessary groundwork for the yuan to become a global reserve currency by making its economy one of the world’s largest, this will not be enough, Pavel Seleznyov, head of the Department of International Economic Relations at the Financial University under the Russian Government, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. "For a legal tender to become a reserve currency, the issuing country must not only be an active participant in international trade but also play a powerful role in the investment and FX markets. Currently, almost all pricing globally is underpinned by the dollar, and this gives the United States a key advantage. This could change, for example, at BRICS or the SCO, which seek to have an alternative to the dollar as a strategic counterbalance to US influence," Seleznyov explained.
Kommersant: EU may impose new restrictions on Russian metal imports
The European Union is weighing a ban on a number of platinum group metal and copper imports from Russia as part of a new sanctions package, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing sources. According to the agency, the measure may affect platinum, iridium, and rhodium, among other metals. The EU may impose a 20th sanctions package on Russia later this month. The European Commission declined to comment on this to Bloomberg.
Restrictions, if any, will mostly affect Nornickel, Bloomberg warned. In 2024, Russia’s top miner had an 11% share of the global platinum market, and a 2% share of the global copper market, as it accounted for 40% of global palladium supplies and 11% of nickel exports. Nornickel refused to comment. A source familiar with the situation told Kommersant that it is too early to jump to conclusions yet, as everything will depend on the final wording.
Akhmed Aliyev, a senior analyst at T-Investments, argued that Nornickel might have expected such an outcome and been prepared for potential restrictions. "While it could be affected in the short term, sales in the longer term are unlikely to come under pressure, for global demand for such metals has been sustainable enough, and the company is certain to find consumers in other countries," he said.
Vasily Danilov, an analyst at Veles Capital, said, referring to data from Eurostat, that Russian iridium imports to the EU ended back in December 2022, and that Russia has not sold platinum and rhodium to the bloc since December 2023. Meanwhile, Russian copper supplies in 2025 will hardly exceed 30,000 metric tons, or around 3% of the volume produced in Russia. At the same time, Nornickel does not account for the whole of it, Danilov added, as he surmised that the company may have successfully diverted its exports to other markets.
Izvestia: Europe ramps up Russian LNG imports
European countries have increased purchases of Russian gas. In January, Russia supplied a record 2.1 billion to 2.3 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. In addition, gas volumes pumped through the Balkan Stream have reached a maximum: the average daily volume through this pipeline reached 56 million cubic meters in January, exceeding the design capacity by almost a quarter. Among the reasons for this are a frosty winter, gas extraction from underground storage facilities, and a decrease in LNG imports from the United States, where cold weather has also set in. Despite the fact that fuel prices in Europe have so far decreased from $500 to $418 per 1,000 cubic meters, experts believe that the cost of Russian natural gas will increase in the second quarter of 2026.
Last month, Russia sold a record 1.5 million to 1.7 million metric tons of LNG to Europe, which is equivalent to roughly 2.1 billion to 2.3 billion cubic meters, Valery Andrianov, Associate Professor at the Financial University, told Izvestia. "As a result, the share of Russian LNG in the overall EU imports reached about 19%, European media acknowledged, as local traders bought up ‘the whole of Yamal LNG’ in January. Our country will not be able to help Europe in any other way, for there are currently no other opportunities for supplies to the Old World (after Nord Streams were sabotaged, and Kiev blocked gas transit through Ukraine)," he said.
In the second quarter, Russian gas prices may rise amid the impact of exchange indicators on the final figures, which are calculated based on formulas included in contracts, Alexander Frolov, deputy director general of the National Energy Institute, told Izvestia.
According to Tamara Safonova, CEO of NAANS-Media, an independent think tank that specializes in the oil and gas sphere, the European Commission’s ambitions to reduce its reliance on Russian energy have damaged energy security systems built over decades. This has propped up gas prices, hurting the European economy, she added. Rising gas prices on European exchanges will have a positive impact on the revenues of Russian gas giants, which continue to supply LNG and pipeline gas to Europe, she argued.
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