MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russia warns of Asian risks amid the latest US actions, and the EU has been building up its military to prop up its fragile economy. Meanwhile, the coalition led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s party won the Sunday snap vote in Japan. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Izvestia: Russia warns of Asian risks amid US actions
While the expiration of New START, which limited the nuclear capabilities of Russia and the United States has significantly impacted the global situation, the extension of the US "nuclear umbrella" to Asia, too, poses a risk to Russia’s security. Moreover, this undermines broader international security, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Geneva office Gennady Gatilov told Izvestia. According to him, Japan could join cooperation between the United States and South Korea, and relevant infrastructure is being established in Australia. Moscow is ready to take part in developing a global agreement on security guarantees for non-nuclear powers, the diplomat added. Meanwhile, Russia may also respond militarily by deploying hypersonic missiles in the Far East.
Formally, the United States’ non-nuclear allies in NATO (Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey) deploy nuclear munitions on their soil and participate in joint missions. The US "nuclear umbrella" has been extended to other regions of the world. Moscow has repeatedly proposed providing security guarantees to non-nuclear countries in nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ). Moreover, Russia has already given legal guarantees against the use or the threat of using nuclear weapons to more than 100 NWFZ member countries.
However, Moscow is also ready to use another option - deploying medium-and short-range missiles, including the newest Oreshnik weapon, in northeastern Russia, say in Chukotka, Tigran Meloyan from the Center for Interdisciplinary Arctic Studies at the Higher School of Economics (HSE), who is also an analyst at the HSE University Center for Mediterranean Studies, told Izvestia.
"A change in the status quo in the region with US participation may give a powerful impetus to the expansion and strengthening of strategic partnership between Russia, China and North Korea. The three countries will have to increase their readiness for nuclear deterrence and the number of joint exercises," the expert noted.
Furthermore, Meloyan continued, if the situation goes further, Moscow could consider deploying medium-and shorter-range hypersonic missiles in North Korea. This would create a risk to US military bases located on the main Japanese islands of Okinawa and Honshu. In 2024, Moscow and Pyongyang signed a comprehensive nuclear partnership. However, it is too early to discuss this topic, and Russia will act primarily based on how the other nuclear powers behave and it will not be the first to escalate tensions.
Izvestia: EU resorts to militarization to save its fragile economy
EU countries are considering a military buildup as a driver of economic growth, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Izvestia. NATO and its European allies have been demonizing Russia to justify their military expenditure. However, the cost of this policy course may be too high, as the EU would need to spend an extra €1 trillion annually to reach the 5% target in its defense spending.
In parallel with domestic rearmament initiatives, the West continues to pump weapons to Kiev. Izvestia has calculated that Washington and Brussels have already spent more than €420 billion to support Ukraine since 2022. The sum is roughly twice as much as the USSR received from its allies during WWII.
World Military Economy and Strategy Institute’s Deputy Director Nikolay Novik agrees with Izvestia’s calculations. In this regard, he noted, the United States must have spent even more through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), USAID and the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).
Meanwhile, Europe has recently taken the lead in support to Ukraine. Having agreed on a €90 billion aid package for 2026-2027 and given donations from national governments, the aggregate volume of the EU’s assistance is nearing €283 billion.
While NATO and the EU are ramping up defense production, the social sphere is under growing pressure. According to Grushko, the constant demonization of Russia has served the goal of keeping the electorate loyal. "Sooner or later, national governments will have to explain to their populations why social spending is being cut, why education and healthcare have deteriorated, or why unemployment is growing. And here is one ‘explanation’ - that tomorrow there is war and Russia will attack," the senior Russian diplomat noted.
The European economy is already paying a high price for these decisions, with an energy crisis compounding the shortage of defense capabilities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), too, confirms that the EU’s posture has weakened systemically. As a bloc, the EU is facing uncertain economic prospects: the February 2026 IMF forecast reveals a systemic weakening of its posture in global competition.
Vedomosti: Japan’s PM Takaichi wins early election
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a resounding win in the February 8 snap vote. Preliminary estimates from public broadcaster NHK show that the LDP may grab between 274 and 328 seats in the 465-seat House of Representatives. What is more important, the results of its smaller coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), are likely to help the ruling coalition get a qualified lower house majority.
Therefore, the coalition led by Takaichi, who has been at the helm of the party and government since October 2025, will now control all parliamentary committees and could override decisions of the upper house, if need be.
The LDP campaigned on Takaichi, whose ratings exceed 60%, Viktor Kuzminkov, leading researcher with the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told Vedomosti. Therefore, short tenures for prime ministers in Japan are coming to an end, and the Takaichi government will stay for at least two years, he believes. Japan will ramp up its defense spending, and Japan’s three non-nuclear principles may be dropped from documents, the expert continued. Takaichi may revive talks with Russia, as the prime minister called for signing a peace treaty with Moscow, Kuzminkov surmised.
Vladimir Nelidov, a researcher with the Center of Japanese, Korean and Mongolian Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, disagrees, as he sees a 70% likelihood that, unlike her predecessor Shinzo Abe, Takaichi will fail to become a strong prime minister. According to him, Takaichi will not have enough strength as a personality and a politician to stay in power for long. While she will indeed fight rising prices, she will also continue the tough foreign policy line toward China, as the Japanese electorate supports that. Japan’s relations with China have soured since the prime minister came to power after her remark about a potential military scenario including Japan around Taiwan.
As regards Takaichi’s statements about a peace deal with Russia, Nelidov dismissed her rhetoric as a mere ritual. The Japanese are ready to sign a peace deal with Moscow on their own terms, that is with the transfer of the entire Southern Kuriles to them. Moreover, the persisting anti-Russian sanctions suggest that the two sides will not be able to reach a compromise for the time being, Nelidov concluded.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russia’s gold reserves rise above $400 billion
The value of monetary gold in Russia’s foreign reserves has exceeded $400 billion for the first time on record, data from the Bank of Russia showed. As of February 1, the country’s gold reserves were valued at $402.706 billion. A month earlier, the figure was just above $356 billion.
The share of the precious metal in Russia’s assets has grown to 48.3% from 43.3% in early January, the highest since January 1995 when the share of gold stood at 54.8% even as its value amounted to a mere $4.6 billion.
The increase in the value of monetary gold has pushed the country’s international reserves to more than $833 billion, including almost $431 billion worth of foreign reserves.
In the week of January 26 alone, the reserves rose by more than 5%, Pyotr Shcherbachenko, associate professor with the Financial University at the Russian government, remarked. According to him, the growth was underpinned by soaring gold prices. "While the metals market is known for its volatility, there has been an upward trend. In the past few days, gold prices have fluctuated <…>. On January 29, gold rose to an all-time high of above $5,600 per ounce," the expert told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The recent gold rally was triggered by increased interest from both central banks, which have been boosting their reserves, and investors driven by an endless flow of alarming geopolitical news. "Everybody is seeking to reduce their reliance on the USD," Shcherbachenko explained.
Media: Falling bitcoin prices explained
The first week of February saw a new decline in the cryptocurrency market: by February 6, bitcoin fell to $60,100, which caused a mass outflow of ETF fund money from the token. However, over the past weekend, investors managed to prop up the bitcoin price and push it to over $70,000. As volatility peaked, stop-loss closures of investor positions amounted to more than $350 billion, with the largest corporate holders of bitcoin suffering multi-billion dollar losses.
Bitcoin has lost a significant part of last year’s "gains," when the cryptocurrency peaked at $126,000, nullifying the "Trump effect," the rally surge that followed Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections, when he promised to use bitcoin in public reserves.
The recent decline has been largely structural, experts say: the recovery at the start of 2026 was a technical rebound, and the bitcoin price has followed the same path as in previous down cycles, Alexander Kraiko, a leading analyst at Cifra Markets, told Vedomosti.
Geopolitical tensions, a tense macroeconomic situation, and rising risk-off sentiment have caused a reduction in global liquidity, which has hurt the cryptocurrency market, Ryan Lee, Research Chief Analyst at Bitget Research, added.
A broader look at what is happening shows that bitcoin has been falling for about five months already, and this February may become the worst month in that period, with a 20% slump since early February, Finam analyst Nikolay Dudchenko forecasts.
It is too early to say that bitcoin is starting to rise again, market players say. The cryptocurrency can resume growth due to a return of large institutional investors if bitcoin consolidates above $70,000-$77,000, Mikhail Smirnov, director of communications at EXMO.me, told Kommersant. At the same time, the February 6 ETF inflow may indicate that sentiment in the digital currency market has partly stabilized, Smirnov noted.
TASS is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews