MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump dangles lifting oil sanctions on Russia to tame soaring gas prices as Israel casts a nuclear shadow over the Middle East war. Meanwhile, US intel told the White House pre-war that decapitating Iran would not upend the regime there. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Media: As war in Middle East rages, Trump floats lifting Russia sanctions to stabilize oil market
US President Donald Trump announced he may lift oil sanctions on some countries after he held his first phone call since December with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The call came amid alarming news for the US economy from the Persian Gulf. As the US-Israeli war on Iran intensifies, the Iranians are attempting to block the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil supplies. Mojtaba Khamenei, who is presumably ready for a drawn out battle with the United States, was selected as Iran's new supreme leader. In its turn, the US has intensified strikes on Iran. All this has pushed oil - and gasoline, as regards US consumers, - prices up, forcing Trump to consider how to lower them ahead of this year’s midterm elections in the US. However, the US leader’s ability to ease sanctions is restricted by both the American legislation and the current political situation.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said the ninth official phone call between the two leaders since February 2025 centered on the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine as they also discussed Venezuela in the context of the situation in the global oil market.
Trump’s announcement is more about sending a signal to the market in the hope of minimizing panic and improving the situation rather than any real intention to ease sanctions, Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Russian Government, told Vedomosti. According to him, as soon as the market realizes that nothing has changed, news about additional strikes on the oil infrastructure in the Middle Eastern region will cause another price increase. "There are multiple factors in favor of continued growth of the deficit and, consequently, prices," Yushkov said.
With his statements, Trump is seeking to bring gasoline prices in the US down as this price hike threatens the GOP’s already vulnerable chances in the midterm elections in November, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Koshkin explained to Vedomosti. According to the expert, the US president’s fellow Republicans are literally begging him to "stop the Iran war." Trump may even ask Moscow to help resolve the Middle East crisis, Koshkin maintained.
Meanwhile, the rhetoric about a potential change to the oil sanctions regime has been largely hypothetical, Pavel Sevostyanov, associate professor at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The bulk of the sanctions architecture is underpinned with Congressional decisions, therefore lifting those would require more intricate political procedures, he argued. "Simultaneously, pinpoint decisions, like those regarding the issuance of ad-hoc permits or waivers for certain countries and companies, could be made," the expert said.
Izvestia: Sizing up Israel's hidden nuke arsenal
Even as Israel is not an official nuclear power, experts say it has dozens or even hundreds of nuclear warheads at its disposal, while their carriers are capable of striking targets across the Middle East. Amid the direct armed confrontation with Tehran, the Israeli nuclear element takes on special significance for the security of the region.
Unlike the Manhattan Project developed by the United States or the Soviet-era nuclear program, Israel’s "nuclear history" has not been officially confirmed. After Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Jewish state’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion authorized research with a view to using atomic energy for military purposes independently. By 1960, Israel was reprocessing its own nuclear fuel with an annual capacity of several dozen kilos of plutonium. And in 1968, the CIA confirmed for the first time that Israel had launched the mass production of nuclear warheads.
At present, too, Israel may possess quite a large nuclear arsenal that can include free-fall bombs and warheads for cruise or ballistic missiles. And it should hold at least 100 pieces of the latter missiles, given they don’t become obsolete on their own.
Earlier, Ray McGovern, a former analyst at the CIA, told Izvestia in an interview that Israel may as well use nuclear weapons. According to him, should the country face destruction by Iranian missiles, its leader will not hesitate to use nukes as a measure of last resort. "Israel will not be stopped by any protests from the United States or any other country. They do whatever they want as they usually expect the United States to follow their suit," McGovern said.
Vedomosti: Before bombs dropped, US intel warned Trump that Iran regime couldn't be toppled
Shortly before the latest Middle East conflict erupted on February 28, US intelligence warned the White House that any attempts to change the regime in Iran would be fruitless even after the elimination of the country’s military-political leaders, the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing several officials familiar with a secret assessment by the National Intelligence Council. The same NIC memo showed that there is not a single alternative political force in the Islamic Republic that could lead the country, while, despite internal and external challenges, the Iranian elite is capable of keeping the country on its current political course.
The AP report came a day after the Assembly of Experts selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei who was killed in the joint US-Israeli bombing on the first day of the war, as Iran’s new supreme leader on March 8.
The White House did not originally have a Plan B in the event of a protracted conflict with Iran, Vladimir Vasilyev, Chief Research Fellow at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argues. According to him, Trump expected that the Islamic Republic would be quick to capitulate after its military-political leadership was destroyed. "Time is now against Trump, as a global economic crisis is looming because of energy price spikes, with the core of the US president’s electorate opposing the war. Citizens, too, are unhappy with how the American authorities have neglected domestic problems, something the Democrats will capitalize on," the expert explained to Vedomosti.
The escalated tensions and the foreign interference from the United States have only consolidated the Iranian public around their leadership, according to Murad Sadygzade, president of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at HSE University. The launching of the operation by the US and Israel amid talks contributed to this, while the killing of the spiritual leader only crystallized this sentiment, he said. On top of that, the expert continued, the authorities were able to show the capabilities of the Iranian army to citizens. "The suppression of anti-government protests early this year also helped ensure the stability of the Islamic system. However, the government will have to undertake military and economic reform and achieve greater governance efficiency to face the challenge," the expert warned.
Izvestia: US companies ready to do business with Russia post Ukraine peace
US companies and the Trump administration are ready to revive cooperation with Russia as soon as the geopolitical situation improves, AmCham President Robert Agee told Izvestia. "In our view, Russia is an ideal place for localizing data centers, given its climate and energy capabilities. However, the American sanctions on the delivery of high-tech equipment to Russia will have to be lifted even amid the hypothetical interest from big tech in running such projects," he noted. Specific projects could be discussed and a Russia-US business forum could be held only after a Ukraine peace deal is signed, Agee emphasized.
Higher School of Economics analyst Yegor Toropov told Izvestia that the potential of Russia-US cooperation is quite high. Since 2022, bilateral trade has decreased, shrinking from $34 billion in 2021 to a little more than $4 billion last year. "The recovery of economic ties in the next few years alone would also give a political impetus to a rapprochement between Russia and the United States in jointly solving global conflicts," Toropov stressed.
Indeed, there are lots of avenues for cooperation between Russia and the United States. Among other things, Moscow sees Washington’s interest in joint Arctic exploration, Alexander Gusarov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North Atlantic Department, told Izvestia in an interview earlier. Also, Russia awaits the restoration of direct flights, with the US holding the initiative on that issue, the Russian Foreign Ministry has emphasized. Back last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited US state-owned agencies and companies to take part in rare earth projects.
However, the Ukraine conflict remains in the way of all this, with Kiev making every effort to postpone a peaceful resolution. Any agreements between the United States and Russia should work to coerce Ukraine to peace as the latter has not demonstrated any willingness to reach agreement, Ambassador-at-Large of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik lamented in an interview with Izvestia.
Izvestia: Slovakia seconds Hungary's call on Brussels to lift Russian oil sanctions
Like Budapest, Bratislava, too, insists that the ban on Russian energy imports set to take effect next year be lifted, Marian Kery, who heads the foreign affairs committee at Slovakia’s parliament, told Izvestia. "Because of the problem in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices are spiking. Even without what is happening on Iranian soil, we want gas and oil imports from Russia as this is beneficial for us," he said.
Amid the Middle East conflict, the cost of energy has increased in the EU, with Hungary and Slovakia hit especially hard. "The crisis will push fuel and other prices higher, which could prompt early elections with opposition politicians who currently enjoy a high voter support potential coming to power. Kiev’s rationale has been to replace politicians in the region who get in the way of its interests," Mikhail Vedernikov, a senior researcher at the Central and Eastern Europe Research Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, explained to Izvestia.
At that, Brussels will agree to a waiver for Russian energy imports only if the political situation changes in Slovakia and Hungary. If the current politicians stay in the two countries, the EU will work as hard as possible to "twist their arms" in order to weaken their positions, the expert believes.
Meanwhile, Slovakia is getting ready to enhance security on its border with Ukraine, and Hungary moved to strengthen its strategic facilities earlier. "Given the Kiev regime’s penchant for using not entirely legal methods, no provocations, say drone interventions, can be excluded. Still, there are no players out there who want a major escalation," Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of International Studies of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Yegor Sergeyev told the newspaper.
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