MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Washington and Tehran announce a two-week ceasefire, and President Donald Trump questions the North Atlantic Alliance’s role for the United States ahead of a visit by NATO chief Mark Rutte. Meanwhile, Europe seems unlikely to compensate for the shortage of interceptors for Kiev. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Media: US, Iran agree on a two-week ceasefire
The United States and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire just an hour ahead of Donald Trump’s latest deadline. Washington will refrain from bombing Iranian infrastructure, while Tehran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for a fortnight.
According to Trump, Washington has received a 10-point plan from Tehran that he described as "a workable basis" for talks. "Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated," the US leader commented.
The Pentagon stated that a ceasefire has already come into force and that the United States has suspended all attacks.
Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi confirmed that subject to coordination with the Iranian armed forces and consideration of technical limitations, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be possible for a period of two weeks. The truce allows Iran and Oman to demand fees from ships passing through the strait, which effectively puts them in control of the waterway. Iran could use the money it raises for reconstruction in the wake of US strikes.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council emphasized that Tehran will cease its defensive operations if attacks against the Islamic Republic are halted.
The warring parties will now need to discuss a peace plan in detail, with the first round likely to take place in Pakistan as early as April 10.
Experts argue that Iran’s 10-point proposal includes provisions that can hardly be accepted by Washington, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes. These include a demand for all sanctions to be lifted, US military withdrawal from the Middle East, and a UN Security Council resolution making any deal binding.
Roman Yanushevsky, editor-in-chief of the Israeli Channel 9 website, highlighted the symbolic meaning behind the timing: April 8 marks 40 days after what Iran calls the martyrdom of its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which is particularly important in the Shiite tradition and has frequently triggered an increase in mobilization activity, including protests or policy momentum.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Trump questions NATO’s role for his country ahead of Rutte’s visit
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will arrive in the United States on an official visit from April 8-12, the Brussels-based North Atlantic Alliance announced. His meeting with US President Donald Trump is expected to mark a key diplomatic effort to strengthen transatlantic unity amid the "current political uncertainty." Ahead of Rutte’s visit, Trump blasted US allies for not doing enough to protect global navigation and putting excessive financial pressure on Washington, which creates a rather tense backdrop for his coming talks with the NATO chief.
Political analyst Andrey Kortunov sees both ideological and political reasons behind Trump’s conflicts with European US allies within NATO. "Ideology-wise, Trump’s right-leaning populism has little in common with the neoliberal attitudes of most European leaders. <…> Politically, Trump has always sought to change the format of relations between the United States and its foreign allies and partners in order to make this relationship `financially viable’ for the United States," he explained to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Naturally, the current crisis at NATO stems not only from the personality of the US leader but also from the divergence of the fundamental interests of the United States and Europe that has historical reasons behind it, therefore this rift will persist even after Trump leaves office in 2029. "However, it is too early to ring the bell for the transatlantic partnership and its institutions, primarily NATO, for this partnership has lasted for eight decades already and it has accumulated huge inertia both on the eastern and the western shores of the Atlantic," Kortunov maintains.
Amid almost daily statements from Trump signaling potential US withdrawal from NATO or the possibility of cutting its funding, the bloc’s European members are increasingly discussing scenarios where the United States no longer serves as their guaranteed security provider. A European diplomat told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that with the rise in defense expenditure, the Old World is discussing behind closed doors alternative formats and solutions that would have seemed politically impossible a few years ago.
Izvestia: Europe seems unable to compensate for shortage of interceptors for Kiev
Due to the war in the Middle East, Sweden has been sending fewer air defense systems to Ukraine as it relies more on broader Western supplies, Russian Ambassador to Stockholm Sergey Belyaev told Izvestia. At that, in 2025, the country was among Kiev’s top three European donors. The European Parliament has already acknowledged that there are not enough systems to give to Kiev as it proposes tapping a €90 billion loan that has yet to be allocated, Izvestia has learned. Experts predict that as the situation around Iran escalates, the shortage of interceptors in Ukraine may become critical.
Pekka Tovery, who chairs the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, told Izvestia that Brussels would push for more supplies to Kiev and that a €90 billion loan could help. "The problem is very few European systems are available now. For example, the fact that France has provided Ukraine with one of its SAMP/T systems for testing is a good sign. If this system proves effective, especially against ballistic missiles, its production can be increased fairly quickly. Some other European systems are also being supplied, which can also be viewed as a good signal," he believes.
"There are no full-fledged analogues to Patriots in Europe. Even those systems that are considered European, such as NASAMS or IRIS-T, somehow rely on American licenses, components or ammunition. Therefore, the EU cannot fully replace the United States in supplying strategic air defenses to Ukraine, and any escalation in the Middle East would automatically increase the risk of Kiev facing a shortage of interceptors," Kirill Kazakov, a political scientist and lecturer at the RANEPA Institute of Management, told Izvestia.
The ability of Kiev’s European allies to compensate for a potential reduction in US air defense supplies remains extremely limited, Nadezhda Kapustina, professor with the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, noted. While European countries’ own stocks are small, the region’s defense production capabilities have been reduced for years as the continent relied on the US "security umbrella," she argued.
"Even in countries which have continued supplies there are quite limited resources and they cannot provide Ukraine with necessary amounts of interceptors quickly. Attempts to build pan-European production have run into bureaucracy, differing standards, and a lack of political willingness to invest as much as America in defense," the expert concluded.
Media: US vice president arrives in Budapest to support Orban
Ahead of the April 12 parliamentary election in Hungary, US Vice President JD Vance departed for a two-day visit to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Both do not conceal that the trip by the guest from across the ocean is part of the election campaign. The White House would not like Orban’s Fidesz party to lose even as the conservative opposition Tisza Party led by Peter Magyar is the clear favorite to win the vote, polls show. If the latter wins, it will interrupt Orban’s 16-year rule and will likely cause radical changes in Hungary’s foreign policy course, refocusing the country toward cooperation with the EU rather than with the United States.
Whether Trump’s interference in the Hungarian election will help Orban win is a big question. Mikhail Vedernikov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta in a comment that Vance’s visit will hardly be a gamechanger. "His arrival has a major symbolic meaning as it serves as confirmation of the strong ties between the two countries, which Washington considers a European springboard for the policy course it has pursued to undermine the positions of globalist elites," he argued. "At the same time, this visit will hardly influence the pre-election race of parties as local voters mostly assess the domestic situation in the Hungarian state," he explained. According to him, growing support for Magyar sends a signal that a substantial number of Hungarians are unhappy with the policy course pursued by Orban over the past few years. Voters are particularly dissatisfied with the socioeconomic policies which, many Hungarians believe, have aggravated living standards and caused a spike in prices and inflation, he added.
Meanwhile, Vance’s visit to Hungary serves as a powerful mobilization resource for conservatives across Europe and the United States, Pavel Koshkin, a senior researcher at the US and Canadian Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vedomosti. His visit to Hungary can be successfully "sold" to the US right-leaning electorate and donors. "Let’s keep in mind that the [US] vice president fits perfectly into the role of a cultural ambassador of Trumpism or an instrument of soft power promoting MAGA values abroad since February 2025," the expert maintained.
Vedomosti: Middle East conflict may prompt global monetary policy tightening
The Middle East conflict will spur global inflation and, as a result, force central banks in a number of Western countries to tighten their monetary policy, experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe. This will mostly affect the EU, Britain and Japan, which rely heavily on energy imports.
If the situation escalates and oil trades above $150 per barrel for long, this would probably have a notable impact on inflation in most consumer economies, Yegor Susin, Head of the Market Strategies Center at Gazprombank, told the newspaper. In this case, central banks will be forced to embrace monetary tightening, he warns.
Other economists disagree, saying that regulators in Western countries will not raise interest rates amid the military conflict. Despite a potential increase in inflation globally because of rising energy prices, the current situation does not remind investors of 2022 because the labor market and broader economies are now weaker, Dmitry Polevoy, investment director at Astra Asset Management, remarked. Besides, key rates are higher now than they were then, he added. And an increase in interest rates will pose economic risks, so regulators will hardly raise them, taking these risks into account, Polevoy believes. Instead, Western countries will tighten their fiscal policy and increase national debt, Alexander Knobel, Director of the Center of International Trade and Finance, argues.
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