MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Iran’s top diplomat holds talks with the Russian president in St. Petersburg, and Charles III begins a state visit to the United States. Meanwhile, the war challenges Russia’s Africa Corps in Mali. These stories topped Tuesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Media: Putin, Araghchi hold talks as Iran seeks ways to resolve conflict with US
The United States has proposed resuming talks with Iran, the Islamic Republic’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, announced during his visit to St. Petersburg for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian head of state assured Araghchi that Moscow will do everything to help bring peace as soon as possible. According to media reports, Iran has allegedly proposed re-opening the Strait of Hormuz and putting an end to hostilities in exchange for pausing talks on its nuclear program for a decade.
Tehran relies on a multi-vector approach in its interaction with major mediators as it tries not to focus on one of them only, having learned from experience, Middle East expert Leonid Tsukanov told Izvestia. Prior to the war, the United States and Iran negotiated the nuclear program through Oman. "Pakistan is convenient as a venue outside the Middle East, Oman as a window of communication with the United States, and Russia as a guarantor of compliance with commitments undertaken by the parties. It is the latter that the current negotiation process around the Iranian conflict lacks," the expert said.
Araghchi’s visit to Russia was part of his first foreign trip since the war. He travelled to Oman before he visited Pakistan, the host country for US-Iran talks, on Sunday. After Araghchi’s tour, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a potential agreement should unequivocally prevent Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The issue will likely draw the attention of the whole global community in the coming weeks.
On Monday, the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons kicked off at the UN’s headquarters in New York. The event promises to be one of the most intense, for obvious reasons. "There is no doubt that the NPT regime has been under tremendous pressure. And much of this pressure comes from the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, a country that is party to the treaty and that has not violated it, as asserted by the IAEA," the Federation Council’s Deputy Speaker, Konstantin Kosachev, told Izvestia.
At that, Moscow and Tehran do not always agree, say, on the very issue of Iran’s nuclear program, Russian International Affairs Council expert Kirill Semyonov told Vedomosti. And, perhaps, Russia would not like Iran to reject compromises, where possible, the expert continued. In general, resolving this conflict and the broader Middle East conflict would be important to Moscow in the long term as there are several vital projects for it there, including the North-South corridor, whose implementation will directly depend on whether Iran is willing to take radical measures against its neighbors and on their relations overall.
Izvestia: Charles III arrives on state visit to US
On April 27, British monarch Charles III and his wife Camilla landed in Maryland, the United States. Among other things, the agenda includes Charles III’s address to Congress and a meeting with US President Donald Trump. However, experts doubt the royal visit will help improve dialogue between London and Washington as the crisis facing the "special relationship" between the two countries stems from fundamental differences, including over the vision of NATO’s role in security provision.
A UK monarch – the late Queen Elizabeth II – last arrived on a state visit to the United States in 2007. Back then, the visit coincided with the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the early British pioneers landed in North America. This time around, the British king arrived to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence at a moment when the "special relations" between Washington and London are going through a major crisis.
British political analyst and former Financial Times reporter Quentin Peel argues that Charles III is faced with a challenging task of "not offending" Trump, on the one hand, and taking a firm stand on issues that matter the most to the British government, on the other hand. "King Charles is perhaps the only person around the globe whom Trump, as a great monarchist, would hate to offend. He adores the late Queen Elizabeth II and has always called Charles 'a wonderful friend'. Therefore, I think Donald Trump himself will be quite careful this time," the expert told Izvestia.
However, Charles III’s visit will hardly mend differences between the United States and Britain regarding the fundamental rift in how they view NATO’s role, the analyst continued. "Perhaps, the relations will slightly improve, but I don’t think they will change significantly if we look at this in a couple of weeks," he noted.
Besides, the United States and Britain differ on ways to resolve the Ukraine conflict and support Kiev. While Washington is seeking to put an end to the crisis as soon as possible through maintaining dialogue with Russia and putting pressure on Ukraine for territorial concessions, Britain has insisted that military assistance to Kiev should be continued. At that, London rejects any compromises with Moscow.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: War in Mali challenges Russia’s Africa Corps
Intense battles between the alliance of anti-government groups and the central government’s army erupted in Mali. Even as the West African nation raised its alert levels and tightened security at checkpoints, some cities remained under militants’ control on April 27. The offensive, which brought local jihadists and Tuareg separatists together, has challenged the Russian Africa Corps, operating there since 2025. Participants in the offensive offered the Russian PMC immunity in exchange for neutrality.
The escalation resulted from the alliance between Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM), a jihadist organization designated as a terrorist group and banned in Russia, and the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The two forces publicly agreed to collaborate for the first time ever. "We are collaborating with JNIM," a FLA commander told Le Monde. The attackers are seeking "to liberate the population from the Mali authorities and their Russian partners," he added. "We want to overthrow the government in Bamako," the commander explained.
Russian International Affairs Council expert Kirill Semyonov recalled in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta that FLA and JNIM had joined forces in alliances of convenience before. "Both have Tuaregs as their members, and there are connections. <…> The specifics of the conflict have pushed the two groups closer together for the common goal of forming a state that would be independent from the central government. They share one project and common interests," the expert said. FLA and JNIM can adapt to each other in their vision of a post-conflict settlement, he added.
"Syria has set an example here. Its current government showed: if you have to win a war, you need to be more flexible and adaptive to modern realities," Semyonov maintained. According to him, the situation in Mali has been challenging for the Africa Corps from the start. "Risks have always been high over there. Originally, the Africa Corps tried to solve the problem using a smaller force, but now it will have to address the issue, using a larger force and investment," he concluded.
Izvestia: Finland mulling mine production
Finland is considering launching the production of anti-personnel mines, the Russian embassy told Izvestia. Since the Nordic country withdrew from the Ottawa Convention, Helsinki has been training its military to use these weapons. In parallel, the Finnish side is building barriers along its border with Russia as it plans to complete the bulk of this work by next fall.
In this situation, there are no signs of willingness in Helsinki to revive constructive dialogue with Moscow, the Russian embassy told Izvestia. "On the contrary, the current Finnish authorities make it clear in every possible way that they have no intention to abandon the current confrontational line as they continue to view this country exclusively as a long-term and ‘existential’ threat," the embassy stressed.
Relations between Russia and Finland have long been worsening systemically, Yaroslav Klimov, an assistant at the Department of Humanities of the Financial University under the Russian government, explained to Izvestia. "[Finland’s] membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, the military buildup along the border, and the erection of barriers have created an irreversible configuration that precludes a return to the ‘good-neighborly’ paradigm within the horizon of the next decade," he lamented.
Meanwhile, Helsinki does not rule out the need to restore relations with Moscow in the future. For its part, the Kremlin has said it is open to mending ties with Finland. However, Moscow argues that it is Helsinki who has reduced bilateral relations "almost to zero" since joining NATO.
Vedomosti: US launches portal for tariff refunds
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has launched the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) functionality to enable registered importers, including foreign businesses with US bank accounts, to request refunds for costs incurred over the imposition of tariffs by President Donald Trump in April 2025. Approximately $175 billion in US tariff collections may be subject to possible refunds.
CAPE will be valid for refunds after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs in the February 20 ruling.
Maxim Cherkashin, Research Fellow at the Center for North American Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vedomosti that any potential effect from tariff refunds will be almost entirely offset by the expected negative supply shock amid the Gulf war. The situation is exacerbated by the Trump administration preparing additional tools to implement its aggressive tariff policies.
However, the Trump administration could expedite the resolution of technical glitches, provide informal clarifications and facilitate the process to companies that are politically close to it, Vadim Kozlov, head of the domestic political research department at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ US and Canadian Studies Institute, said.
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