MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. NATO seeks to strengthen its foothold in Northern Europe; Israel continues to hinder efforts to resolve the Gaza Strip conflict; and Moscow and Damascus reconfigure Russian military presence in Syria. These stories topped Tuesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Izvestia: NATO seeks to strengthen foothold in Northern Europe
Finland is rapidly becoming a NATO staging ground as the alliance works to establish multinational ground forces and regularly holds military exercises in the country. NATO’s growing military presence in Finland is a destabilizing factor in the region, an official at the Russian embassy in Helsinki told Izvestia.
Finland’s accession to NATO in 2023, followed by Sweden’s in 2024, gave the North Atlantic Alliance a free hand to substantially increase its forces in Northern Europe, turning the region into a key bridgehead for exerting pressure on Russia.
Analysts point out that the continued deployment of troops to Finland is moving NATO’s infrastructure closer to Russia’s strategically important facilities. Military expert Vasily Dandykin notes that by establishing a foothold in Finland, NATO strategists have gained the ability to control access to the Baltic Sea from St. Petersburg from both the Finnish and Estonian coasts. Moreover, the new ground troops stationed in Finland could operate in close coordination with naval forces. This creates the risk for Russia of the westernmost Kaliningrad Region becoming completely isolated and access to the world's oceans being cut off.
Military analyst Viktor Litovkin argues that Finland's infrastructure is already being modernized to meet the needs of the United States and NATO. Airfields across the country are being prepared to accommodate US fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons, while Helsinki has in fact indicated its readiness to host such arms.
Russia has begun taking military and organizational measures in response to these threats. In particular, the Leningrad Military District has been reestablished, and new military units are being formed and deployed in the region, the analyst said. In addition, Russia also holds exercises involving the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, which are intended to temper the aggressive zeal of NATO’s leadership.
The Finnish authorities’ belief that the country’s integration into NATO would automatically guarantee its security through allied support appears to have been mistaken. Instead, Finland now faces rising tensions as it becomes a potential zone of armed conflict.
Izvestia: Israel continues to hinder efforts to resolve Gaza Strip conflict
The United States has resumed diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip, but Israel continues to hamper attempts to reach an effective settlement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed US President Donald Trump's proposal that Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave before Hamas fully gives up its arms, Izvestia writes.
The parties remain far apart in their positions, which is why the situation is at an impasse, Middle East expert Alexander Kargin said. According to him, Hamas is unlikely to agree to disarm because doing so would effectively spell the end of the group’s existence. While the Palestinian side continues to depend on US mediation, the White House is unlikely to resolve the deadlock.
Israel, in turn, will never give up its goal of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, political scientist Igor Pshenichnikov emphasized.
Meanwhile, Washington’s ambitious reconstruction plans for the region continue to draw strong criticism. The Guardian reports that the United States has no intention of restoring the enclave to its previous state. Journalists obtained the first construction contract signed by the Trump-led Board of Peace with US contractor Arkel International. Rather than financing the construction of homes, schools and hospitals, the first millions of dollars are allegedly set to be spent on a large fortified military base. Rights activists and Palestinian politicians accuse the US administration of lying when it says it is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, arguing that its real focus is on militarization and strict security control.
As for the key domestic issue, Kargin points to divisions within Palestinian society stemming from the long-standing rivalry between Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority. The armed conflict between the two groups, which broke out back in 2006, remains unresolved. The persistent split between Fatah and Hamas is only deepening the situation, depriving Palestinians of unified leadership and reducing their prospects of achieving statehood anytime soon. As a result, the Palestinian people remain caught in a political stalemate, with the large-scale humanitarian disaster being pushed aside by the interests of external players.
Kommersant: Moscow, Damascus reconfigure Russian military presence in Syria
Russia and Syria have signed a memorandum of understanding on restructuring Moscow’s military presence in the Middle Eastern country. According to the document, Russian military bases established under former Syrian President Bashar Assad will be given the status of joint training centers. Experts say the bases have long altered how they operate and that the memorandum removes legal uncertainty surrounding the presence of Russian troops in Syria while retaining the possibility of using the bases as transit hubs on the route to Africa, Kommersant writes.
The Hmeimim facility will now serve as a training center for Syrian service members and will no longer function as a military base, a Syrian source familiar with the situation told the newspaper. According to the source, Hmeimim has effectively been converted into a military training center that Syrian and Russian officers will operate jointly. As for the Tartus facility, it will come fully under the control of the Syrian authorities.
The new agreements reached by Syria and Russia make it clear that both countries are willing to work together and strengthen mutually beneficial ties, the source stressed.
Russian International Affairs Council expert Anton Mardasov said that the bases used by Russian forces had already been partly transformed. "They have long ceased to perform military functions," he explained. "For Russia, the main objective is to continue using the Syrian airfield in Hmeimim as a transit facility on the route to Africa and maintain the conditions needed for a long-term presence," the analyst added.
Mardasov also noted that participating in the training of the new Syrian army would allow Russia "to stay informed about regional developments and offset Turkish influence," which is also in the interest of the government of Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Vedomosti: Gold, silver prices climb as central banks boost purchases
Gold and silver prices have risen sharply in recent days. Gold prices increased following the release of US labor market data, as weaker figures lowered expectations of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, Vedomosti reports, citing Tsifra Broker.
A dramatic increase in gold purchases by central banks in the second quarter of the year is another factor pushing prices higher. According to the World Gold Council, central banks bought 289 metric tons of gold, five times as much as in the first quarter and the highest level for any second quarter. Record-high gold purchases by individuals, apparently seeking to hedge against risks, are another notable factor, said Dmitry Skryabin, portfolio manager at the Alpha Capital asset management company. Sales of gold bars and coins increased by 42% in the first quarter of 2026.
The rise in gold prices is likely to be a short-lived rather than sustained trend, Nikolay Maslikov, analyst at BCS World of Investments, believes. Macroeconomic factors suggest that gold prices are set to decline, as bond yields in developed countries have risen and interest rates are expected to increase. That said, investors are likely to prefer traditional assets over gold, the expert said.
In the short term, gold prices will largely depend on developments in the Middle East conflict, Skryabin said. If tensions subside, prices are likely to return to levels seen at the beginning of the year. US tariff policy will also play a significant role, he added.
As for silver, its price is highly dependent on global industrial trends, Vasily Danilov, leading analyst at Veles Capital, noted. Given the lower liquidity of the silver market, a rise in gold prices could trigger substantial fluctuations in silver’s value. Therefore, silver is likely to track the trend in gold in the short and medium term, the analyst said.
A supply deficit has persisted in the global silver market for a sixth consecutive year amid strong demand for bars and coins and tighter availability. Finam analyst Nikolay Dudchenko expects silver prices to continue rising under the baseline scenario.
Vedomosti: Russia’s Supreme Court excludes Yabloko party list from parliamentary elections
The electoral list of Russia’s Yabloko party, which has been participating in parliamentary elections since 1993, is apparently out of the race for seats in the ninth State Duma, the lower house of parliament, following a Supreme Court ruling on a claim filed by the Rodina party, Vedomosti reports.
Rodina’s claim was largely based on violations of intellectual property laws. A member of the Central Election Commission also pointed to alleged foreign funding received by Yabloko, citing data from the federal financial watchdog.
Meanwhile, the revocation of the federal electoral list’s registration does not mean that Yabloko’s single-mandate candidates will automatically be excluded from the elections, a party member told the newspaper. Indeed, Rodina’s claim concerned only Yabloko’s federal list and did not cover single-mandate candidates, electoral lawyer Garegin Mitin pointed out. Yabloko’s candidates will therefore continue campaigning, lawyer Maxim Sikach said.
If the Supreme Court’s ruling takes effect, Yabloko will miss out on a second consecutive nationwide election campaign, as the party did not nominate a candidate in the 2024 Russian presidential election. However, it will not face a formal threat of liquidation over non-participation in elections in the near future, lawyer Oleg Zakharov noted. Under the law, elections at any level, not just federal campaigns, are taken into account in this regard.
The last time Yabloko had a faction in the State Duma was in 1999-2003. The party has failed to pass the electoral threshold since then. The question now is how voters will respond. The first emotional reaction among those who planned to vote for Yabloko would be to stay away from the polls now that the party has been removed from the race, political scientist Konstantin Kalachev said. "Later, everything will depend on the New People party, which these voters may consider the second-best option. New People will either succeed in finding convincing arguments to attract them or fail to do so," the expert said.
Much will also depend on the position the party adopts. No specific decisions have been announced yet, as Yabloko plans to appeal the court ruling.
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