MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. The EU is considering a naval mission to intercept tankers linked to Russia in the Baltic and North seas; a US-Venezuela oil deal would give Washington increased control of Venezuela’s vast reserves; and Iceland’s rejection of renewed EU accession talks deals a blow to Brussels’ ambitions in the North Atlantic. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Izvestia: EU considers naval mission to seize Russia-linked tankers
Brussels is considering setting up a special naval mission to seize tankers linked to Russia, Izvestia has learned. The proposed European mission would be deployed in the Baltic and North seas. Launching the initiative would require unanimous approval by the EU Council, which experts say may prove difficult to obtain. Earlier, the European Union had already redirected its IRINI mission in the Mediterranean toward combating sanctions evasion. Russian authorities have repeatedly stressed that, if necessary, they are prepared to provide military escorts for commercial vessels.
"The EU is discussing a more offensive approach to combating the so-called shadow fleet. <...> The creation of a special naval mission for the union is under consideration. In that case, for obvious geographic reasons, the easiest areas for the EU to target would be the Baltic and North seas," Fernand Kartheiser, a member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg, told Izvestia.
A European source told Izvestia that the "creation of a new mechanism to combat sanctions evasion" is under discussion. According to another source, a proposal to create the new mission could be announced in the fall.
If launched, a naval mission in the Baltic would constitute a serious violation of freedom of navigation and would effectively amount to a naval blockade, Thierry Mariani, a member of the European Parliament, told Izvestia. "This would be yet another step toward a conflict with Russia at a time when the EU should be doing exactly the opposite: seeking peace rather than generating new pretexts for escalation," the politician said.
According to Tigran Meloyan, analyst at the HSE Center for Mediterranean Studies, one possible measure Moscow could take in response to the initiative would be to establish a permanent regional naval task force capable of deploying unmanned aerial, surface and underwater systems to continuously track the maritime activities of NATO countries in the Baltic Sea and protect tankers carrying Russian cargo from attempts to seize them in raids.
The detention of vessels by EU countries could ultimately turn against them, director of the First European Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Artyom Studennikov told the newspaper.
Fernand Kartheiser emphasized that the EU remains heavily dependent on imports of Russian fossil fuels at precisely the moment when it is "discussing the enforcement of its sanctions against these energy commodities on the high seas." In addition, the EU’s pressure on third countries will hurt its international standing and could lead to retaliatory measures by those states, the politician believes.
Vedomosti: US deal brings Venezuela’s vast oil reserves within Washington’s reach
The United States now controls 65 bln barrels of Venezuelan oil under an agreement with Venezuela, United States President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. According to him, the deal gives the US preferential control, secured with the involvement of private businesses. The US president also emphasized that the agreement did not require any expenditure by American taxpayers. He called the deal historic, saying it more than doubles US oil reserves and will allow gasoline prices for Americans to be significantly lowered for an extended period. According to Trump, the agreement was approved on the US side by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and on the Venezuelan side by the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez. Experts interviewed by Vedomosti say the deal is mutually beneficial and would give Caracas a way out of international isolation.
According to Rodriguez herself, the deal is set to run for 25 years and will allegedly bring in around $209 bln for Venezuela. She emphasized that, at an oil price of $65 per barrel, the country’s treasury will receive $19 from every barrel sold. In addition, CNBC reports that the Venezuelan government is preparing licenses for foreign companies to explore oil fields and extract crude.
The US-Venezuela deal is gradually opening up the Venezuelan market to American oil companies, director of the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Rosenthal told Vedomosti. Caracas is already working on a new legal framework for the fuel and energy sector to ease the entry of foreign companies, which, for the first time in many years, will allow foreign firms to operate independently, the analyst noted.
The oil agreement between the United States and Venezuela is a mutually beneficial deal, making it incorrect to portray the Venezuelan side as a victim, energy expert Kirill Rodionov noted. According to him, Venezuela’s oil industry suffered severe losses during the years of Hugo Chavez’s and Nicolas Maduro’s rule, with oil production falling threefold. A way out of the crisis is possible only through a radical improvement in external conditions and a change in the sanctions environment surrounding Venezuela, the analyst noted.
In Rodionov’s view, without the US deal, Venezuela’s oil industry would have continued to remain stagnant, while the government would have lost billions of dollars in revenue. "The US-Venezuela deal reflects the formation of a new architecture in the global oil market, while also giving the Latin American republic an opportunity to break free of international isolation," the expert said.
Izvestia: BRICS at crossroads as India’s chairmanship puts bloc’s expansion to the test
Less than two weeks remain before the key BRICS event at which the grouping will outline its objectives for the coming year. The 18th BRICS summit will be held in New Delhi on September 12-13. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend, representing both member states and partner countries. The group has continued to expand in recent years, and the upcoming meeting will show whether the new participants have managed to integrate fully into its work. So far, their adaptation has faced a number of structural and, at times, geopolitical challenges. At the same time, interest in BRICS remains strong. Thailand may be one of the most likely candidates for full membership, Izvestia has learned.
Moscow views Bangkok’s desire to become a full BRICS member positively. "From the outset, the Russian side regarded the Kingdom as a strong candidate. Thailand is an influential Southeast Asian state," the Russian Embassy in Bangkok said.
According to Elena Pyltsina, senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Vietnam and ASEAN at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, obtaining full BRICS membership would broaden Thailand’s foreign-policy options, allowing Bangkok to balance more flexibly among the various centers of global power.
Thailand’s potential accession would not conflict with the interests of the group’s other members, Pavel Shaternikov, research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told Izvestia. He stressed that BRICS is not an international organization in the conventional sense, but rather an informal forum whose nature is more akin to that of the G7.
However, BRICS expansion is not necessarily going to take place during India’s chairmanship. The issue of integrating the grouping’s new participants appears to have come to the forefront. As a result, Thailand is unlikely to obtain full BRICS membership in the near future, although its application remains promising. For Bangkok, its current partner status offers an opportunity to become more deeply integrated into the grouping’s mechanisms, while for Moscow, it provides an additional channel for deepening ties with one of Southeast Asia’s key states, Izvestia writes.
Vedomosti: Iceland’s EU vote highlights limits of Brussels’ northern expansion push
According to preliminary results from the August 29 referendum on whether to resume negotiations on Iceland’s accession to the European Union, 47.2% of voters supported continuing the talks, while 52.8% voted against, broadcaster RUV reported. The referendum had a turnout of 82%, but is advisory by nature, although the authorities had pledged to take its results into account. Had the vote produced a result favorable to European integration, a second referendum and approval of Reykjavik’s application by all EU member states would have been required. Experts told Vedomosti the referendum’s failure reflects a deep internal divide over the economic and political costs of EU membership.
Iceland first applied for EU membership in July 2009 amid the global financial crisis. The main sticking point was the EU’s strict fishing quotas. The application was formally withdrawn in 2015. The current proponents of renewing Iceland’s drive toward European integration are members of the Social Democratic Alliance. Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir cited US actions in Venezuela and Washington’s repeatedly stated intentions to gain control over Greenland among the factors behind the concerns.
The influence of US President Donald Trump and his rhetoric over Greenland on efforts to revive Iceland’s EU accession bid should not be overemphasized, junior research fellow at MGIMO University’s Institute for International Studies Evgeny Pankov told Vedomosti. However, pro-European forces capitalized on the issue. The social democrats who initiated the referendum represent the interests of residents of the Reykjavik metropolitan area, including those dissatisfied with inflation and high mortgage rates - EU membership was expected to ease these problems. Opposition to European integration comes primarily from farmers and the fishing industry in the provinces.
The risk that the referendum would fail has now become reality, with signs of this becoming apparent in the final days before the vote. At the same time, even a victory for the initiative to resume negotiations would have provided an extremely weak mandate for making major decisions in the future, the expert continued. Regardless of the outcome, the social democrats’ initiative has split Icelandic society, Pankov believes.
For the EU, reviving Iceland’s European integration process is primarily a political issue. It would allow Brussels to reinforce its territorial claims in the face of competitors - the United States and the United Kingdom - and secure a role in the North Atlantic, providing access to the Arctic, head of the Regional Problems and Conflicts Sector at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations Pavel Timofeev said. For the European public at home, negotiations with Iceland were an opportunity to show that the EU’s integration project remains sought after, he added.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Western pivot could leave Armenia more dependent on Turkey and Azerbaijan
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, chaired by the Kyrgyz Republic, will be held in Bishkek on August 31-September 1, 2026. Russian and Armenian leaders Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan are expected to have a difficult conversation on the sidelines of the summit, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. Among other issues, they are expected to discuss Yerevan’s European integration and the criminal prosecution of the pro-Russian opposition. Their meeting will take place against the backdrop of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s expanding influence in the South Caucasus, with the leaders of both countries also traveling to Kyrgyzstan.
According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, Moscow insists that its Armenian counterparts should not pursue European integration at the expense of cooperation within the Eurasian framework. Putin will also discuss with Pashinyan the arrest of Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, and other Armenian opposition leaders who advocate friendly relations with Russia. Ushakov noted that Moscow is concerned about Yerevan’s actions.
Meanwhile, the SCO summit will bring together the leaders of 17 countries, including the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Observers routinely identify them as among the main beneficiaries of the restructuring of the security architecture in the South Caucasus. In addition, EU representatives are advising Armenia to link up with Turkey’s energy system in order to reduce its dependence on Russia.
"Turkey and Azerbaijan are actively involved in the process of driving Russia out of the South Caucasus. At present, in the context of Armenian-Russian relations, they are playing roughly the same role that they once played in pushing Russia out of Georgia during the rule of Mikhail Saakashvili. It is no secret that without economic, energy, and political support from Ankara and Baku, Tbilisi would hardly have been able to withstand such a sharp break in relations with Russia. In Armenia’s case, we see that the tandem of these two Turkic states, with active support from the United States and the EU, is seeking to become the leading force in the region," head of the Analytical Center for Strategic Studies and Initiatives (ACSSI) Hayk Khalatyan told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
According to the expert, Washington and Brussels believe that bolstering Turkey’s position in the South Caucasus serves their strategic interests, as it would automatically weaken Russia and Iran in the region. Moreover, in the longer term, Turkey could emerge as a competitor to Russia and China in Central Asia.
"Against this backdrop, Pashinyan’s statements about closer ties with the EU and the United States may be nothing more than a facade behind which Armenia is being transformed into a satellite of Turkey and Azerbaijan," Khalatyan concluded.
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