Top stories from the Russian press on Wednesday, August 18th, prepared by TASS

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Biden ditches exporting democracy

US President Joe Biden’s address to the American people, in which he made an assessment of the developments in Afghanistan, surprised both his opponents and supporters. According to Biden, Washington had no plans to establish democracy in Afghanistan but focused on the fight against international terrorism. Experts believe that the defeat in Afghanistan raises the odds of an early change in the White House..

The very fact that Biden had to deliver such a speech points to a systemic crisis in American foreign policy, Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies Vladimir Vasilyev pointed out. He noted that the current administration in Washington had suffered a string of failures stemming from the inflow of illegal immigrants to the US, its consent to the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the situation in Afghanistan. "Clearly, the Biden administration has failed to hammer out a clear foreign policy both on the Afghan track and in general. It’s hard to say where all this is headed. Perhaps, it will lead to a reshuffle of the White House foreign policy team," Vasilyev said.

According to the commentator, there is a need to look closer at the US intelligence community, which played an important role in Trump’s defeat and now has come to understand that it has traded bad for worse. Biden publicly framed the intelligence community, praising its work on July 27, a few days before the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) captured Kabul, which caught the US by surprise. The expert believes that mutual mistrust between US law enforcement agencies and the political leadership may expand now.

"The question is whether Biden will share Nixon’s fate. The current US president seems to be a perfect candidate to take the blame for the failure in Afghanistan," Vasilyev said. Biden’s possible departure from the White House will definitely have an impact on US relations with Russia. And even if Biden retains his position, US foreign policy will change. However, the changes will become clear only after a reshuffle begins in the White House, which is highly probable after the Afghanistan defeat.

Izvestia: Europe, ex-Soviet countries to face threats after Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan

The Biden administration intends to earmark up to $500 mln to aid Afghan refugees. Albania and Kosovo have agreed to accommodate these refugees at Washington’s request. Meanwhile, the European Union fears a new migration crisis and a rise in the influence of Russia and China, Izvestia writes.

The West’s role in Afghanistan will indeed continue to wane as Western countries will have less tools to impact the situation, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov said. According to him, Russia and China will probably have to face more allegations. "If Beijing and Moscow make agreements with the Taliban, the West will label it as a cynical policy based on a disregard for human rights. Secular civil society institutions and gender equity programs are destined to come under attack in Afghanistan. Russia and China will hardly oppose that and will be blamed for cooperating with the Taliban," the expert pointed out.

Over 270,000 people have fled Afghanistan since the beginning of the year. Iran and Pakistan usually receive most of the Afghan refugees. Central Asian countries - Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan - are reluctant to accommodate refugees from Afghanistan, which is what the Americans initially counted on, said Director of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy Vadim Kozyulin.

"The main threat that the Taliban pose to Russia and Central Asia comes from their ideas. Islamist ideas are already popular in Central Asian countries and Kyrgyzstan," the commentator explained. "Afghanistan may turn into a new pocket of terrorism. The danger is that there are a lot of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks in Afghanistan who can cross borders and enter Central Asia without being seen," Kozyulin emphasized.

Kortunov, in turn, stressed, that Afghans viewed EU countries rather than Central Asian states as their final destination. "One of the demands that the international community will have for the Taliban will be to prevent a mass exodus of people from the country. One thing is clear for now: it will be a serious issue and it’s hard to predict its scope," the analyst said.

Vedomosti: Russian Defense Ministry unlikely to ditch Il-112 project despite crash

An Ilyushin Il-112V crashed near the Kubinka military airfield on August 17. The plane was on its way from a Voronezh aircraft factory to participate in the International Military-Technical Forum Army-2021, set to begin in Kubinka on August 22, Vedomosti writes.

A video shows the aircraft’s right engine ablaze, which presumably triggered the plane crash.. The cause of the engine fire is to be established through an investigation. Since it was a prototype, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Oleg Bocharov, who supervises the aviation industry, will head a commission looking into the causes of the accident, a ministry spokesperson said.

The Il-112V project is a protracted one, like many others launched in the 1990s. The plane was supposed to replace light military transport and passenger planes such as the Antonov An-24 and An-26, whose operational life will expire in the current decade. The Defense Ministry decided to abandon the project in 2011, following eight years of development efforts, and cut off funding. However, the project was reopened in 2014 because no alternatives had been found. Work was delayed once again because of the need for major design changes.

According to Oleg Panteleyev from the Aviaport agency, no theories should be voiced until the cause of the crash is established. As for the future use of the engine installed on the Il-112V plane, there is a need to increase the power system capacity in order to fully exploit the aircraft’s potential, which is in fact equal to creating a new engine, Panteleyev noted.

The Russian Defense Ministry will not ditch the Il-112V program because it needs a plane of this size and there are no alternatives, Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov emphasized. However, it is clear that work on the project will be delayed once again, the expert added.

Izvestia: Gas prices hit new highs

Natural gas prices have soared to record levels all around the world. Prices skyrocketed by nearly 1,000% in Europe (to $580 per 1,000 cubic meters) and by 500% in East Asia in the past year. Analysts believe that the era of cheap gas is over, Izvestia notes.

According to Research Director at Vygon Consulting Maria Belova, the post-2020 coronavirus economic recovery is the main reason. Gas prices are also climbing due to low stocks caused by the cold last winter and the current hot summer.

President of the Institute of Energy and Finance Marcel Salikhov believes that apart from economic and natural factors, there is also an environmental aspect. In fact, the fight against global warming and carbon emissions is playing into the hands of some hydrocarbon energy sources. European carbon emission prices have nearly tripled over the past 12 months, making gas more competitive than coal, while contributing to soaring prices.

There are also tactical issues related to the adjusted strategy of Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, the main provider of gas to Europe. The company made no effort to increase supplies in the past several months like it used to do and preferred to rake in additional profits from rising prices, Salikhov added.

Market price hikes are often followed by rapid declines. The current high prices are negatively affecting demand. In June and July, Europe’s gas consumption hit its lowest level in five years. However, demand for liquefied natural gas remained high in Asia. "It’s difficult to expect prices to remain at such a level for a long time because producers will increase supply and as for demand, there are alternatives to gas, which are getting more competitive as gas prices rise," Salikhov noted.

Izvestia: Russian watchdog lashes out at Google for blackmail attempt

Google sought to blackmail the Russian government by a making a statement about plans to stop removing illegal content from search results, Izvestia writes, citing Russia’s telecom watchdog. The US-based multinational tech giant said earlier that it could stop removing content banned in Russia from search results if it lost a lawsuit to the Tsargrad TV channel, whose YouTube account was blocked in July 2020.

"The company is trying to manipulate public opinion and put pressure on judicial authorities. In a bid to protect its commercial interests, Google is ready to put the lives and health of Russian users at risk," the regulator stated. Google, in turn, told the newspaper that the company had never deliberately linked its work in Russia to the outcome of the above-mentioned lawsuit.

The Silicon Valley tech giant has in fact presented an ultimatum to the government in an attempt to blackmail it, Safe Internet League Director Yekaterina Mizulina pointed out. Notably, Russia is not the first country where Google behaves like this, the expert pointed out. The Indian and Chinese governments earlier faced blackmail attempts and ultimatums, Mizulina noted.

This kind of blackmail from Big Tech is completely unacceptable. These companies are active on our market, making tremendous profits, so they should abide by Russian laws and respect the interests of Russian users and businesses, Mizulina emphasized.

Similar incidents in other countries usually end up in tech behemoths engaging in dialogue with the government and starting to comply with the country’s laws. The same will eventually happen in Russia, the expert said.