Top stories from the Russian press on Tuesday, November 2nd, prepared by TASS
Izvestia: Russia stepping up efforts to upgrade army
Russia is actively continuing to upgrade its Aerospace Forces and the level of cutting-edge weapons in the country's Navy will reach 70% by 2027. This was announced following a meeting that President Vladimir Putin held with officials from the Defense Ministry and defense companies. The head of state pointed out that Moscow had to respond to attempts "by some of our foreign colleagues" to break strategic parity, and highlighted the US Navy's activities in the Black Sea, Izvestia writes.
The United States' guided-missile destroyer USS Porter recently entered the Black Sea for joint operations with NATO forces. Besides, the US Six Fleet has sent its flagship USS Mount Whitney to the region.
"The Americans send their destroyers to the Black Sea several times a year. It all happens in accordance with the Montreux Convention that allows vessels from non-regional countries to spend a certain amount of time in these waters," military historian Dmitry Boltenkov explained. "Russia’s means of defense are tracking the ship. Let's hope that it won't make any sudden maneuvers. It will probably make a call in Odessa, gladdening Ukrainians that 'America is standing with them'," he added.
As for intermediate-range missiles, things got significantly tougher after the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty had collapsed in August 2019. Moscow is concerned that Washington will start deploying intermediate-range missiles to countries near Russia.
According to Putin, twenty-six S-350 and S-400 air defense systems will be supplied to the armed forces in the near future, as well as the first production models of the S-500 system.
Russia’s Defense Ministry sources told the newspaper that the meeting's participants had also discussed ways to upgrade the naval aircraft fleet including plans to adopt new air systems and equip aircraft with advanced high-precision weapons, namely hypersonic missiles.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: How COP26 will change the global economy
Will the European Union admit to its miscalculated energy policy and abandon its active decarbonization efforts? Will Russia and the United States seek to accelerate the energy transition and ditch fossil fuel? These seem to be the most intriguing questions of the current international climate conference in Glasgow, where 120 countries have gathered to discuss climate change issues, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes.
Russia has clear goals to achieve at the conference, Associate Professor at the Russian Government’s Financial University Valery Andrianov pointed out. The primary goal is to ensure the recognition of the absorption capacity of Russia’s forests. According to expert estimates, the carbon sequestration issue can be resolved through increasing global forest area by 25%, that is, by 900 mln hectares (500 bln new trees). It's Russia with its vast forests that can make a key contribution to the process. However, for Russia to monetize related projects, other countries need to recognize Moscow's estimates of the absorptive capacity of forests.
Another goal is to lobby for the need for a mechanism of mutual recognition of carbon units, which will help make sure that all carbon units are recorded when measuring carbon footprints. Given the EU's plans to introduce cross-border carbon regulations, this is a crucial goal for Russia because without achieving it, the country may lose a large part of its export revenues, Andrianov emphasized.
According to Executive Director of the Environmental Monitoring Center, part of the Artificial Intelligence Competence Center at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Alexander Rodin, Russia will take a moderate position in Glasgow, while the US will act in a more radical way as it seeks to preserve its technological and economic leadership by taking advantage of climate issues to restrict its rivals’ opportunities. As for Europe, experts agree that it won't be willing to acknowledge its mistakes in terms of energy transition rates but will probably ease requirements for energy exporters.
Russia, the United States and the European Union have solely economic goals for the Glasgow conference but they will present those from different angles. Moscow's position will be balanced and strong. Russia is ready to work on climate change issues in stages, it supports the global policy of decarbonization but does not seek to jump ahead of technological progress, while economically, it's not dependent on other countries in the energy sector.
Kommersant: Italy seeks to re-launch NATO-Russia dialogue, says ambassador to Moscow
Efforts to relaunch a constructive dialogue between NATO and Russia are crucial at the moment, Italian Ambassador to Moscow Giorgio Starace said in an interview with Kommersant.
The envoy pointed out that he had assumed the post at a time when Moscow had suspended its mission to NATO, as well as the activities of NATO bodies in Russia. Starace believes that in this regard, it is crucial to particularly take advantage of the trust that Italy gained thanks to its constant balanced position, trying to relaunch meaningful dialogue that can benefit all parties.
It's impossible to expect to achieve positive results without cooperating with Moscow on global issues related to healthcare, climate change and the energy transition, as well as to the international community's activities in crisis-hit regions, the ambassador to Russia emphasized.
Starace was hopeful that the European Union's relations with Russia would also be relaunched. Despite political issues that persist between the Western world and Moscow, it seems impossible that Russia will fail to find a way to restart this kind of dialogue because the ties between the parties are too strong, the envoy noted. He was confident that the situation would not deteriorate in the long term, the current issues would come to an end and would be remembered as a complicated but limited period in the centuries-long relationship. Starace added that the Italian-Russian Council for Economic, Industrial, Monetary and Financial Cooperation was expected to meet in Rome in December.
When speaking about the situation concerning coronavirus vaccines, Starace stressed that Italy's Health Ministry was working together with Brussels to approve Russia's Sputnik V jab in the European Union. According to the ambassador, this is one of his priorities. Starace also said that Sputnik V's approval in the EU was a technical issue and not a political one.
Vedomosti: Russian Railways interested in route passing through Afghanistan
Russian Railways is interested in a project for a trans-Afghan railway route that would provide for the transit of goods from Europe to South Asia, Vedomosti writes, citing a company spokesperson.
On October 29, the acting chairman of the board of the Uzbekistan Railways company and the first deputy director general of Russian Railways held an online meeting that also involved the heads of the two countries' design, research and development institutes, the Uzbek company's press service said. The parties calculated the approximate amount of cargo that could be transported by such a railway and prepared a report on the pros and cons of various possible routes. A video conference involving top officials from the Uzbek, Russian and Afghan railway authorities is expected to be held in the near future.
Back in December 2018, Uzbek, Russian, Kazakh, Afghan and Pakistani railway officials discussed creating a consortium to construct a railway connecting Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul and Peshawar. A final agreement was reached in February 2021. However, the project was suspended after the United States had withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) had come to power in Kabul,
Finam Management Leading Expert Dmitry Baranov believes that the construction of a trans-Afghan railway will have a positive impact on regional trade. It would be a convenient route for the delivery of Russian goods to India and beyond. However, given the Taliban's accession to power, the project does not seem to be achievable at the moment, Infoline Analytics Director General Mikhail Burmistrov pointed out. "Russian Railways' participation seems to be more of a political move than a real possibility to take part in the project," the expert said.
Baranov, in turn, added that the plan’s implementation could be complicated by staffing issues as a lot of Afghan residents have fled the country in recent months. "There is a risk of a lack of specialists in the country who would be capable of building the railway at an appropriate technical level, and more importantly, capable of maintaining and using it in the future," the analyst noted.
Izvestia: Russia sees explosive growth in cross-border trade
Russia has recently seen an explosive rise in demand for the delivery of goods from overseas. In the first three quarters of the year, packages from China grew by 36 times, from the United States by 7.2 times, from the United Kingdom by 199 times and from South Korea by 17 times. Cross-border trade is restoring the position it had lost in 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021. The market showed negative figures almost every month during that period but it started to grow by 60-70% in July, said experts interviewed by Izvestia.
According to data from the Association of Internet Trade Companies, as for overseas online stores, this year Russians have mostly been purchasing clothes, footwear, digital and household devices, furniture and household items. Demand is also high for children's goods, tools and gardening equipment.
According to PickPoint CEO Nadezhda Romanova, the development of special services that make shopping along foreign Internet stores easy while maintaining good prices is one of the reasons why such an amount of orders is growing in Russia.
"Orders from overseas online retailers have climbed due the fact that customers who used to shop during foreign trips are now deprived of such an opportunity and have to place orders in online stores," head of the International Logistics Department at CDEK Andrei Pobezhimov pointed out.
"The main reason for this growth is that logistics chains that were affected by quarantine measures are being restored. It concerns all kinds of transport, including air, rail and maritime transport," Association of Internet Trade Companies President Artem Sokolov explained.
