Top stories from the Russian press on Tuesday, December 21st, prepared by TASS

Media: Russia presses West to engage in talks

Having received no clear response from the US on Russia’s proposals on security guarantees in Europe, Moscow has made it clear that it will not wait forever, threatening to use military means to respond to the West’s unwillingness to listen to its concerns. A thing to note is that Russia does not intend to talk with NATO and the European Union, but calls for bilateral negotiations with the United States and European nations. Paris and Berlin have already expressed readiness for dialogue with Moscow. However, there are voices that are loudly saying that Russia is once again trying to divide Europe into spheres of influence, Kommersant writes.

Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics Dmitry Suslov points out that Moscow’s position is based on the belief that first, from Russia’s standpoint, European countries lack their own identity in terms of security issues. Second, discussions involving a large number of countries complicate the negotiation process.

According to Suslov, the start of a dialogue with the US is the most likely scenario. It’s hard to say at the moment what necessary minimum Moscow will seek to achieve. The expert believes that it could be about preventing NATO’s eastward expansion to include former Soviet countries (except for those that already are members of the alliance) and the deployment of combat infrastructure to Eastern European countries. Besides, Moscow is highly likely to insist that the US change its position on defense cooperation with Kiev and Ukraine’s implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

"I find the West’s reaction to be somewhat surprising. On the one hand, they expect everything from Russia, but on the other, they are astonished to hear Russia use such harsh rhetoric. The sharp tone indicates that the time when Russia acted from a position of weakness and defense is over," Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine Fyodor Lukyanov told Izvestia.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Sanctions against Russian oil and gas industry going up in smoke

Gas prices soaring to a new high of $1,700 per 1,000 cubic meter and electricity prices beyond $200 per megawatt per hour turned out to be the most convincing argument against the European Union’s new sanctions aimed at Russia’s oil and gas industry. Slapping these restrictions on the only country that provides Europe with energy at prices several times lower than the market is short-sighted to say the least, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes.

The recent EU summit, the last one this year, did not impose any new sanctions on Russia despite cranked-up pressure from the United States who expected the restrictions on Russia’s energy sector to be expanded. If countries of the ‘Old World’ have bad luck with the weather this winter, they may also have to ditch the previous restrictions because their effect is now more harmful against Europe than any intended ‘impact’ on Russia’s economy.

In the past, sanctions against Russia in no way disturbed nations of the ‘Old World’. The EU pursues a policy that it finds convenient, Associate Professor Valery Andrianov of the Russian Government’s Financial University pointed out. On the one hand, it claims to introduce devastating sectoral sanctions against Moscow but on the other, it has no problem using Russian gas to heat the continent’s homes or Russian diesel fuel to run its cars.

According to Alexander Kurdin, an expert at the Russian Government's Analysis Center, import substitution programs have helped Russia’s oil and gas industry adapt to the sanctions and as far as technology is concerned, these sanctions are no longer the barrier that they used to be. Finam analyst Sergey Kaufman concurs with this viewpoint. The impact of sanctions has waned with time and now, the absence of some Western technologies is not as crucial for the Russian oil industry as it used to be six or seven years ago, he noted.

Vedomosti: Russia moves to crack down on officials who use torture

On December 20, a bill amending the Russian Criminal Code was submitted to the State Duma, which stiffens penalties for officials involved in torture. According to the document, such crimes, which will now be considered to be extremely serious offenses, and will carry penalties ranging from four to 12 years behind bars, Vedomosti writes.

The bill applies not only to Federal Penitentiary Service employees but almost to all government officials, Partner at the Rustam Kurmayev and Partners law firm Dmitry Gorbunov said. Each case of torture involves its own way of providing evidence and sometimes there is a big-time gap before this kind of crime is revealed, the expert noted. "However, the law is not retroactive so it will only apply to the crimes that will be committed after it takes effect," Gorbunov added.

According to member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Andrey Babushkin, the amendments will make everyone take torture more seriously since it will now be an extremely grave crime. "Still, it will hardly make it easier to collect and assess evidence," Babushkin noted. In order to streamline the process of gathering evidence, it should be mandatory to open criminal cases over all torture reports instead of just conducting pre-trial probes, Babushkin emphasized.

The amendments undoubtedly stem from torture incidents in Russia’s penal colonies because the issue sparked "fierce public outrage," said Konstantin Kalachev, who heads the Political Expert Group. He was confident that lawmakers would pass the bill.

Kommersant: Omicron triggers stock market sell-off

Stock markets have proved unable to resist the Omicron coronavirus strain. Stock indices in leading countries are falling amid a rise in infections and new restrictions. Experts expect that purchases will resume no sooner than next year, Kommersant writes.

Most market players are not ready to take risks, Leading Global Investment Analyst at Otkritie Investment Oleg Syrovatkin pointed out. However, according to Asset Manager at BCS World of Investment Vitaly Gromadin, a decline in activity ahead of the holiday season adds to the market’s volatility.

It seems that the global stock market is caught in "a perfect storm," where all factors except for low interest rates and high liquidity are playing into the hands of bears on the market.

Russia’s stock market may turn out to be more stable than those of other countries, Syrovatkin noted. The financial guru explained that the Russian market had dropped before others and besides, it was "much cheaper than other developing markets let alone the developed ones."

Head of the Department of Trading Operations on the Russian stock market at Freedom Finance Georgy Vashchenko, in turn, says that the Russian market currently has no strong drivers of its own that would send it either up or down, apart from certain assets, "so it will follow the trend set by foreign markets."

Vedomosti: Social unrest, pandemic bring leftist millennial to power in Chile

Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old candidate representing Chile’s coalition uniting socialists and communists, has won the country’s presidential runoff, leaving ultraconservative Antonio Kasta far behind. The vote was affected by a crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as by social and ethnic conflicts, Vedomosti writes.

The situation in the country was overshadowed by unrest and looting. The authorities declared a state of emergency in some regions in a bid to suppress protests involving the Mapuche Indians who demanded that the government give their ancestral lands back to them. Social instability started mounting even before the pandemic. In 2019, protesters against economic inequality demanded a new constitution.

As a result of the problematic social situation, radical left forces competed with the far right in the election, Leading Researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Latin American Studies Lyudmila Yakovleva emphasized. It was social issues that impacted the vote the most, rather than the pandemic and economic challenges, which Chile has been combatting quite successfully. Young people that don’t remember the military dictatorship era are the main driver of social tensions. There is a strong demand for efforts to address inequality and segregation, as well as for social reforms, among young Chileans, Yakovleva noted. Reforms in this regard have been ongoing since 1990, but the youth aren’t happy with the progress made.

On the other hand, there is a large population group in Chile that share right-wing views. It includes businessmen and the upper middle class who are used to neoliberal economics and oppose the socialist model.

That said, Boric is facing a difficult challenge of conducting deep social reform while maintaining Chile’s economic efficiency, the expert concluded.