© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Top stories from the Russian press on Monday, September 5th, prepared by TASS

Izvestia: Russia’s EU envoy comments on visa issues, Zaporozhye plant

Russia’s permanent mission to the EU in Brussels has been functioning in quite a complicated atmosphere amid the Russophobic campaign across the West, Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said in an interview with Izvestia. He castigated the outrageous and absolutely ungrounded decision by the EU in April to declare a large group of the mission’s employees personae non gratae. In the meantime, its work there hasn’t diminished in any way, so the burden on those who remained has increased, he said.

According to Chizhov, the Russian mission has been making regular attempts to make their position and concerns clear to their European counterparts, while sharing political and so-called moral views on what the European Union has been doing on its Russia policy track.

Asked if the EU could suspend the mission’s work, Chizhov told Izvestia that though the risk did exist, he didn’t think the European Union would ignore its own interests to such an extent.

The bloc would soon appoint a new mission chief to Moscow, Chizhov said, while his and his colleagues’ contacts in Brussels had repeatedly said that the EU would like to keep its communication channels open with Russia.

Commenting on the EU’s decision to freeze the simplified visa procedure with Russia, the diplomat said Moscow would formulate its international position as soon as it received an official notification from the bloc. And there would certainly be countermeasures, he warned.

The Russian envoy also described as "sobering" the idea to let several members of the International Atomic Energy Agency mission stay at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant for a while, which, he said, could help stop Ukrainian forces from shelling the nuclear facility. "Their presence would constrain the Ukrainians, and more importantly, they could perhaps see for themselves where [the missiles] have been flying from," he concluded.

Kommersant: Key Russian gas supply route to EU halted

In the run-up to the heating season, Russian gas giant Gazprom has completely stopped pumping natural gas through the Nord Stream pipeline, citing a failure at the sole turbine left in operation at the Portovaya compressor station.

Sources told Kommersant they don’t expect gas supplies to resume any time soon, which could cause another spike in gas prices on the European market and force Gazprom to lower its output further.

Now, Russia will continue supplying gas to Western Europe via the Sudzha station in Ukraine only, with a little more than 40 million cubic meters pumped per day. Greece, Hungary and Serbia (the latter currently not an EU member) are getting their gas via the TurkStream pipeline. Sources told Kommersant that the gas supplies via Nord Stream could resume only with the lifting of the sanctions, and that would be possible if there is a broader political settlement.

Gas prices in Europe have been declining over the past week, however the market expected Nord Stream deliveries to resume after emergency maintenance. Energy Aspects gas analyst Leon Izbicki told Reuters that he expected "a significantly stronger open" for Dutch TTF gas futures on September 5.

Meanwhile, the Nord Stream gas stoppage would mean another 4 billion cubic meters less of output for Gazprom before the end of the year, mostly at the Bovanenkovo gas field in Yamal.

Over the past eight months, Gazprom’s gas production has already shrunk 14.8% to 288 billion cubic meters. The volumes were kept up in the summer by work to have underground gas storage in Russia filled which is almost over already, while traditionally it lasts through October.

It is not clear yet how problematic the decline would be for the gas monopoly itself. Independent expert Alexander Sobko recalls that Gazprom saw its gas output fall by 88 billion cubic meters in 2008-2009, and managed to restore it later.

Izvestia: Iran deal talks deadlocked

Unless Iran and the United States agree to restore the nuke deal in the next few days, the continuation of their dialogue could happen only after the US midterm elections in November, a diplomat in the know on this negotiation’s progress told Izvestia. Experts surveyed by the newspaper also said the JCPOA could be revived after the American elections. However, this does not mean that any deal is completely broken. On the night of September 2, Iran responded to the US review of the nuclear agreement, which should have been the final step to its revival. Washington, however, said Iran’s response was not constructive.

And yet it is too early to spell the death of the Iran nuclear talks: if the two countries wished, they could clear all the differences within days, Adlan Margoyev, a research fellow at the Center for Middle East and Africa Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Izvestia. "Any attempt, even by Russia, which has often played the role of a connecting link between Tehran and other capitals, to foretell the events or anticipate the dates has always failed. The United States and Iran have exchanged opinions on the final modalities, and they have continued bargaining, with each side taking turns either adopting a maximalist stance or getting ready for a compromise. This, however, is proof that both parties are interested in the deal and would like to have it restored on favorable terms," the expert said.

An informed source on the talks affirmed to Izvestia that "all the parties are seeking to have the JCPOA revived as soon as possible." And yet, if it is not restored in the next few days, a new round of negotiations could take place in November only, after the US midterm elections, because Iran would not risk restoring the deal for the Republicans to cancel it afterwards, the source said.

Head of the Moscow-based Center for Contemporary Iranian Studies Radzhab Safarov told Izvestia about the unprecedented pressure being put on the United States by various forces, including Israel, who are seeking to disrupt the deal. "For talks, Tehran and Washington should find a compromise, and that has not been easy, and yet both sides have shown readiness to make concessions. The United States itself is most interested in the deal: [US President] Joe Biden would want to present the restoration of the JCPOA as his own foreign policy victory," the expert remarked. And yet, according to him, the European Union is even more interested in the deal, because having Iran and its oil appear on the horizon would be "a lifesaver amid the worsening relations between the EU and Russia and the lack of clarity on the energy market."

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US seeking to undermine India’s contacts with Russia

The United States has sent a team of high-profile officials to India for strategic partnership talks and a Quad meeting with Japan and Australia. The team should reiterate the message from the US and its allies that New Delhi should not buy Russian oil or weapons in light of the situation in Ukraine, Nezavisimaya Gazeta said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far resisted the pressure, relying on his defense industry.

According to The Times of India, at present, a priority with the Americans is to make India agree to put a ceiling on Russian oil prices, for India has already surpassed China in Russian oil imports. Earlier, this need was explained to India by the US assistant secretary of treasury and his team. However, India fears prices could go even higher if a ceiling is imposed, so it will wait for the other buyers to reach consensus here.

At the coming talks, the trump card for the Americans will be the Chinese threat. The Indian Express and other Indian newspapers recall that China has been seeking to have the entire South China Sea taken under its control, and the Asian powerhouse has established artificial islands there. China has been expanding its presence in the Indian Ocean using loans and relying on its actual ally, Pakistan. India responded to Beijing’s challenge by launching a second aircraft carrier capable of deploying 30 fighter jets.

Addressing a commissioning ceremony for INS Vikrant, Indian PM Modi said that India had joined those countries which can produce such huge aircraft carriers by relying on their own technology, resources and capabilities.

According to Reuters, INS Vikrant will use MG-29K fighter jets from another aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, India bought from Russia earlier. Modi said in his speech that the idea was to replace Russian jets with Indian ones. Boeing and France’s Dassault are interested in the order, and the issue of deliveries has been raging since Russia was sanctioned.

Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that India would like to replace Russian MiGs with other jets, however, it would fail to be quick here. "The Indians lack experience in using foreign combat jets with other than Russian aircraft carriers. Perhaps they would want to adopt their own aircraft. And the Indians are not going to buy a new batch of MiG-29Ks, nor do they have their own aircraft made yet. The majority of Indian defense programs are long-term ones. And the Indians are satisfied with the Russian-made aircraft carrier. Time will tell whether [Russia] should have sold it. I guess it would not hurt Russia having another aircraft carrier in service," he concluded.

Vedomosti: VTB CEO proposes setting up separate entity for settlements in national currencies

VTB CEO Andrey Kostin has a solution for unblocking sanctioned securities. In an interview with Vedomosti, the banker said a regulated process should be established that would enable foreign holders of funds on C-type accounts to buy foreign securities from Russians. The idea has mostly been supported already by the Bank of Russia and the Russian government, however some details have yet to be worked out.

According to Kostin, such a scheme would mean a parity between foreign investments in Russia and Russian investments abroad. "If there is a difference, it could be offset by additional measures, including the creation of a special company, or a fund that could take the assets over, or through any other steps. Certainly, these securities should be tradeable and foreigners should be allowed to buy them," he explained. 

And the idea is quite feasible technically, Kostin said. "Furthermore, it would be correct to start trading those foreign securities on the St. Petersburg exchange that are currently cleared as nonmarketable assets, and the clients who bought these securities on a Russian exchange should be able to sell them there, if they wish, including for rubles," Kostin said.

He also said Western banks were ready to exchange their assets in Russia. "The freedom of business is only virtual there. We have proposed such an exchange, and we are ready to exchange our assets for those held by foreign banks in Russia, and those have shown an interest. They have been unable to do so because of the EU political leadership. Maybe they will mature," he said.

While foreign companies can exit their assets, foreign assets have been "simply stolen" from sanctioned Russian banks, the banker emphasized. "And nobody knows when [the sanctions] will be lifted, if at all," he concluded.