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Top stories from the Russian press on Wednesday, December 14th, prepared by TASS

The Brussels Agreement on Kosovo could be a cover for Pristina’s military preparations, the Russian Ambassador to Serbia noted, the US seeks to restore its influence in Africa and the West plans to punish Tehran for alleged military supplies to Moscow. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

Izvestia: Agreements on Kosovo could cover up Pristina’s military operations, Russian envoy says

The Brussels Agreement on Kosovo could be a cover for attempts to arm Pristina the way the Minsk accords were for Kiev, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko pointed out in an interview with Izvestia.

"Bearing in mind what revelations [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel made about the Minsk Agreements, one can assume that the Brussels Agreement was most likely developed as a cover for Pristina’s military preparations. In recent years, an illegal Kosovo ‘army’ was created and Kosovo’s law enforcement and military agencies received equipment. For the West, the Brussels Agreement played the same role as the Minsk accords did with regard to Ukraine, it was a cover up," he stressed.

According to the diplomat, Belgrade still insists on compliance with the existing documents and is unwilling to hammer out new accords. "[Serbian] President [Aleksandar] Vucic certainly insists that the parties resume talks on the implementation of the previously reached agreements on the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo instead of developing new accords. The West, however, is acting deceptively, saying let’s start with a clean slate to see what can be done. It means making new decisions on the creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities as a non-governmental organization without any rights and powers," the envoy noted.

The Russian ambassador also stated that it was too early to expect a sustainable solution to the Kosovo crisis. "There is little hope that a sustainable solution can be found to the Kosovo issue at this time, and I regret to say this. It will only be possible if the matter is fully brought back into the fold of international law and the United Nations Security Council based on its Resolution 1244," Botsan-Kharchenko emphasized.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US, Africa disagree on ways to resolve Ukrainian conflict

US President Joe Biden has attempted to restore Washington’s influence in Africa by gathering 49 of the continent’s leaders in America’s capital. The second US-Africa Leaders Summit comes amid the White House’s increasing concerns about China’s growing expansion and Russia’s mounting presence in the region, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

The previous summit, held by then US President Barack Obama in 2014, actually produced no results. This time around, the US plans to prove the benefits of cooperation to African nations. Washington is set to promise them assistance in implementing reforms and resolving security and climate issues, along with $55 bln in investments over the next three years.

Deputy Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for African Studies Leonid Fituni points out that Biden’s strategy includes four main points: building a partnership while listening to Africa and creating open societies there; offering dividends from democratic development; assisting in efforts to solve pressing problems; and focusing on climate issues.

The summit is also expected to discuss the impact of military activities in Ukraine on the situation in Africa. According to the Washington Post, the parties disagree on what tactics to use to settle the conflict, with differences concerning sanctions and critiques of Russia, which Africans say complicate efforts to find a diplomatic solution.

As far as Africa goes, Russia’s current goals are mostly about finding promising areas for cooperation and expanding economic and political interaction. This will definitely be the focus of the second Russia-Africa Summit scheduled to take place in 2023. According to Fituni, given the mounting pressure from the United States and the European Union, Russia can and should take advantage of the opportunities that exist on the African track in order to ensure success in achieving its goals and strengthening its position on the international stage.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: IAEA continues discussions on safety zone for Zaporozhye nuke plant

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi discussed plans to create a safety zone at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, who once again called for demilitarizing the facility. Meanwhile, military analysts view such a move as unacceptable, Nezavisimaya Gazeta notes.

"The issue of the Zaporozhye nuclear station’s demilitarization closely concerns the city of Energodar. An end to the effective protection of the plant would spell an end to the effective protection of the city. It would change the status quo on the line of contact, raising the risk of landing operations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Valdai Discussion Club Program Director Oleg Barabanov pointed out.

If the Ukrainian armed forces seize the facility, they will continue to advance, accumulating forces to move towards Melitopol and Berdyansk, and they will also cut off the land route connecting mainland Russia with Crimea. The peninsula would then be partially blockaded, with water and food supplies affected, and attempts would be made to take advantage of it to destabilize the situation and try to take Crimea, military analyst Yury Knutov said. "This is the strategic plan that Kiev apparently plans to act upon. However, in no way should we make its realization possible, which is obvious for military experts," he added.

If Kiev regains control of the nuclear power plant, it will start threatening a nuclear blast unless its demands are met. Another reason behind the surge in tensions around the plant is that weapons-grade plutonium could be produced by processing the nuclear waste that is stored at the site. The countries that need to update their nuclear arsenal - primarily the United States - seem to be interested in getting access to those stocks, editor of the Arsenal Otechestva magazine Alexey Leonkov noted.

Izvestia: West seeks to punish Iran for cooperation with Russia

The European Union plans to introduce another package of sanctions against Tehran. This time, Western countries accuse Iran of providing weapons to Russia. However, Moscow and the Islamic republic have been rejecting these allegations, Izvestia writes.

"Over the entire course of the special military operation, Russia has been hearing a lot of rumors about its activities, which are not true. They concern the amount of the weapons that Russia has, as well as their sources. <...> Iran is not the first country to be accused of supplying weapons to Russia. Earlier reports claimed that China and North Korea did it," orientalist scholar Andrey Ontinkov noted.

Moscow’s position is that the unmanned aerial vehicles that are being used in the special military operation are made in Russia and have nothing to do with Iran. Tehran earlier confirmed that it had handed several drones over to Russia before the launch of the Ukraine operation. That said, it is about cooperation and it’s not right to view it as weapons supplies, Ontikov stressed.

When France boosted military cooperation with Mali, the West considered it to be normal. When the US builds defense cooperation with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the EU does not interfere because it’s about bilateral relations. However, as soon as Russia and Iran - two centers of power that are alternative to the European Union and the US - make an effort to show independence, the Euro-Atlantic community gets annoyed about it, Research Fellow at the Department of Middle and Post-Soviet East of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences Vasily Ostanin-Golovnya points out.

In his view, the West regards Russian-Iranian cooperation in the field of defense, as well as in other areas, as increasing links between two powerful states that are capable of determining most processes in Central Asia, the South Caucasus and the Middle East. "So even if Russia and Iran only sought to boost peaceful cooperation, they would still have faced opposition," the expert explained.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russian oil exports rise amid price cap

Russian oil exports through domestic ports rose by nearly 17% following the introduction of a price cap and an embargo on seaborne supplies to Europe. According to Bloomberg, Russian maritime oil shipments reached 3.5 mln barrels a day on December 5-9, which is among the highest export levels recorded this year, Rossiyskaya Gazeta notes.

Russia stated that it would not sell oil to the countries joining the price ceiling. So far, the European Union, G7 countries and Australia have supported the initiative. China, the world’s largest oil importer, has not joined the price cap. Neither did India, the world’s third largest oil buyer.

The rise in seaborne oil exports make it clear that the price cap has turned out to be a toothless measure, Associate Professor at the Russian Government’s Financial University Valery Andrianov emphasized. There are no effective mechanisms that would be capable of enforcing these restrictions. According to some data, about one-third of Russian oil exports are now being shipped from the country’s ports with no destination indicated. This spells an expansion of gray trade, which allows traders to purchase Russian crude without risking coming under secondary sanctions.

The oil price cap is pushing the global market towards a rapid expansion of the gray zone, Andrianov noted. This makes it possible for a number of Western consumers to get relatively cheap Russian oil through third parties. Now it’s the time for Russia to use counter-sanctions as the country could put an end to any gray schemes for the delivery of its oil to those countries that pursue an unfriendly policy. Thankfully, oil demand in Asia is high enough to keep Russian exports at a stable level, the expert said.