Moscow says Bern is not neutral enough to mediate the Ukraine conflict; Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes to Laos for the Asia summit; and Russia, China have a cooperative vision for Eurasia. These stories topped Friday's newspaper headlines in Russia, according to TASS News Agency.

Izvestia: Moscow questions Switzerland's neutrality in Ukraine conflict, doubts fair mediation

Switzerland is not a neutral party in the Ukraine crisis, so Moscow believes it cannot serve as a proper mediator in peace talks, the Russian Embassy in Switzerland told Izvestia. "Switzerland is 100% pro-Ukrainian, joining all of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions. It said goodbye to neutrality a long time ago. And we see no signs that Switzerland is ready to discuss ways out of the Ukraine conflict that would take into consideration Russia’s interests," the Russian diplomats said.

However, the Swiss Foreign Ministry emphasized that the Central European country not only favors involving Moscow in Ukraine talks but is also working toward that goal. "Since the very beginning, Switzerland has stated that peace is possible with Russia only. We support maintaining dialogue with all sides as we continue working toward integrating Russia [in the process]," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jonas Montani said in an interview with Izvestia.

"Switzerland no longer has the moral right to be called a neutral state. While Switzerland could potentially regain its neutrality, it has not only become affiliated with the political West but is also one of its major mouthpieces," said Alexander Konkov, associate professor of the Financial University run by the Russian government.

Even as Switzerland is not an EU member, Bern has supported all sanctions imposed on Moscow by Brussels, with Swiss restrictions currently affecting more than 2,200 individuals, legal entities and businessmen. Also, the Swiss government has frozen $8.8 bln worth of Russian assets since Russia launched its special military operation.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky embarked on another European tour to promote his "victory plan" amid Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield, with the latest being the loss of Ugledar. He had big hopes for the Ramstein meeting originally scheduled to take place in Germany on October 12, but the organizers canceled the meeting without explaining why.

Vedomosti: Lavrov attends ASEAN meeting in Laos

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Laos to attend events hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This is his second visit to Laos this year. In July, he attended a meeting of foreign ministers, while this time around, he’s in Vientiane for higher-level summits. On October 11, the East Asia Summit will bring together 18 partners, including Russia, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, South Korea, India and China, among other countries. Lavrov will take part in this event alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The two top diplomats have not held bilateral meetings since the launch of the special military operation, nor are they planning to meet on Friday. Today’s summit will focus on security issues in the Asia-Pacific where, Moscow says, the situation has deteriorated amid NATO’s intentions to militarize the region.

Earlier, Daniel Kritenbrink, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, announced that Washington plans to discuss human rights in Myanmar, what he called China’s reckless behavior in the South China Sea, where it has had sporadic clashes with ASEAN member countries over territorial claims, and Ukraine.

Over the past year, since Russia has singled out ASEAN as a priority in its foreign policy doctrine, there has been no breakthrough in relations between Russia and the Southeast Asian union - and none was expected, Deputy Director of HSE Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies Alexander Korolev told Vedomosti. Rather, he said, Russia continues to develop relations with individual ASEAN member countries, primarily Malaysia, whose Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim talked cooperation in Islamic banking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia and has been actively campaigning for his country's membership in BRICS, as have been Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia.

According to Korolev, even as ASEAN has dodged any discussions on Ukraine, the topic still comes up at these twice yearly events. The talk, however, centers around the Ukraine conflict’s impact on food and energy security rather than its military and political implications. Therefore, ASEAN will formally refrain from taking sides with either Russia or the West, even as ASEAN diplomats often signal at informal meetings that they support Russia, the expert concluded.

Kommersant: Russia, China take pragmatic approach to international relations in Eurasia

Developing cooperation between Russia and China in Eurasia, especially in Central Asia, will help the two countries build a more just world order globally that reaps rewards for as many countries from the Global South, or what Moscow calls the global majority, as possible. At that, the two countries should focus on pragmatic aspects and mutual benefits rather than trying to oppose the West in their work, according to a joint report from the Russian International Affairs Council, the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai-based Fudan University seen by Kommersant. The annual report titled Russian-Chinese Dialogue: The 2024 Model, to be released later on Friday comes as Russia and China mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

Among major conclusions, the report said that Moscow and Beijing should work together to develop relations with Central Asia, a key element of the Greater Eurasian Partnership Concept introduced by Russia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the nucleus of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), to prevent the region from becoming another zone of competition.

The joint role Moscow and Beijing are playing to develop the SCO and BRICS as brand-new international platforms is also key, the authors of the report insist. Both groups have expanded in political terms in 2024, with BRICS doubling from five to 10 member countries and the SCO, too, increasing the number of its members to 10.

"Russia and China are the driving forces behind BRICS <…> for the bulk of substantive initiatives originate from these two countries. In addition, Russia plays a leading role in aligning large players struggling to solve major disputes between themselves politically, such as China and India or Iran and Saudi Arabia. And China plays a similar role economically," one of the authors and director of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Kirill Babayev, told Kommersant.

Vedomosti: Guest list for upcoming BRICS summit fills out, number of heavy hitters expected

On Thursday, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov who heads the organizing committee for the next BRICS summit told reporters that the grouping’s gathering in Kazan later this month could "become the largest foreign policy event ever held in our country."

So far, 32 countries have sent confirmations to attend the summit to which as many as 38 countries, including BRICS member countries and nations seeking cooperation with the intergovernmental organization have been invited, Ushakov said. All ten BRICS member countries have agreed to take part, he added. Also, countries that chair regional integration associations in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East have been invited. The summit will also welcome UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming, secretaries general from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the EAEU, the Union State as well as President of the BRICS New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff.

The 16th BRICS summit will be the first held since the group’s five founding members Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa were joined by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia early this year. As the original members of BRICS decided to expand at last year’s summit in South Africa, there are limited opportunities to accept more members, Yaroslav Lisovolik, founder of the BRICS+ Analytics company, said, as additional criteria and conditions for further expansion need to be formulated. However, there are tens of countries who would like to work with BRICS, the expert added. "This is why the idea to establish a ‘belt of friends’ looks justified," Lisovolik told Vedomosti.

The expert pointed to the growing interest in settlements in national currencies among BRICS. Additional payment systems could meet the rising demand for transactions between them. Merging the digital currency platforms of central banks from BRICS countries and their partners is the most interesting idea, he said.

Multiple ideas and proposals have been announced ahead of the summit in Kazan, Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University run by the Russian government, said. These include setting up an alternative to SWIFT not only for the sake of financial diversification but also amid the West’s ability to impose sanctions on economies that it does not like within hours, the expert explained.

Izvestia: Russia expects no more foreign business giants to leave country

Russia expects that foreign companies will largely cease to exit its market as it included a substantial decrease in revenues from gratuitous payments into its draft budget for the next three years, including those from the sale of assets of foreign owners, to a symbolic 300 mln rubles ($3 mln) annually from 141 bln rubles ($1.45 bln) that the authority expects to receive this year, Izvestia has learned.

As the government has lowered expectations for gratuitous revenues in 2025-2027, it obviously does not pencil in any major exit of foreigners, Natalya Milchakova, a lead analyst at Freedom Finance Global, argues. "The majority of foreign owners who wanted to leave Russia have already done so - or will do so before the end of 2024 - by paying a 15% fee. So, the government has perhaps achieved its goal - to let politically neutral foreign companies stay, especially when it comes to large market players," she said.

Over the past two years, McDonald's, Shell, Siemens, Nissan, IKEA and other large global businesses have departed from Russia. In 2024 alone, Danone, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hyundai and Britain’s Unilever have closed up shop in Russia, while Philip Morris, Auchan and Metro still stay.

Gratuitous revenues are one of the three major groups of budget revenues, with the other two being tax and non-tax revenues, Vladimir Klimanov from the Presidential Academy explained. However, these revenues are not critical for Russia’s coffers, he said. According to Milchakova, they accounted for a mere 2% of all budget revenues or 0.6% of GDP this year, and next year they will amount to less than 1%, given the current draft budget.

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