MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Moscow will welcome leaders from 29 countries at the Victory Parade, the European Parliament backs the rejection of Russian gas by 2027, and the US is gearing up for a space arms race. These stories topped Wednesday's headlines across Russia.
Vedomosti: Leaders of 29 nations to attend Victory Parade in Moscow
The heads of state from 29 countries will gather in Moscow on May 9 for the parade commemorating Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, China’s leader Xi Jinping and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam will pay official visits. Vladimir Putin will conduct more than 15 bilateral meetings between May 7-10.
Leaders from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Vietnam, Guinea-Bissau, Egypt, Zimbabwe, China, Congo, Cuba, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and South Ossetia will be present at the Victory Parade. India, Nicaragua and South Africa will be represented at a notably high level, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said.
Xi’s visit to Moscow for the 80th anniversary is a symbolic act, especially since Putin plans to visit Beijing in September for the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, said Andrey Kortunov, research director at the Russian International Affairs Council. That said, for European politicians, attending the event in Moscow is a statement of their opposition to the EU’s policy stance on Russia and the Ukraine conflict, and a show of independence, the expert believes. "For other countries, this is the opportunity to be in the community of non-Western leaders to discuss the issues of reforming the world order and continue discussions held at the BRICS summit in Kazan," he noted.
The arrival of 29 world leaders in the Russian capital is seen as a sign of Russia’s rising influence on the global stage, believes Valdai International Discussion Club Program Director Timofey Bordachev. Furthermore, it shows that many nations align with Moscow’s interpretation of the outcome of WWII, the political scientist asserts.
The participation of Southeast Asian leaders highlights the achievements of Russian diplomacy in Asia, noted Yekaterina Koldunova, Director of the ASEAN Center at MGIMO University. According to her, the leaders want to honor the Soviet citizens who perished during World War II, as their own countries also endured great losses while resisting Japan, a member of the Axis powers. Additionally, the visit provides a valuable occasion to discuss bilateral cooperation with Moscow, Koldunova believes.
Moscow offers a fitting venue for the leaders of Central Asian and Transcaucasian republics to coordinate on regional concerns and boost trade, economic, and defense ties with Russia, said Stanislav Pritchin, head of the Central Asia Department at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations. By taking part in the Victory Parade in Moscow, these leaders are symbolically rejecting the Western narrative that diminishes the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazism, the expert maintains.
Media: European Parliament to support rejection of Russian gas starting in 2027
The European Parliament’s main factions will support a ban on gas supplies from Russia, Izvestia found out. The European Commission (EC) has submitted a plan on phasing out its imports beginning in 2027. The EC also proposed to introduce a ban on purchasing uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia. The new sanctions have created a split within the EU as Hungary and Slovakia are against cutting off Russian energy products. The ban will become a heavy burden for consumers as in 2024, gas prices reached historic highs since records began.
There are major doubts that Brussels can convince Bratislava and Budapest to consent to the ban on Russian gas because even in a more complex situation in 2022, they were blocking such proposals, Igor Yushkov, leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, told Izvestia.
Brussels hopes to convince EU member states that by 2027, additional volumes of LNG will enter the global market and thus, the rejection of Russian gas won’t have any significant impact on the union. However, the absence of Russian energy products will increase gas market prices regardless.
"The US plans to double its LNG export in the next three years and Australia is also planning to open several production facilities," Yushkov noted.
The main burden will be shouldered by an average European consumer. The European economic growth will also slow down, said leading expert at the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Russian Government Stanislav Mitrakhovich.
"There are forecasts that Germany might enter recession. Energy-consuming enterprises in Europe are not going through the best of times, there are job cuts due to these enterprises relocating to other world regions, such as the US and China," the expert told Izvestia.
Vitaly Yermakov of the Higher School of Economics told Kommersant that in the event of a change in European elites and the return to pragmatic relations, Russia will be ready to come back on its own terms. Supplies of Russian pipeline gas to Hungary and Serbia under long-term contracts will continue for now via one of TurkStream’s strings, while Russian LNG will find its way to the global market, avoiding the European layover, he added.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US launches space interceptor race
The Trump administration is planning on significantly increasing the military budget, naming the prospective Golden Dome missile defense system as a top priority. US Congress estimates expenses for this project at $542 billion for the next 20 years. So far, these expenses appear moderate, but they may be increased in the event of substantial progress. Russian specialists believe that China or Russia’s involvement in the space defense race is unlikely, as delivery vehicles able to withstand prospective interceptors already exist.
China or Russia are hardly likely to spend money on developing equivalents of the US space missile defense system, the Russian experts think. They view perfecting the means and ways of delivering nuclear warheads as a more practical strategy.
The US current missile defense system cannot protect the country against a massive attack and is capable of intercepting only a small number of warheads. However, the dream to create a reliable defense which would make nuclear arms powerless and obsolete still lives on in the US, Russian Academician Alexey Arbatov explained. Over the past 40 years, substantial changes occurred in the sphere of missile defense but it will take years to implement these innovations, the scientist believes. In his opinion, it is more realistic to expand the existing missile defense system by deploying several dozen antimissiles in the US Northeast, for example. It is also possible to expand research in the sphere of using laser or kinetic weapons to intercept missiles or their warheads.
Russia and China are testing what is known as glide hypersonic vehicles for which the future US space shield does not present any particular threat. Additionally, there are plans for Poseidon-type nuclear torpedoes against which the space anti-missile system is simply ineffective, the academician added.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: EU intends to double military aid to Kiev regime
Overnight on May 6, more than 100 assault drones launched by the Ukrainian armed forces targeted sites in 11 Russian regions, with approximately one in five heading toward Moscow. Such attacks may persist, as Kiev has declined to suspend military actions during the 80th anniversary commemorations of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Moscow had committed to observing a ceasefire, but in the event that the Kiev regime continues to strike Russian territory, authorities vowed to "respond in kind."
The Russian army has the initiative at the frontlines. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Battlegroup Center liberated the community of Lysovka south of Pokrovsk. Experts note that in this direction, Russian units continue advancing toward the Dnepropetrovsk Region. Ukrainian media outlets noted that three kilometers are left until its administrative border. That said, despite Russian successes on the majority of frontline segments, the Ukrainian army is again attempting to actively attack Russia’s bordering Kursk Region.
The experts explain this activity by Kiev’s intention to enter Russian territory and compel Russia to engage in combat on the frontlines during the Victory Day festivities, aiming to prevent it from crossing the border. "The Kiev regime is determined to continue military combat," military analyst Colonel (Ret.) Nikolay Shulgin told the newspaper. "Their determination is reinforced by promises and assistance from their ‘European friends.’ Judging by their claims, the Ukrainian army does not and will not face shortages of ammunition or weapons. The Western coalition has already delivered over 500,000 large-caliber shells, tens of thousands of drones, and other military equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces. In addition, the European Union is planning to double its military aid to Ukraine. With continued Western backing, Kiev is expanding its domestic weapons production and is even prepared to remove the restriction on weapon exports," the expert added.
Vedomosti: Why Merz managed to get elected German chancellor only on second try
Leader of the CDU/CSU conservative bloc Friedrich Merz did not manage to garner enough votes in the Bundestag to be elected chancellor in the first round and was elected on May 6 only on the second attempt. According to Bild, chances that his partners from the SPD in the new "grand" coalition voted against him are relatively low. "We proceed from full support for Merz among our ranks. Nobody was absent," sources from a close circle of Lars Klingbeil, the leader of the social-democratic faction, told Bild. Thus, Merz was rejected by delegates from his own bloc. There have been no such precedents in German history when the Bundestag was unable to elect a chancellor in the first round with the ruling coalition having majority.
Merz’s initial failure stems from the fact that his team has overestimated the image of a "strong chancellor" created around him, Artyom Sokolov, a researcher at the European Studies Institute of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said. According to the expert, Merz may have lost his influence within the party while he was away from German politics, being preoccupied with business affairs. Now he has to find out who from among Christian Democrats voted against him and try to reconcile with them.
Merz turned out to be "too wealthy," could not fundamentally reform his party, and cooperated with AfD on the migrants issue. Additionally, representatives from Bavaria’s Christian Social Union may have been displeased with him, believes Vladislav Belov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe.
For structured and ordered German politics, this event is extraordinary, according to Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Politics magazine. The vote was supposed to be purely technical but turned out that some of the supporters of the new ruling coalition voted against their own candidate. If any of the Christian Democrats voted against him, this is a serious embarrassment and a sign of a deep political crisis in Germany along with the malfunction of core political parties. Thus, Merz takes the chancellor’s office already as a "lame duck," the expert concluded.
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