Russia wants UN to pressure US : media

Dhaka September 05 2022 :

Inside Russia : Outside Russia : News Digest by the Embassy of Russian Federation in Bangladesh on September 05 2022 

INSIDE RUSSIA

Moscow reveals focus of possible talks with Kiev

Russia says it’s ready to negotiate with Ukraine about how its demands can be met

Moscow remains ready to engage in talks with Kiev, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has confirmed. However, fulfilling Russia’s demands would be the only topic on the agenda, he said on a TV show on Sunday.

When asked whether Russia has anything it could discuss with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Peskov said: “Yes, of course, [we can talk] about how our demands will be met.”

Zelensky has recently threatened to abandon the very idea of talking to Moscow on a number of occasions. In late August, he cited a potential public “tribunal” for members of the infamous Azov regiment in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) as one of the red lines that would make any talks impossible.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

The two sides haven’t sat down at the negotiating table since talks in Istanbul in late March. Moscow was initially optimistic about the prospects for a peace deal but later accused Kiev of torpedoing the talks. Russian officials subsequently warned that their demands would be more extensive if talks were to resume.

The Kremlin then signaled its readiness to strike a peace deal with Kiev in early August. Peskov said at the time that the two nations were close to settling their differences in a way that was acceptable to Russia back in spring. He also said Russia would still achieve the goals of its military operation even if Kiev refuses to end the conflict in a diplomatic way.

In mid-August, Ukraine ruled out any negotiations with Russia, arguing that talks would not serve Kiev’s goals. “The opportunity to win this war is much more important than any situational pause,” Zelensky’s aide, Mikhail Podoliak, said at the time.

West and Russia will eventually strike a deal – Kremlin

Moscow will not allow its interests to be harmed at any such negotiations, Dmitry Peskov has warned

The crisis between Russia and the West will inevitably be resolved at the negotiating table, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He warned, however, that Moscow will be ready to defend its interests when that moment arrives.

Western nations “have made too many mistakes and will have to pay for them,” he said on the Rossiya 1 TV Channel.

“Any confrontation is followed by détente and any crisis situation is resolved at the negotiating table… this is what will happen this time as well,” the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that it’s unlikely to occur “soon.”

When such talks materialise, Moscow will not hesitate to defend its interests, Peskov added. Russia has acquired “priceless experience” of dealing with the West in recent years and will use it to “conduct dialogue… in such a way that our interests are by no means hurt.”

The Kremlin official listed what he sees as Western errors, citing Germany’s “horrible” decision to send weapons to Ukraine for use against Russian soldiers. He also criticized European nations for supporting a government that allows “Nazis” to openly demonstrate their symbols and stage torchlit processions, calling it “no less horrible.”

Peskov also blamed the energy crisis in Europe on “absurd” decisions by European politicians, who have refused to service equipment sold by Western firms to Gazprom.

The Russian state energy giant “spent decades” earning its reputation of a reliable natural gas supplier, and has so far done nothing to tarnish it, the Kremlin spokesman claimed.

“This is not Gazprom’s fault, this is fault of those politicians, who have taken the decision on sanctions,” he said, referring to the Russian company’s recent decision to indefinitely suspend gas transit through its Nord Stream pipeline, due to technical issues.

Since the start of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine in late February, gas prices have climbed to record highs in Europe, driving up overall inflation. Moscow has cited technical issues caused by Western sanctions as the reason for the gradual decline in gas deliveries. The EU, in turn, has accused Russia of using energy exports as a weapon.

OUTSIDE RUSSIA

Russia wants UN to pressure US – media

Moscow’s delegation to the UN General Assembly has not been granted entry visas yet, according to a Russian envoy

Russia’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, has asked the organization to persuade the US to grant visas for members of Moscow’s delegation to the UN General Assembly. They are heading to New York to attend the high-level general debate that will be held between September 20 and 26.

The request was made in a letter that Nebenzia forwarded to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday. The document has been seen by both Russian and the Western media.

In his message, the envoy pointed out that, with less than three weeks remaining before the General Assembly, not a single member of Russia’s delegation has received entry visas from the US. The Russian side, headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, had submitted the relevant applications to attend the event to the American embassy in Moscow, the diplomat reportedly added.

“This is even more alarming since, for the last several months, the authorities of the US have been constantly refusing to grant entry visas to a number of Russian delegates assigned to take part in the official United Nations events,” the letter read, as quoted by the media.

Earlier this week, Nebenzia pointed out that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and his delegation could not attend a meeting of UN police chiefs because the US refused to grant them visas.

The Russian envoy cited the 1947 agreement between the UN and the US, which states that “visas shall be granted without charge and as promptly as possible… irrespective of the relations existing between the governments of the persons referred to… and the government of the US.”

The already strained relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated even further since the launch of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. The US has slapped harsh economic sanctions on Russia while backing Kiev and providing it with billions of dollars in military aid, as well as with intelligence.

Nebenzia urged Guterres “to once again emphasize to the authorities of the US that they must promptly issue requested visas for all Russian delegates and accompanying persons,” including the Russian journalists covering Lavrov’s trip to the General Assembly.

A spokesperson for the US mission to the UN, who wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name, assured AP that the US was taking its host country obligations seriously.

“To ensure timely processing, we repeatedly remind the Russian mission to the UN, as we do all other UN missions, that the US needs applications as early as possible,” the spokesperson said.

The US mission representative linked the delays in visas for Moscow’s delegation to “Russia’s unwarranted actions against our embassy in Russia, including the forced termination of local and third country national staff, which have severely limited our staffing and therefore our capacity to process visas.” Those measures had been introduced by Moscow in response to similar moves by Washington.

When asked to comment on Nebenzia’s letter, UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez said the organization remains in close contact with the US on the issues of visas for foreign delegations. “We are doing so in this case,” she confirmed.

Questioning Russia’s reliability as supplier of energy products inappropriate — diplomat

VIENNA, September 5. /TASS/. It is absolutely inappropriate to question Russia’s reliability as a supplier of energy resources, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Monday.

“It is absolutely inappropriate to try to justify the relevant politically (not commercially) motivated decisions by questioning the reliability of Russia as a supplier,” he wrote on Twitter. He also stressed that Russia was not the one to undermine normal trade and economic relations, particularly in the sphere of energy.

The energy crisis in the EU exacerbated in early July when first interruptions in gas supplies from Russia to EU countries occurred due to problems with the maintenance of the Nord Stream turbines over sanctions. Following this, the European Commission urged EU countries to prepare for a complete shutdown of Russian gas deliveries and proposed that member states cut their gas usage by 15% from August 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023.

Kremlin reveals names of foreign guests invited to EEF

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Mongolian counterpart Luvsannamsrayn Oyun-Erdene, as well as representatives of China and Myanmar will take part in the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum together with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 7, the Kremlin press service reported on Sunday.

“Along with the Russian president, the chairman of the State Administration Council, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Min Aung Hlaing, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Mongolia Luvsannamsrayn Oyun-Erdene and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Li Zhanshu will attend,” the message reads.

Russian President will hold bilateral meetings with the invited foreign leaders on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) on September 7, the Kremlin press service announced.

High representatives of Armenia, China, Mongolia, and Myanmar are expected to attend the forum; they will also take part in a plenary session on September 7.

“Bilateral meetings between Vladimir Putin and foreign leaders invited to the EEF-2022 are scheduled throughout the day. The leaders plan to exchange views on topical issues of the bilateral and regional agenda,” the statement said.

SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE

IAEA mission members remaining at Zaporozhye NPP plant to leave on Sept 6 – authorities

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) mission, who remained working at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, plan to leave on September 6, but may extend their stay at the plant, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye Region, said on Sunday.

“Regarding the mission. It will be working until the fifth [of September] tentatively, that is, tomorrow they are still working, and on the sixth they move out. This is still preliminary. They can extend their stay,” he said on the air of the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio.

According to him, members of the mission “are now making continuous inquiries”. Rogov explained that the nuclear plant employees pay special attention to compliance with regulations. “In fact, all these years they have been hammering nails with a microscope, if we talk about the rules of operation of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, they have squeezed all the juice out of it,” he said. According to him, routine maintenance was done poorly or was simply imitated by repainting the equipment.

Rogov also confirmed information that some IAEA experts may stay at the plant on a permanent basis. “Discussions that they may stay are really going on. Personally, I don’t see any obstacles for them to stay, to work,” he said.

Alexander Volga, head of Energodar’s military-civilia administration, told TASS on Saturday that 13 people remained at the nuclear power plant and would be in town until September 5.

On September 1, the IAEA mission arrived at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. According to Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director General, the international inspectors were able to obtain key data on the situation at the plant, but continue their work, as many issues require more detailed discussion. Grossi also spoke to the residents of Energodar, they handed him a petition to stop Ukrainian provocations against the plant.

INSIGHTS

The American Conservative: World is tired of Ukrainian war — Readovka.world

While Europe’s arms shipments to Ukraine dropping, its trade with Russia is growing

The ships carrying grain that recently left Ukrainian ports can be seen as evidence that those who doubted the possibility of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were wrong. But except for a brief meeting between UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Turkish President Erdogan, and Ukrainian President Zelensky, there have been no recent diplomatic attempts to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Instead, the US has consistently obstructed negotiations. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia. In his final days as PM, he repeated the message from August 24, stating that now was not the time to advance a “flimsy negotiating plan” with Russia.

A Financial Times article on August 22 carried a misleading headline: “Russia rules out negotiating for peace to end the conflict in Ukraine.” But Russia’s representative at the UN said it was not Russia ruling out negotiations, but those negotiations were ruled out due to a lack of Western diplomacy.

According to the Kiel Institute for World Economics, the supply of military aid to Ukraine from European countries has been on a downward tendency since April. In July, six major European countries made no new military commitments for the first time since the Special Military Operation began. The data include arms shipments from Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland. The Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker reported that “the flow of new international support for Ukraine dried up in July.” No major EU countries, such as Germany, France, or Italy, have made significant commitments.

But while Europe’s arms shipments to Ukraine are dropping, its trade Russian oil supplies to Europe reached the highest since AprilCountries are buying the fuel in advance of the partial embargo with Russia is growing. It is no secret that Russian oil exports have lost little to none on US sanctions. Increased imports of Russian oil to China and India have compensated for losses from Western sanctions. China increased Russian oil imports by 55 percent, and Russia is the second largest oil exporter to India. Even Saudi Arabia has more than doubled its imports of Russian oil, while Russian oil currently accounts for about half of Turkey’s energy needs.

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