Press review: Putin meets with global movers and shakers and ZNPP welcomes IAEA chief

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin takes meetings with major foreign leaders, IAEA chief visits the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, and Russia’s OPEC+ earnings offset losses from frozen assets abroad. These stories topped Thursday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin, having arrived in Vladivostok from Mongolia, on September 4 continued his run of international meetings by holding talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. With Ibrahim, there were separate meetings, both one-on-one and with the participation of delegations from both countries. In July, the Malaysian premier said that his country had applied to join BRICS ahead of the organization’s summit in Russia’s Kazan in October.
Vulin represents a pro-Russian faction in the Serbian political elite, said Anastasia Maleshevich, researcher with the Institute for International Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University). The expert noted, however, that Vulin is not the influential politician he once was in Serbia. “Vulin was supposed to convince the Russian side that Serbia will not ship certain arms to Ukraine. Certainly, Vulin’s visit to Russia has a symbolic significance but it’s unlikely to change the trend of official Belgrade distancing itself from Moscow,” Maleshevich explained. The expert does not see Serbia joining BRICS as a likely scenario.
Malaysia is interested in developing ties with Russia primarily for geopolitical reasons, said Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Alexander Korolev.
The expert explained that Malaysia considers itself one of the main poles of the “Global South” and is ready to dive into new forms of cooperation with Moscow. However, Korolev stressed that this concerns only certain spheres where no secondary sanctions can be imposed on Malaysia.
“They won’t buy arms from Russia because their main suppliers are the US and France. However, Russian-Malaysian cooperation is developing and may reach new levels in the fields of agriculture, digital technologies and artificial intelligence,” the expert noted.
He also emphasized that regardless of the level of rapprochement with Russia, the US and China will remain Malaysia’s key strategic partners.
 
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will continue striving to prevent a nuclear or radiological disaster at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said following his September 4 visit to the facility. On the eve of the fifth visit of the agency’s delegation to the nuclear plant, Ukrainian troops decreased the intensity of their shelling attacks. That said, earlier, Zaporozhye Region Governor Yevgeny Balitsky stressed that the IAEA will not have the guts to acknowledge who is actually attacking the nuclear facility.
Military expert Vasily Dandykin concurred. “Understanding the situation around the Zaporozhye NPP is a no-brainer but we will not hear anything new. Recently, the IAEA chief even said that it is necessary to help Ukraine’s nuclear industry, while staying silent on Russia’s again. Western countries support him on this, planning to purchase two Russian-made reactors either from Hungary or Bulgaria. This means that all international organizations are dancing to Washington’s tune,” he thinks.
“Grossi has no influence on Vladimir Zelensky. The IAEA was called to action because a serious threat emerged at the Kursk and Zaporozhye NPPs. Grossi may be trying to explain to Zelensky the gravity of the situation, but it seems his warnings are falling on deaf ears. You know, in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the root problem is not communication,” Vladimir Bruter, expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, told Izvestia.
 
As a result of its deal with OPEC+, Russia has already raked in over 350 bln euros. To compare, this number is significantly higher than the portion of Russia’s international reserves frozen by unfriendly countries, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said. However, this good fortune comes against the backdrop of news that oil quotations are approaching their lowest levels this year. And now it is quite possible that OPEC+ countries will decide to postpone the gradual production increase slated for October, Western media outlets say, citing sources.
“Earlier, information appeared that in October, Saudi Arabia may lower prices for most grades of its oil sold to Asia. Such measures may be aimed at increasing demand on the part of Asian buyers and especially from China, because the kingdom clearly doesn’t intend to cede its position as one of the largest oil exporters to Beijing,” said Tsifra Broker analyst Natalia Pyryeva. “And Saudi Arabia’s pricing policy serves as a reference point for other Middle Eastern suppliers and influences the global oil market,” she explained.
“The OPEC+ deal, certainly, has its downsides. Indeed, countries outside OPEC can capture market share but on one condition: that the domestic ‘green’ agenda does not get in the way. Since in recent years, regulatory uncertainty driven by the push towards renewable energy forced Western companies, and not only these, to scale back investments in the development of deposits,” explained BCS World of Investments asset manager Vitaly Gromadin.
However, despite these drawbacks, at least for Russia, staying in the OPEC+ agreements is more beneficial than staying out, the experts polled by the newspaper concur. “In the current configuration, Russia has only a handful of major oil buyers left. Even if it increases production, it is impossible to boost demand or the number of buyers,” Finam analyst Nikolay Dudchenko explained. “Additionally, being within the OPEC+ framework is not only a matter of the country’s fiscal policy but also has geopolitical implications,” he concluded.
 
The recent reshuffle of the Ukrainian government is a power play by Vladimir Zelensky, experts polled by Izvestia and Vedomosti say. Mass sackings have been underway in the country’s government structures for a second day in a row. Four ministers wrote letters of resignation, including Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba as well as the deputy chief of the presidential office and a deputy premier. That said, this could be only the beginning, as speculation has swirled that the entire cabinet led by Denis Shmygal may resign. However, this kind of major upheaval is unlikely to occur prior to the presidential election in the US, a country that to a large extent dictates domestic politics in Ukraine.
The experts attribute the mass dismissals to Zelensky’s desire to bolster his weakening authority. “He is banking on boosting his power,” former Verkhovna Rada legislator Spiridon Kilinkarov said.
The reshuffle is also a play by Zelensky to find “scapegoats” for failures in Ukraine’s foreign policy, economy and military sphere, Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries and an expert on Ukraine, opined. Now, Zelensky will try to entrench himself and select a team of yes-men to stroke his fragile ego.
In the near future, Zelensky is planning a trip to the US, so he needs to show off his new team to Washington, said Ivan Skorikov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of CIS Studies. The expert noted that the politicians who lost their posts were figureheads who were not in on the take in Ukraine, who were outside the good ol’ boy network inside the government. “Kuleba merely served as a frontman for the Zelensky government with a singular focus to milk the West for money to continue combat. The minister wasn’t popular and didn’t have any political ambitions – it is precisely these kinds of people who are considered by [Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Andrey] Yermak and the Ukrainian presidential administration for appointment to such offices,” the expert thinks.
Additionally, according to Skorikov, this string of resignations will help Zelensky’s image with the public: it is important for him to demonstrate that the political system isn’t stagnant. According to the expert, this is particularly crucial amid a difficult situation on the frontline near Krasnoarmeysk and such problematic issues as energy blackouts and mobilization. That said, according to the expert, the newly vacated positions should not be expected to be filled with anyone of any substance.
 
The Ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation kicked off in Beijing on September 4. It will last for three days. The Chinese media is calling it the “largest diplomatic event” that the country has organized in recent years, with presidents, prime ministers and ministers from 53 African countries all to be in attendance. The only no-show will be the Kingdom of Eswatini, because it recognizes Taiwan.
China remains focused on African countries mostly for economic reasons, specifically to gain access to natural resources, said Alexander Lukin, research director at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of China and Contemporary Asia. One should not forget that China’s only military base abroad is in Djibouti, where efforts have been ramped up to protect its investments there. That said, politically, China’s chief concern is to ensure the political stability of the countries on the continent where the West is fighting Beijing for influence, as China is increasing its presence in Africa, and crowding out Western companies, Lukin pointed out.
It is obvious that China is pushing to unite the countries of the Global South around it, said Andrey Karneyev, head of the School of Asian Studies at the Higher School of Economics.
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