West does not want to change its attitude towards Russia

The
centrist newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports on the
G7 summit being held in Bavaria, the main challenges for which are the Greek
and Ukrainian crises. U.S. President Barack Obama put a question mark over his
administration’s previously hard line by sending Secretary of State John Kerry
to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel is under increasing pressure from the German public, prominent members
of which are demanding a return to the G8 format.  

The G7 is
expected to confirm unity in its ranks and a commitment to its chosen course,
which may be toughened if the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine escalates, writes
the newspaper.

“…The
G7 countries are likely to confirm that the issue of the return of Russia to
the club, and the [return of] format of the club itself to G8, is not on the
agenda for the foreseeable future, until there is a fundamental revision of
Russian foreign policy,” said Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for
Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics
in Moscow.

Suslov believes
that the West has become convinced that its policy of containment and economic
pressure is not effective, but it cannot abandon this stance due to the
enormous cost to its reputation.

Swiss diplomat resigns from OSCE Ukraine role

Influential
business daily Vedomosti reports
that the special representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine,
the Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, has resigned.

“Tagliavini
may have become tired of the fact that … political dialogue has
reached an impasse,” said Balazs Yarabik of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, commenting on the resignation. The reason for this is that
Kyiv, the self-proclaimed “republics” in Ukraine’s Donbass region and Moscow
are not fully satisfied with the current situation. According to experts, the
Ukrainian authorities are dissatisfied with the Minsk peace agreements, which
they are not ready to fulfill before the return of the rebel-controlled territory
to Kyiv, the idea of discussing political and economic reforms with the
separatists is unimaginable.

“The OSCE
has often accused both sides of violating the ceasefire, not just the rebels,
as Kyiv would have liked,” said Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
“Perhaps Tagliavini understands the inevitability of the war resuming in the
summer. Who would want to be present when that happens?”

Turkey shows penchant for democracy

Business
daily Kommersant reviews the
parliamentary elections in Turkey, in which the preliminary results were
disappointing for the ruling moderate-Islamist Justice and Development Party
(AKP).

The key
issue on the eve of the election was whether the Peoples’ Democratic Party
(HDP) would achieve the minimum 10 percent electoral threshold. In the end, it
passed this threshold and Turkey’s three-party parliamentary system turned into
a four-party system. After the previous elections, the AKP was able to form a
single-party government, but this time it did not receive an absolute majority,
the newspaper adds. Kommersant explains that this jeopardizes the plans of Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make changes to the constitution, which would
grant him unlimited executive powers.

The first
results, according to which the ruling party received less than half of the
seats in the 550-seat parliament, collecting about 42 percent of the votes,
were already described as a crushing defeat for the authorities, the newspaper
said. Kurds and other supporters of the HDP were celebrating their victory –
they are destined for 70 seats in the Majlis, the Turkish legislature. Russian
Turkologist Ilshat Sayetov, in an interview with Kommersant, did not rule out
that the authorities might resort to fraud, given that these elections are
extremely important for the ruling party.  

The
newspaper stresses that these elections have split the country. The result may
well lead to a “minority government,” as the supporters of Erdogan have already
predicted, and then, perhaps, early elections, writes Kommersant.