Leading nations are keeping Russia ‘in quarantine’

“The
reunion of Moscow with the G7 is not anticipated,” writes
the centrist Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, saying that Russian President
Vladimir Putin is “the most undesirable person” at the upcoming G7 summit in
Bavaria on June 7-8, which will be hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to Merkel, Russia’s actions in Ukraine are incompatible with it being
readopted into the G8 format.

The
newspaper explains that the G7 leaders see the world’s most elite club as a
society that is united by values such as freedom, democracy and rule of law.
The West believes that the acceptance of Russia into the club in 1998 was a
token of trust, which Russia has now lost after “flagrantly violating the
principles of international law.”

Nezavisimaya
Gazeta writes that the G7 leaders are constantly speaking about toughening
sanctions against Russia on the one hand and their readiness to engage in
dialogue on the other. It is no surprise that a number of German politicians,
including former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, have criticized
the decision not to invite Putin to the summit.

According
to information from Washington, in Bavaria the leaders will discuss further
economic measures that should be taken against Russia. “The elitist club
seems united in its desire to keep Russia in quarantine. And this shows that
the world’s leading politicians have lost their ability to negotiate and find a
compromise,” concludes Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Slovakia offers Turkish Stream use of its gas pipelines

The
Vzglyad newspaper reports on
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s visit to Moscow. Slovakia has offered to
attach its Eastring gas pipeline system to the Turkish Stream pipeline.
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and the EU also intend to participate in the
project.

The
publication reminds its readers that Turkish Stream, which plans to lay a
pipeline under the Black Sea and establish a gas distribution hub in Turkey, is
supposed to replace the now-defunct South Stream project to ship gas from
Russia to Central Europe via the Black Sea and the Balkans. Turkish Stream will
allow Gazprom to close its transit gas routes through Ukraine by 2019.

Konstantin
Simonov, general director of the National Energy Security Foundation, said that
Slovakia’s proposal could be advantageous for Russia. However, he underlined
that the main question is how Russian gas supplies will be transported from the
Turkish and Greek borders, since Moscow has obligations to supply gas to the
Central European gas hub of Baumgarten, in Austria.

Simonov
added that Russia is willing to build new infrastructure, but Brussels is not
permitting this by prohibiting Russian investments in EU territory: “It is in
Russia’s interests that a competition starts between projects supplying gas
from the Turkish-Greek border to European consumers,” he said. “The
Eastring project is interesting because it proposes to use already existing
infrastructures in a reverse order.”

Fractures show in meeting of international coalition on ISIS in Paris

The
Kommersant business daily reports that as Islamic
State (ISIS) militants advance in Iraq, representatives of more than 20 member
states of the international coalition headed by the U.S. have discussed the
strategy of countering the Islamists at an emergency meeting in Paris. The
meeting demonstrated serious disagreements between the coalition members, who
were unable to agree to new ways of neutralizing the global jihadists.

Experts
say that the influence of ISIS will only grow. “ISIS has been able to gather an
effective, combat-capable and solid armed force under its banner,” said
Rod Thornton, Professor from the Department of Defense Studies at London’s
King’s College.

“Moreover,
ISIS has an entire collection of sophisticated means of attracting new
adherents, those willing to fight for the realization of a new world order. For
radical Sunnites it is also a chance to die gloriously for their religion, while
for the lower classes of society it is an opportunity to make money.”

Grigory
Kosach, Professor of History, Political Sciences and Law at the Russian State
University for the Humanities, stressed that the ruling regimes of the Middle
East are witnessing a systematic crisis. Kosach believes that the challenge of
fighting the ISIS terrorists appears to be extremely difficult.

“Military
means can be used to achieve temporary success, but it will be impossible to
remove the problem without a serious change in the political system and the
internal life of the Arab countries, countries that do not want to recognize
the importance of this change. This means that ISIS will remain a force that is
impossible to stop,” said Kosach.