The US is exploiting the Panama Canal for pressuring its neighbors, BRICS intends to establish an agrarian alliance, and Gazprom utilizes an alternative route for its exports to Europe. These stories topped the headlines in Friday’s newspapers across Russia.
Izvestia: US intensifies economic pressure on neighboring countries
The United States has declared that American vessels would be permitted to transit the Panama Canal, vital to US enterprises, without charge. The canal authorities have swiftly refuted any such deal with Washington. Meanwhile, US pressure on Colombia, Canada, and Mexico has already compelled these nations to revise their border control strategies.
However, analysts observe that the previously heightened fees for utilizing the canal were not an issue for US businesses until the matter was actively highlighted by President Donald Trump.
The US claim on the Panama Canal is part of its wider battle against Chinese influence, stated Konstantin Sukhoverkhov, program director at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). On February 4, China introduced a 10% tariff on US oil and agricultural machinery imports and a 15% levy on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States. This retaliatory move followed Washington's imposition of a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports.
"Numerous ships transporting Chinese products traverse the Panama Canal, alongside vessels serving Chinese corporations. Consequently, Trump perceives an opportunity to curtail certain financial flows to China. There is also a political aspect here. Trump's actions align with the 'Monroe Doctrine,' which aims to prevent external nations from influencing the Western Hemisphere. The Panama Canal scenario exemplifies this," Sukhoverkhov remarked in an interview with Izvestia.
Beyond Panama, Trump's focus has shifted to Canada and Mexico. Both nations have faced threats from the US president of 25% tariffs on their exports unless they combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Both countries have already implemented border security measures, enabling them to delay the tariffs for at least one month.
According to Tatyana Rusakova, senior researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Trump is behaving more like a businessman than a politician. He is pursuing quick fixes to matters of personal significance, and in this scenario, economic coercion proves more effective than diplomatic efforts, she conveyed to Izvestia.
Izvestia: BRICS to create agricultural coalition
The BRICS congress will be held in June where it is planned to establish the BRICS Agrarian Alliance, Lyudmila Orlova, president of the National Movement for Conservation Agriculture, told Izvestia. The official proposal to join the alliance as a founding member has already been sent to Brazil, the group’s chairing nation in 2025. Other members and observer states have already expressed an interest in the new alliance, for example, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The new alliance aims to unite the countries’ efforts in the field of agriculture and technologies in the environmental sphere by proposing an alternative to Western cooperation models. Orlova noted that various programs are being developed with separate leaders, not necessarily representing the Russian side. It is possible that the BRICS Agrarian Alliance will function on the basis of a rotating chairmanship.
"We do remember that earlier, both within BRICS and G20, platforms were created precisely to exchange information in the area of agricultural collaboration. Each BRICS country was responsible for a certain track. And it was much better organized precisely in this group," Viktoriya Panova, head of the BRICS Expert Council, told Izvestia.
The formation of the BRICS Agrarian Alliance in 2025 has been triggered not only by economic but by strategic reasons as well. Amid the growing competition between global centers, the countries in the group aim to bolster food security and lower dependence on Western institutions. An important factor is Washington and Brussels’ tough sanctions pressure on Russia which reverberates on themselves and on global food chains in general. African and Asian developing countries are the ones that suffer the most.
"This is happening amid the escalation of a food crisis across the world as well as a weak regulation of agricultural trade for main supplying countries. The agrarian alliance will allow for organizing controlled tenders, concluding profitable trade contracts and formulating the rules of payment in national currencies in order to control prices on the global agricultural market. The fact that this idea is being promoted by the leaders of the developing world can be viewed as an attempt to influence the global management in the field without the involvement of Western countries," associate professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) Denis Kuznetsov told Izvestia.
Kommersant: Gazprom restarts deliveries through alternate pathway
Slovakia, having been cut off from Russian gas after transit via Ukraine was suspended, began to receive the fuel via the only substitute route, TurkStream. This incurs additional expenses for Bratislava while the capacity of the gas pipeline does not allow redirecting the necessary volume to the country. Experts assert that this arrangement is most likely temporary.
Expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Yushkov thinks that in order to redirect gas exports to Slovakia via TurkStream, Gazprom has to reduce supplies to Turkish traders to make room for the necessary volumes. This may affect Bulgaria’s imports, which declined direct purchases of Russian gas but is buying it through the traders. That said, the expert is not sure whether Gazprom is capable of completely replacing the volumes that used to be shipped via Ukraine. Yushkov doubts that the pattern of supplies via TurkStream will become long-term.
Deputy Director of the National Energy Security Fund Alexey Grivach also noted that there are no available volumes in TurkStream. According to operators’ data, the gas pipeline is already functioning above its planned capacity. Over the past couple of days, the volumes have surpassed 55 million cubic meters per day or about 20 billion cubic meters annualized. "Apparently, this is the limit or close to it," the expert noted. According to him, it is impossible to increase supplies to Bulgaria without additional investments or the system’s expansion, so the entire volume from the Ukrainian track cannot be redirected along this route. That said, he doubts that the resumption of Russian gas transit via Ukraine can be agreed on any time soon.
Vedomosti: Trump on warpath against deep state
Employees of US special services, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have received notices encouraging them to step down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was the first to report on February 6. The CIA press service told Associated Press (AP) that these decisions aim to ensure better alignment between the operations of the intelligence agency and the national security priorities of the new administration led by US President Donald Trump.
Trump has declared war on the CIA, which he holds accountable for his 2020 election defeat, Vladimir Vasilyev, senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, said. So far, the fight against the deep state in foreign and domestic intelligence is measured, but it may accelerate should Trump’s candidates be approved: former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as the head of intelligence and Kash Patel as the FBI director.
The situation is unprecedented, political scientist Malek Dudakov concurs. However, he thinks that Trump does not plan to eliminate the CIA or the US intelligence community but merely weed out potential traitors and fill the leading and ordinary positions with individuals loyal to him. The expert also enumerated structural processes to be initiated by the new appointees: the reduction of staff, increased reliance on AI, and the shutdown of inefficient programs. "Democrats will try to obstruct Trump’s efforts, particularly in courts," Dudakov concluded.
Vedomosti: Roscosmos CEO steps down
On February 6, Yury Borisov was relieved from his duties as the chief executive of the Russian state aerospace corporation Roscosmos. Dmitry Bakanov, 39, was named in his place. Since 2019, Bakanov has been working at the Russian Transport Ministry, most recently as the deputy minister. From 2011-2019, he worked with the company developing the Gonets satellite system and has led the board of GLONASS since 2023.
"The field is in urgent need of large-scale changes which, on the one hand, are impossible without additional, more active participation by the state, and on the other - without finding a balance between private initiatives and state interests which, actually, quite often coincide and can support each other," Denis Kravchenko, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on economic policy, told Vedomosti.
Roscosmos does not have a goal to commercialize itself because it is a state corporation, Andrey Ionin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics said. That said, Roscosmos must create working conditions for private Russian space companies that have emerged recently, the expert noted. According to a source in Roscosmos, Bakanov has the experience of managing the Gonets communication system and the Transport Ministry’s department of digital transformation, that is, has a good handle on the issue of implementing space technologies into the economy. This was probably one of the reasons for his appointment. Kravchenko thinks that now the field will receive an "impetus," while the "new leader of this branch will gain a high level of trust and support from our country’s leadership."
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