Russian President Vladimir Putin holds phone talks with Donald Trump and the Pope, chaos erupts in the Gaza Strip, and Pakistan requests Moscow’s help in easing tensions with India. These stories topped Thursday's headlines across Russia, according to TASS news Agency.
Vedomosti: Putin discusses Ukrainian attacks with Trump, Pope
Three days after the Kiev regime’s attacks on Russian airfields and acts of sabotage leading to train derailments in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, at a government session, Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time publicly commented on Ukraine’s attack. Additionally, on this day he held phone talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump for the first time since May 19. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin also had a phone conversation with Pope Leo XIV.
According to a Vedomosti source, it is obvious that the issue of Russia’s response to the Ukrainian extraordinary attacks on airfields housing bomber aircraft was the highlight of the conversations between Putin and Trump and the Pope. Meanwhile, on June 4, the US Embassy in Ukraine urged US citizens to leave Ukraine due to potential projectile and drone strikes.
Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, believes that Trump is displaying the typical "realist’s approach to foreign policy."
"This is both about distracting from failures in Ukraine and attempting to preserve contacts with Russia and use its geopolitical resource in the Middle East in order to reach his foreign policy goals, and indicating for the domestic audience that he is not sitting idly but doing everything possible to shape a safer world," the expert said.
The Russian president’s remarks to the government do not mean that Moscow is leaving the negotiation process, said Nikolay Silayev, senior researcher at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. In his opinion, the meeting was a response to recent attacks in Russian regions, while Putin outlined Moscow’s stance in the event Ukrainian authorities decide to halt the dialogue. "The remarks by the head of state also send a certain message to foreign leaders, especially those who insist on an immediate ceasefire," he explained.
According to political scientist Alexander Nemtsev, at this time, Moscow will likely review the format of its dialogue with Kiev and the issues under consideration. "If a venue allows Russia and Ukraine to exchange or coordinate prisoner lists or resolve humanitarian issues, the format will remain," he said.
Before the conversation with Putin, Trump made his position clear on new anti-Russian sanctions, the readiness for which was confirmed by US Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg at the Senate on June 2. Trump asked the Republicans in the Senate not to consider yet the draft legislation on the matter, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker said on June 4.
Izvestia: IDF reports chaos in Gaza Strip
The Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas has lost control of the situation in the Gaza Strip, with chaos spreading on the streets and militants opening fire on civilians attempting to obtain humanitarian aid, Israeli army spokeswoman Anna Ukolova told Izvestia. Arab media outlets also report looting and Hamas’ failed attempts to restore order by engaging local elders. The Palestinian group’s representatives are accusing Israeli troops of slaughtering local residents trying to receive food at distribution points. The movement insists that a new humanitarian aid mechanism introduced by Israel sparked clashes in fights for food products.
Hamas has sharply criticized the questionable mechanism of distributing humanitarian aid being implemented with the US and Israel’s support. According to the movement’s representatives, the actual goal of this initiative is not providing aid, but rather forcibly expelling the residents. Hamas emphasized that the process has morphed into "a trap of death and humiliation."
Earlier, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon Ahmed Abd al-Hadi told Izvestia that Israeli agents are orchestrating attacks on humanitarian convoys in order to destabilize the situation.
On May 29, the White House said that Israel approved a proposal on settling the Gaza conflict put forth by US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Hamas sent a response to the offer, containing a number of new conditions, which Witkoff branded as inadmissible. "I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward," he wrote on his social network page.
As Palestinian security analyst Mohammed Al-Masri told Izvestia, Hamas indeed proposed to extend the period of swapping hostages but, in his opinion, this does not change the essence of Witkoff’s proposal.
"Israel could have agreed to the deal. The movement’s response contained an adjustment asking to change the wording from the ‘redeployment of Israeli troops’ to the ‘withdrawal of troops’ in certain parts of Gaza," the expert noted.
Vedomosti: Pakistan requests Russia’s support in resolving conflict with India
Pakistani authorities have asked the Russian leadership for help in easing tensions between India and Pakistan following the recent armed clash between the two countries, Special Assistant to Pakistan's prime minister Syed Tariq Fatemi said at the Valdai International Discussion Club in Moscow on June 4. He added that earlier, he had handed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a request for support in this matter.
The Pakistani diplomat’s visit to the Russian capital aimed to clarify Islamabad’s position in order to get Russia involved in the Indo-Pakistani conflict, research fellow at the Center for Indo-Pacific Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations Gleb Makarevich believes.
The expert noted that the Pakistani side was working in this direction before the Indian parliamentary delegation’s visit to Moscow as well. "The Pakistanis decided to step up this effort in order not to fall behind the opponent’s diplomatic and propaganda activities. There is a battle between the two countries for the attention of external participants in order to present their vision of the conflict’s causes. Islamabad is traditionally accusing New Delhi of undermining regional security and of the unwillingness to sit down at the negotiating table," the political scientist explained.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Politics magazine, noted that media moves by the parties to the conflict are motivated by their domestic agenda on the discontent about the level and volume of representation of New Delhi or Islamabad’s point of view abroad and the external reaction to it. "Russia should not get deeply involved in mediating this conflict and, apparently, it is not going to do so," he added.
Kommersant: Moscow Exchange opens futures market for crypto assets
The first trading of futures linked to the value of cryptocurrencies was rather active. The volume of operations has surpassed 423 million rubles (over $5.3 million), while the number of transactions has reached 8,600. The interest in purchasing such assets is high, even though they can be acquired only by qualified investors. Additionally, the new instrument is restricted not by being tied to the price of a bitcoin but to the value of the exchange-traded fund with assets shaped by cryptocurrencies. However, market players anticipate the trade volume growing to futures indices for leading fiat currencies.
The market participants consider the launch rather successful. "For an instrument that is being traded for the first day, these figures are quite good," noted Dmitry Lesnov from Finam. That said, Sergey Selyutin of VTB said that the results of the first day were "testing the instrument," when "investors are seeking new diversification formats and are ready to test stock assets with crypto-exposure."
The futures for a bitcoin are in demand among those who sought officially entering the cryptocurrency market and also for young investors, the experts believe. "The instruments linked to cryptocurrency assets traditionally attract attention due to the media hype," noted Sergey Rybakov of Go Invest. The new futures may be in demand for managing companies launching funds with cryptocurrency exposure, believes Maxim Romodin of the Region brokerage company.
Kommersant: Russia to challenge EU over global plastic pollution deal
Russia opposes a number of provisions of a global agreement on combating plastic pollution currently in the works under the auspices of the UN, representatives from the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on June 4. The new stage of international negotiations will kick off in Geneva as early as August, and the ministry believes that its participants pursue not only ecological but also commercial interests. The agency insists that the European Union’s proposals on banning some plastics are capable of disrupting the supply chains of many countries, and rebukes its Western partners for hypocritically "exporting their plastic waste to developing countries."
Vadim Petrov, official secretary of the National Committee for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, cited statistics of plastic waste exports by Russia’s opponents. "The export from the UK to Turkey is growing - it has been already 12.9 million kilograms of waste over the past year. Five million kilograms were sent to Indonesia, with 3.2 million of it not being subject to recycling. The European Union was exporting 39 million kilograms in 2021, while now it is already 80 million kilograms," he pointed out.
According to Petrov, the European side, "while drafting the convention, is indeed mostly guided by strategic and economic aspects and not by the issues of ecology."
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