Current Digest of the Russian Press, Vol. 77, No. 27 – Table of Contents

([No author indicated] Meduza, June 30, 2025 https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/06/30/unacceptable-violence. Condensed text:). .. On June 27, 2025, police in Yekaterinburg carried out mass arrests of members of the city’s Azerbaijani community, bringing around 50 individuals to the local Investigative Committee office for questioning in connection with a series of murders and attempted murders committed between 2001 and 2011…

([No Author indicated.] Novaya gazeta Europe, June 30, 2025. https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/06/30/police-raid-kremlin-backed-news-agency-office-in-baku-amid-rising-tensions-with-moscow-en-news. Condensed text:) Security forces in Baku raided the offices of Sputnik Azerbaijan, a Kremlin-backed news agency, on Monday [June 30], amid a recent deterioration in relations between Russia and Azerbaijan…

(By Sergei Strokan and Milena Dvoichenkova. Kommersant, July 2, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have entered their most acute crisis in post-Soviet history. It began with the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in December 2024 [see Vol. 76, No. 51 – 52, pp. 18 – 19] and took a new turn after an incident involving Russian citizens of Azerbaijani nationality in Yekaterinburg…

(By Said Gafurov, Eastern Studies expert. Izvestia, July 3, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) Russian public opinion historically tends to confuse and even equate strong government with petty tyranny – i.e., the making of irrational decisions by leaders largely under the influence of emotions…

(By Yevgeny Shestakov. Rossiiskaya gazeta, July 4, 2025, p. 1. Complete text:) Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan remain unstable: Which side the diplomatic pendulum will swing currently depends on Baku. As of press time, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the Azerbaijani authorities had granted consular access to the 13 Russian nationals arrested in the republic. However, it is unknown when exactly the meeting will take place. Such a long [and] inexplicable pause in a standard diplomatic procedure is a gross violation by official Baku, primarily of its international obligations. This circumstance prompted a legitimate reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry. And although Azerbaijan was not directly described as a dangerous country for [Russian] citizens (the Russian Foreign Ministry used more ambiguous wording, urging Russian nationals to exercise extra caution in Azerbaijan – Ed.), it is clear that under the current circumstances, those who are planning a vacation or a business trip to the republic should carefully weigh the risks involved. This is becoming all the more relevant given the warning that the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan issued on Wednesday, saying that the diplomatic mission has been getting complaints from Russian citizens about physical violence against them and their family members…

(By political analyst and Balkans expert Aleksandar Djokic. Novaya gazeta Europe, July 6, 2025, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/07/06/dubinkoi-po-zachetke. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – Now, by midsummer, the student protests that have lasted for months in Serbia appear to have reached a boiling point…

(By Oleg Bondarenko, editor in chief of Balkanist.ru. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 1, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) What’s happening in Serbia? Many people in Russia are asking this question today, but few are able to provide an intelligible answer. There are several theories. One says the West is trying to carry out a color revolution against President Aleksandar Vucic; another says Serbia is only experiencing student protests; and a third – a combined version, so to speak – says these student protests are backed by the most powerful Western special services. Alas, we must admit that none of these theories is convincing because they are not based on Serbian realities, but on our perceptions of Serbian realities, which envisage the [antagonistic] interacting agents to be the government versus the opposition, or Serbia versus the West…

(By Olga Solovyova. Nezavisimaya gazeta, June 30, 2025, p. 4. Condensed text:) Numerous countries have made radical changes to their climate agendas over the past year, whereas Russia’s climate policy has remained unchanged. In the West, leading banks and investors have discarded the climate criteria that were imposed on them. The terms of the Paris Agreement have been dismissed as unrealistic due to the continuing increase in global greenhouse gas emissions, while developing economies have openly risen up against decarbonization demands put forward by wealthy European countries. . . …

(By Aleksandr Yakovenko, head of the committee on global issues and international security of the Russian Security Council’s Scientific Expert Council. Ekspert, July 1, 2025, https://expert.ru/mnenie/globalnomu-yugu-nuzhna-svoya-klimaticheskaya-povestka/. Complete text:) Adaptation to climate change at various levels, including at the corporate level, is still on the national development agenda, specifically in terms of Russia’s national contribution to implementing the Paris Agreement, which is, frankly, overdue for an update. Under the new administration, the US has simply withdrawn from this agreement and is working on adapting to climate change outside of international obligations. This is hardly an example to follow. Instead, we need a holistic conceptualization of pressing climate issues within the context of national development and Russia’s current international positioning as part of the Global South…

(By Darya Garmonenko. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 4, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) Russian Federation Communist Party (RFCP) activists have started addressing the interests of titular peoples of Russian constituent entities more frequently. This, for example, is one of the weighty arguments against the municipal reform [see Vol. 77, No. 9 – 10, p. 10]. Now the map of ethnic composition is also being broken out for campaign purposes. . . .

On July 3, Republic Day was widely celebrated in Khakassia, and regional head Valentin Konovalov (RFCP) congratulated residents on the fact that, 34 years ago, Khakassia appeared on the map of Russia in the place of its previous autonomous region. And he uploaded many photographs of members of the titular nation on social media…

(By Yelena Balayan, Irina Ionina and Sergei Yusov. Izvestia, July 2, 2025, p. 6. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – The Moscow City Court has sentenced former [Russian] deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov to 13 years in a [penal] colony. The court found him guilty of embezzling and laundering more than 4 billion rubles worth of illegally acquired funds. . . . Read Izvestia’s report for more details about this high-profile case.

. . . . According to investigators, Ivanov had two [prior] episodes of criminal activity. The first one took place in 2015 and involved misappropriation of [federal] budget funds. At the time, Timur Ivanov oversaw the procurement of two ferries for the Kerch Strait ferry line in the Crimea…

(Aleksandr Tikhonov. Krasnaya zvezda, July 5, 2005, p. 1. Complete text:) Defense Minister Andrei Belousov led a meeting about introducing advanced medical technologies in the [Russian] Armed Forces.

The event was intended to help implement objectives set during the expanded session of the Defense Ministry collegium, which [Russian President] Vladimir Putin attended in December 2024. Participants included Health Minister Mikhail Murashko; State Secretary and Deputy Defense Minister Anna Tsivilyova; Deputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Andrei Bulyga; Veronika Skvortsova, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA); Viktoria Semerikova, head of the Defense Ministry’s department of efficiency; heads of central military command bodies, as well as (via videoconference) the chiefs of medical services of Russian Armed Forces groupings of forces in the zone of the special military operation. The meeting focused on improving medical care for wounded soldiers evacuated from the front line…

(By Igor Seleznyov. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 3, 2025, p. 5. Complete text:) The Armenian parliament has adopted a bill on first reading that allows the nationalization of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), which is owned by disgraced oligarch Samvel Karapetyan. The bill was supported by 65 deputies; 30 voted against it. There were no abstentions. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hopes to seize control of ENA by the end of July.

ENA owns almost the entire grid system of Armenia (36,000 kilometers of lines). It is the sole buyer of electricity from all generating companies and the sole seller of it to users throughout the country. According to the bill, the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission will be given the opportunity to change the management of a company if serious violations are found in its activities. Before this, it will conduct an investigation, during which the company’s owners will be removed from managing it. The interim manager is to have at least five years of experience in the energy or management sectors…

(By Yevgeny Senshin. Republic.ru, July 1, https://republic.ru/posts/116015. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – A delegation from the White House recently visited Belarussian [President] Aleksandr Lukashenko [see Vol. 77, No. 26, pp. 16 – 17]. The meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere. Some observers saw this as a prologue to a thaw, or at least some change in policy. But is that really the case? Belarussian political analyst and observer Valery Karbalevich shared his thoughts on this matter in an interview with Republic.

Question. – What do you think about the visit of [US presidential special envoy for Ukraine and Russia] Keith Kellogg and the release of [former Belarussian presidential candidate Sergei] Tikhanovsky, along with several other oppositionists? Can we expect some kind of thaw in Belarus?…

(By Ilya Arzumanov. Ekspert, July 2, 2025, https://expert.ru/mnenie/makron-prositsya-za-stol/. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – The reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin received a call from French [President] Emmanuel Macron for the first time in three years may have been the latter’s desire to stake out his seat at the table of negotiations on Ukraine. Another motive could have been France seeking to show the Middle East that the US is not the only one playing an active role in the region. Finally, counterintuitive as it may be, Macron may have been asking his Russian counterpart for help resolve the situation around Iran, a country that recently showed the world the effectiveness of its ballistic missiles, which are capable of reaching Europe. The first phone conversation between the Russian and French presidents since 2022 took place in the evening on July 1 and lasted two hours. Ekspert heard from international relations experts about its context and significance.

Pavel Timofeyev, head of the European political studies department’s regional problems and conflicts section at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ E. M. Primakov Institute of the World Economy and International Relations. – As Russia and the US consult, both France itself and the European Union as a whole feel excluded from the settlement process. Macron doesn’t like that. He seems to be painfully aware of the criticism from the expert community, which is saying that Europeans should not have remained passive…

(By Yulia Leonova. Izvestia, July 3, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:). .. The US has halted some missile shipments to Ukraine. This decision by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was first reported by NBC News and then the report was confirmed by US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly.

According to media reports, this includes dozens of Patriot air defense missiles, thousands of 155 mm high explosive fragmentation artillery shells, more than 100 Hellfire [air-to-surface] missiles and more than 250 [precision] GMLRS [guided multiple launch rocket systems] missiles, as well as dozens of Stinger [man-portable] surface-to-air missile systems, AIM air-to-air intercept missiles and grenade launchers…