Current Digest of the Russian Press, Vol. 77, No. 29 – Table of Contents

([No author indicated] Meduza, July 16, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/07/16/no-real-alternatives. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – On July 14, Donald Trump made his promised “major statement” on the war in Ukraine, pledging additional military aid to Kiev and threatening Russia with new sanctions. . . . To understand how effective such sanctions might be, whether the global market has any real alternative to Russian oil and what other restrictions Trump might theoretically impose, Meduza spoke with Sergei Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center…

(By David Hastings Dunn, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham. Novaya gazeta Europe, July 16, 2025, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/07/16/with-a-pinch-of-salt-en. Complete text:) At face value, Donald Trump’s announcement about his plans on Russia and Ukraine look like a major policy change. Speaking from the Oval Office on July 14, where he had been meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the US president said he would send “top-of-the-line-weapons” to help Kiev and – unless a ceasefire deal is agreed inside a 50-day time limit – the US would impose secondary sanctions on any countries dealing with Russia…

(By Sergei Strokan. Kommersant, July 17, 2025, p. 6. Condensed text:) NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who assumed the role of the main lobbyist on behalf of Western allies for [US] President [Donald] Trump’s new tough line toward Russia, has become involved in psychological warfare with its leading partner countries in the non-Western world…

(By Gleb Mishutin. Vedomosti, July 15, 2025, https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2025/07/15/1124361-ministra-oboroni-i-premera-ukraini-resheno-smenit. Complete text:) Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko has been offered the position of prime minister. “I offered Yulia Sviridenko the opportunity to head the Ukrainian government and significantly revamp its work,” he said. According to him, at a meeting with the future prime minister he listened to her report on support from European and American partners for Ukraine and expressed the hope that the new government’s action plan would arrive on his desk in the near future. Under Ukrainian law, candidates for the position of prime minister are appointed by the Supreme Rada upon the recommendation of the president…

(By Pavel Dulman. Rossiiskaya gazeta, July 15, 2025, p. 6. Complete text:) US special presidential envoy for Russia and Ukraine Gen. Keith Kellogg arrived in Kiev yesterday [July 14] and intends to immerse himself in Ukraine’s problems for the entire week. [Ukrainian] presidential chief of staff Andrei Yermak met the guest at the train station. The agenda for Kellogg’s stay includes a rare Ukrainian show – a shuffling of cabinet ministers…

(By Natalya Prikhodko. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 18, 2025, p. 5. Condensed text:) . . . On Thursday, 262 Supreme Rada deputies voted to appoint 39-year-old Yulia Sviridenko head of state. Sviridenko had held the position of first deputy prime minister and economics minister since November 2021. Zelensky officially announced her nomination on Monday…

(By Irina Gorbunova and Maksim Bazanov. Izvestia, July 18, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) Editor’s Note. – Former Ukrainian prime minister Nikolai Azarov told Izvestia that the change in government in Ukraine will not affect the course of negotiations. . …

(By Andrei Okun. Republic.ru, July 16, 2025, https://republic.ru/posts/116093. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – While the Russian government is putting on a show of unity and patriotic idyll for the public, anxiety and confusion are growing in the system: The old mechanisms of government are no longer working, and the repressive machine is increasingly turning against members of the elite itself. And now they are more frequently falling out of windows or shooting themselves in the head. Andrei Okun does not believe that this establishment is in its right mind.

The Russian government is putting enormous effort into making itself look like a monolith. Outside observers are being shown an idyll made for television: In a burst of patriotism, officials and deputies have rallied around the president, everyone tirelessly working on the shared vision of fighting for state sovereignty. In fact, Russia’s political regime appears to be falling into severe psychosis as it passes through one of the most painful transitions, one where the old rules have stopped working…

(By Yulia Maleva. Vedomosti, July 15, 2025, https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2025/07/15/1124346-partii-osvaivayut-memi. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – In an effort to win over young voters, parliamentary opposition parties are learning to speak their language, using memes and neural networks. In this article, Vedomosti tries to make sense of why edits are being made to [videos of the late] Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, what Karl Marx considers a “base,” what bait makes A Just Russia politicians go crazy, and what kind of “elephant” Noviye lyudi [New People] has.

Young people have traditionally not cared too much about politics, says social scientist Denis Volkov. People usually start to develop an interest in politics later, around the age of 40, after they have established themselves as self-reliant human beings making their own choices. That’s why political parties have to be creative, finding new ways to reach out to young voters. Volkov says that all the parties have a certain number of young people among their supporters, although it is more common for youngsters to vote for the Liberal Democrats or Noviye lyudi. Curiously, young men are more likely to vote for the former (a long-established trend that did not change after the death of LDPR founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2022 [see Vol. 74, No. 14, pp. 3 5]), while young women prefer Noviye lyudi, the expert points out. At the same time, very few young people are interested in pursuing a career in politics; it is definitely not a popular thing, Volkov says…

(By Olga Anasyeva. Izvestia, July 17, 2025, p. 1. Complete text:) It will be difficult for Russia to make it into the world’s top three economies, since the leaders in the World Bank’s rankings – China, the US and India – are far ahead. Nevertheless, it is possible within the next 10 years, experts polled by Izvestia are convinced. The Russian economy is growing as a result of the business sector’s adaptation to new conditions, as well as thanks to domestic investment and consumer demand. Furthermore, the top three list is expected to change in the next few years. This has to do with US President Donald Trump’s policies: trade wars, a huge national debt, and intervention in armed conflicts.

Russia has maintained its position as the world’s fourth [largest] economy in the World Bank’s 2024 rankings. The latter has recently updated its [global] gross domestic product [growth] forecast based on purchasing power parity (PPP). This indicator reflects the effectiveness of using national economic resources to improve the well-being and living standards of the population. According to the updates, the Russian economy was estimated at $6.92 trillion, up 5.8% on 2023…

(By Viktoria Panfilova. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 14, 2025, p. 5. Condensed text:) Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are increasingly repurposing their Afghanistan strategy, transforming their perception of it from a source of threats to a promising economic partner. . . .

In Central Asia, Uzbekistan’s stance on Afghanistan has become a defining position and has been coordinated with the approaches taken by Russia and China. Tashkent was one of the first to enter into dialogue with the Taliban when it came to power [see Vol. 73, No. 33-2, pp. 3-7], recognizing it as an integral part of Afghanistan’s domestic political process ( the Russian Supreme Court lifted the ban on the movement’s activities on April 17, 2025, but it remains on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations). This stands in stark contrast to the position taken by the West, which has sanctioned Afghanistan and frozen the assets of its Central Bank…

(By Georgy Dvali. Kommersant, July 17, 2025, p. 6. Complete text:) As early as this fall, Georgian citizens wishing to visit the Schengen zone will likely have to once again stand in lines at consulates, fill out forms and in some cases be denied visas. This will happen if, by Sept. 1, the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party has not met the European Union’s eight demands for democratic norms and the conditions of the visa-free regime in place since 2017. The leaders of the ruling party insist that they will not succumb to “blackmail from the EU bureaucracy.”

The main provisions of the letter (essentially an ultimatum) the EU sent to Tbilisi following the July 15 meeting of the heads of EU foreign ministries were summarized for journalists by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas…

(By Central Asia expert Andrei Vasilyevich Zakhvatov. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 14, 2025, p. 5. Complete text:) Tajikistan reports solid performances every year: Its gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 8.4% in 2025 and reached $14.155 billion in 2024. Remittances from migrant workers have exceeded foreign investment and official aid combined, and Tajikistan was one of the leading developing countries in 2024. Migrant remittances have come to account for 45% of the country’s GDP, and a simple calculation shows that they have contributed $6.4 billion to the economy.

Labor migration expert Anastasia Faizova stresses that the volume of migrant remittances to Tajikistan makes the republic one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world. Whether to call migrant workers its main investor and erect a monument to them is Tajikistan’s own affair, and anyone can invest in a country. It is unclear, however, whether the economic growth forecast is based on total GDP, or if the 8.4% growth figure from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) report includes those remittances. There is no answer to this, even though money from migrants serves the economy too: It sustains families and small businesses, and taxes are paid on it. Judging by the EBRD report, its figures are estimates, like Trump’s “500% tariffs” – they “might happen, they might not.” Besides, the report was published in English and evidently addressed to English-speaking investors…

(By Vladimir Skosyrev. Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 15, 2025, p. 6. Condensed text:) The foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states will meet in the Chinese city of Tianjin on July 15. Created in 2001 by Russia, China and the former Soviet Central Asian republics, the organization has played an important role in establishing friendly ties between China and Russia, as well as between China and its other neighbors since the disintegration of the USSR. Paradoxically, the SCO’s popularity has not only helped expand its membership, but has also impaired its effectiveness. . . .

The SCO currently has 10 member states: Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan…

(By Vladimir Kuzar. Krasnaya zvezda, July 16, 2025, p. 7. Complete text:) Current regional and international issues, as well as the further development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, were discussed at a meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting. The meeting, which took place on July 15 in Tianjin, was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Before the meeting, its participants were welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader and Sergei Lavrov then met separately. The Russian foreign minister conveyed to Xi friendly greetings and best wishes from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The parties discussed several issues related to bilateral political contacts at the high and highest levels, including preparations for the Russian president’s visit to China for the SCO summit and celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of [China’s] victory over militarist Japan. Sergei Lavrov also touched upon various current topics on the international and regional agenda…

(By Georgy Kamnev. Sovetskaya Rossia, July 17, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) Editor’s Note. – On July 10-11, Beijing hosted the Global Civilizations Dialogue, an international forum organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Safeguarding Diversity of Human Civilizations for World Peace and Development” was the key theme of the event.

Heads of governments, political parties and international organizations – a total of 600 people from 140 countries – attended the event. Highlighting the importance of the forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent their congratulatory messages to the participants…