Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Wednesday May 8, 2024 with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, the Kremlin announced, after months of Yerevan distancing itself from Moscow.
Armenia, a traditional ally of Russia, has for months questioned its ties with Moscow, angry because a Russian peacekeeping force failed to intervene during an offensive by the Azerbaijan to retake Nagorno-Karabakh last year.
“Regarding our bilateral relations, they are developing successfully”Mr. Putin told Mr. Pashinian, who was visiting Moscow on the occasion of the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, in a video published by the Kremlin.
The meeting took place five months after Armenia joined the International Criminal Court, which requires it to arrest Mr. Putin if he were to set foot on Armenian territory.
Mr. Putin said that “we always pay attention, above all else, to economic cooperation”. He did not mention the tensions.
Mr. Pashinian is increasingly critical of Armenia’s ties with Russia.
Moscow has accused the small mountainous country of wanting to end a decades-long partnership.
This is Mr. Pashinian’s first trip to Moscow since the start of tensions.
EU plans to target Russian gas
The Twenty-Seven plan to target Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of a new package of sanctions against Moscow, by prohibiting its transfer via the EU to third countries, according to diplomatic sources.
Intended to further penalize Russian revenues from hydrocarbons, a proposal from the European Commission targeting LNG for the first time was debated on Wednesday at a meeting of member state ambassadors, according to several diplomats.
But the talks are only just beginning, one of them said.
The European Union has already adopted thirteen packages of sanctions against Russia, in an attempt to restrict the revenues that Moscow has to finance its war against Ukraine – notably by banning imports of Russian oil into the EU while capping the price barrel elsewhere, with mixed success.
The EU executive’s new proposal aims to ban transhipment operations – from ship to ship – carried out in EU ports with a view to redirecting Russian LNG to third countries.
Likewise, it would be prohibited “to provide, directly or indirectly, technical assistance” and other services – ship supply, crew change, towing services – “for the benefit of a ship carrying to a third country of the LNG from Russia,” suggests Brussels.
Cameron calls on NATO to increase spending
British Foreign Minister David Cameron must plead for NATO countries to devote 2.5% of their GDP to defense in the face of various challenges around the world, according to extracts from a speech expected on Thursday.
During his speech described by his services as “major”the head of British diplomacy appointed last November urges London’s allies to follow the United Kingdom’s path.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last month announced an increase in military spending from 2.3% to 2.5% by 2030.
“We are in a battle of wills. Britain and our allies and partners across the world, we must prove our adversaries wrong.”underlines David Cameron in extracts from his speech.
The next NATO summit, scheduled for Washington in July, “must see all allies on track to fulfill their promise made in 2014 […] to spend 2% » of their GDP for defense.
“And we must then establish 2.5% as the new benchmark for all new NATO allies”he adds, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and innovation.
“If Putin’s illegal invasion” in Ukraine “Teaches us something, that doing too little too late only incites an attacker”he argues.
Russia commemorates victory over Nazis
Russia will commemorate the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in World War II on Thursday, May 9, 2024, as tensions between Moscow and the West continue to grow due to the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak at the military parade on Red Square as part of “Victory Day” festivities.
Vladimir Putin now presents the war in Ukraine as a fight against the West which, according to him, has forgotten the role played by the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The head of the Kremlin believes that Western countries have also forgotten that neither Napoleon Bonaparte nor Adolf Hitler managed to defeat Russia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in an interview with the news agency TASS that country ambassadors “unfriendly” had not been invited to the military parade.
South Korean neutrality
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged Thursday to cultivate a “good relationship” with Russia while maintaining close ties with Ukraine, to which it however excludes any direct delivery of arms.
Seoul “will do its best to continue economic cooperation” with Moscow while being close to kyiv, Mr. Yoon said at a press conference on Thursday, stressing that the “firm position” of the country was not to provide any lethal weapons to countries in conflict.
