40 Reasons Why Russia Sees the “Reset” on the Horizon – Part Three

Next: Part Four

Part three illustrates very recent developments by Russia and its partners. They demonstrate how they are shaping global change in a profound way. The pace of change is becoming breathtaking and putting the pieces of the new paradigm together. As they continue to make necessary changes internally, Russia is making giant strides forward with key swing nations such as Turkey and Japan, assisting Iran in its rebirth and developing relations across Europe as illustrated in the business forum in Thessaloniki this weekend. The forty reasons listed below are developments which have come about in the last week or so and are by no means exhaustive. However, the pace of such change should serve as a warning that the “reset” is now very much on the horizon.

• The Russia-US agreement on Syria represents a total defeat for Washington as it makes painful concessions, despite attempting to present the idea that they are the dominant partner in negotiations

• The Russian electric power system has many years of experience in integrated power systems, and it can create conditions for a single electricity market on the Eurasian continent, Oleg Budargin, the CEO of the Rosseti said

• Russia has recently signed military cooperation deals with Egypt, Bolivia, Tanzania and Qatar

• Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it is necessary to develop small and medium-sized businesses, so its contribution to the economy is much higher than we see currently

• Structure of the trade turnover between Russia and China is becoming more mature due to increasing supply of equipment to the Chinese market, Russian President Putin said at the press conference, on the results of the G20 summit

• After the BREXIT vote and the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, differences within the Eurozone have deepened on a number of issues, including sanctions against Russia

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) supports a Russian-Saudi Arabian agreement for joint actions with an aim to stabilize oil prices

• Russia’s oil major Rosneft and Venezuela’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) have signed a number of agreements extending their strategic cooperation, including plans on oil and petroleum products trading

• Russia has welcomed the expansion of the Shanghai Security Organization as it gains relevance outside the region and inspiring respect worldwide

• Russia and China will stage an eight-day Navy drill in the South China Sea off southern China’s Guangdong Province starting tomorrow, a Chinese Navy spokesperson said

• Russia’s technology investment group Rusnano is “eyeing” the Hyperloop high-speed train project, chairman of the executive board Anatoly Chubais said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF)

• State-of-the-art weapons, including tanks, artillery and air defence systems, are on display at the international military expo “Army 2016” outside Moscow, with 80 delegations from across the world attending

• At the Army-2016 forum in Russia, the Uralvagonzavod Corp. finally unveiled its new brainchild, the 120mm-wheeled self-propelled howitzer called “Phlox”

• Russia has built a gliding aviation bomb unlike any other in the world, online newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa reported citing the General Director of NPO “Basalt” Vladimir Porhachev. The new bomb, dubbed “Drill” is virtually invisible to radars and has a range of over 30 kilometres

• Benjamin Netanyahu is considering Russia’s offer to host Israeli-Palestinian talks in Moscow, a statement from the Israeli PM’s press service said

• Some of Russia’s biggest companies are expecting better times ahead as the national currency has stabilized and the economy has shrugged off its longest decline in 16 years

• One of the results of Russia’s food embargo against the EU and a weaker ruble has been a remarkable boom in agriculture

• Moscow is negotiating possible beef exports with Brussels as most of the country has been declared free from the foot-and-mouth disease

• The Bahrain’s National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) said it would launch contacts with Russia in the near future to implement the memorandum signed during the visit of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Moscow, NOGA said in a statement

• Islamabad and Moscow are negotiating a deal on Su-35 and Su-37 jets, Shahab Qadir Khan, deputy director of export promotion services in the Pakistani Defence Export Promotion Organization, said

• Russia and Japan signed around 20 agreements worth more than $1.3 bln at the second Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok

• Japanese companies expressed interest in financing and construction of the third stage of Sakhalin-2 LNG plant, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said

• Japan is “playing a tactical game” with regard to the territorial dispute over the Kuril islands because Tokyo wants to tacitly promote economic cooperation with Russia and reduce its dependence on the United States

• Japanese telecom firm SoftBank has proposed setting up a joint venture with Russia’s Rosset as a step toward power transfers from Russia’s Far East to the island nation, a senior minister in the region said

• Tokyo believes it is necessary to expand economic cooperation with Russia, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Hiroshige Seko, told a news conference

• Tokyo is ready to change its legislation currently banning electric power import in order to fulfil the Russia-Japan energy bridge construction project, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said

• A major Russian-Greek business forum was held in Thessaloniki with over 100 Russian companies taking part. The first day of the forum was devoted to agricultural cooperation between Russia and Greece

• “This year the business forum honours the friendly country – Russia. That is a country that has historical, cultural and spiritual ties with us. That is a country that is playing an important role in the international political and economic arena and we are striving for continuous deepening economic, diplomatic and cultural ties with it,” said Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister

• Russia is interested in having joint ventures and an exchange of technologies with Greece, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said

• Russia is considering participation in Greek transport projects, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said

• Russian gas giant Gazprom is interested in exploring opportunities for working on energy projects in Greece, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said

• Greece hopes to begin talks with the European Commission next week on the construction of the South European Pipeline that would deliver Russian gas to Europe, Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis said

• Russia’s energy giant Gazprom is interested in mining for coal in Greece together with its local joint venture, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said

• Russian and Iranian firms began work on 10^th September on two additional reactors, the second and the third power-generating units, for the second stage construction of Bushehr-2 nuclear power plant in Iran

• Moscow and Tehran are currently in negotiations over the redeployment of Russian bombers to the Hamadan airbase in Iran so that they could resume their counterterrorism missions in Syria

• Tehran seeks to step up its military and counterterrorism cooperation with Moscow, Iran’s vice-president said

• The construction of the second nuclear reactor at the Bushehr power plant in southern Iran will begin in 2018 according to the Iranian vice-president

• The Russian Energy Ministry plans to enter the signing stage of the intergovernmental agreement on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project in October, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. The mending of the Russian-Turkish relations opens possibilities for the Southern Gas Corridor development, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. Gazprom has received through diplomatic channels first permits from the authorities of Turkey for the implementation of the Turkish Stream after it was decided to resume the project this year

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the Syrian conflict with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu amid the recent Russia-US talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

• The recent changes made in Turkey’s legislation will significantly speed up and intensify the work on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

Next: Part Four