Nightmare goes on. Yandex is gaining the planet. Protecting China’s interests. Oh, those Russians!
January 19, 2022
Should he spoil Comrade Xi’s event?
Russian President Vladimir Putin will brief Chinese leader Xi Jinping about negotiations on security guarantees with the United States and NATO during his visit to Beijing, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“So far, there has been no talk of any coordinated action [by Moscow and Beijing on security guarantees].
At the same time, under their partnership, a particularly privileged partnership, Russia and China are in a constant exchange of information and opinions on the most pressing issues, including this one. Therefore, President Putin will undoubtedly inform President [of China] Xi [Jinping] about what is happening in this area.”
According to preliminary data, the Russian-Chinese summit will be held on February 4, the opening day of the Winter Olympics. Peskov said that the Kremlin is ready to be flexible, depending on developments in the pandemic situation.
We can expect anything from Vladimir Putin, but I don’t think he is ready to give an unpleasant surprise to Comrade Xi and once again divert attention from the Olympic Games to military conflict, as he did in August 2008, orchestrating an invasion of Georgia. In this regard, I cannot understand the statement of the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, who said that Washington expects Russia to attack Ukraine at any moment: “We believe we’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine. I would say that’s more stark than we have been.”
The Beijing Olympics open on February 4. I suppose there will be no transformation of the hybrid conflict into an open military conflict until then or until Putin and Xi meet.
Yandex is gaining the planet
The leading Russian internet company Yandex and Korean KT Corporation have signed an agreement on the launch in 2022 in Seoul of a delivery service using autonomous robots created by Yandex. South Korea will be the first country to launch Yandex delivery robots in East Asia. Currently, Yandex robots are working in partnership with Grubhub to deliver food on the campuses of Ohio State University and Arizona State University. Soon, Yandex robots will begin delivering orders in Dubai for French retailer Carrefour.
Nightmare goes on
Massive selling on the Russian market continues. By the end of the trading day on Tuesday, Russian stock indices fell by 6.5%; the most significant drop among the “blue chips” was demonstrated by Sberbank, which plummeted by 8.5%.
The panic at the financial markets forced the monetary authorities to adjust their plans. The Ministry of Finance canceled the auction on placement of the next issue of government bonds. The Bank of Russia reduced almost fivefold its purchases of foreign currency, conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Finance under the budget rule established by law.
How to bribe laptop producers?
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has proposed to some electronics manufacturers to release batches of laptops that will run on Russian processors of Baikal Electronics.
Last December, this idea was discussed with Lenovo Global Technology Russia LLC (Lenovo headquarters in Beijing, registered in Hong Kong). Russian officials also met with representatives of American HP and Taiwanese Acer. They discussed the compatibility of the companies’ products with Russian microelectronics and the possibility of localizing notebook production in Russia. Russian officials were ready to sign an agreement on producing 50,000 localized devices by the end of the year as an experiment.
Russian authorities are carrying out purposeful work on creating and promoting domestic hardware and software at the Russian market. The main reason for this policy, initiated by Vladimir Putin, is to protect Russian consumers, primarily government agencies, from the possible introduction of Western sanctions and also to protect against the possible penetration of foreign intelligence services into Russian information systems. Suppose the experiment on the production of localized laptops is successful. In that case, the Russian authorities will be ready to introduce a ban for government agencies, budgetary organizations, and state-controlled companies to purchase laptops running on foreign-made microprocessors. And companies producing laptops with Russian-made processors will have a guaranteed volume of sales in Russia.
Not bad? Win-win?
Russia is ready to protect China’s interests
The Russian Defense Ministry said that a detachment of its Pacific Fleet had entered the port in Chabahar, Iran’s Baluchestan Province.
“A detachment of Pacific Fleet (TOF) ships consisting of the missile cruiser Varyag, the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs, and the sea tanker Boris Butoma, has anchored at the port of Chabahar of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the port, the official delegation of the Russian Navy will take part in the planned conference on joint naval exercises of combat ships of Russia, Iran, and China.” The vessels had set sail from Vladivostok at the end of 2021.
According to the Russian Ambassador to Iran, Levan Jagarian, the purpose of the exercise will be to practice joint actions to ensure freedom of navigation and combat piracy.
In 2019, the three countries conducted similar exercises off the coast of Iran. In September 2020, Iranian warships took part in Russian maneuvers in 2020 in the Caspian Sea, and in February 2021, Russia and Iran held separate exercises in the northeastern Indian Ocean. At the end of July 2021, Iran sent its warship to St. Petersburg to participate in a celebratory parade.
As is often the case, Russia and China have different objectives. Beijing is interested in the security and stability of oil supplies from Iran, which is one of the most essential of China’s oil suppliers, and from the Persian Gulf region, in general. Moscow, in turn, aims to strengthen military ties with Iran to confront the common enemy, the United States. Since China is unwilling to demonstrate its willingness to confront the U.S. war machine, and Russia is willing (as part of its maneuvers) to defend the security of China’s oil supply, I can argue that Beijing is skillfully exploiting Russia to its advantage.
Everyone should be ready
The militaries of Russia and Belarus are considering a situation where the full potential of the military organization of the two friendly countries will have to be brought in to guarantee the security of the Union State, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said.
“There may be a situation when the forces and means of the regional grouping will not be enough to guarantee the security of the Union State, and we should be ready to strengthen it. We have reached an understanding with the Belarusian party that the full potential of the state military organization will have to be used for the common defense.”
According to Fomin, the Russian Eastern Military District staff will be involved in the inspection of the readiness of military units in the territory of Belarus. During the examination, the Deputy Minister will practice various options of joint actions to neutralize threats and stabilize the situation on the borders of Russia and Belarus.