INSIDE RUSSIA
Russia has world’s largest energy reserves
The country’s oil, gas, and coal resources will last for decades to come, according to government data
Russia holds several decades’ worth of oil reserves, enough natural gas to last a century, and coal sufficient for 500 years at current production levels, according to a newly released government report.
‘Russia’s Energy Strategy through 2050’ – a document outlining the country’s vision for the energy sector and response to global challenges – was approved by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Monday.
With the world’s largest reserves, Russia is well positioned to supply traditional energy resources to global markets and preserve its role as a major producer, the report states.
The country holds more than 31 billion tons of proven oil reserves, which is enough for over 65 years of production at current rates. It ranks third globally in oil reserves and second in output, accounting for 10% of the world’s supply, the report adds. Russia also has significant untapped resources to sustain oil and condensate production at no less than 540 million tons a year and build spare capacity to respond flexibly to shifts in global demand.
In natural gas, Russia leads the world with 63.4 trillion cubic meters of reserves and is the second-largest producer, contributing 16% of global output. Current reserves would cover 100 years of production, the report noted.
The country’s coal resources are estimated at 272.7 billion tons, sufficient to last more than 500 years. Russia ranks fifth in global coal reserves and sixth in production.
Russia is also a major player in uranium, holding 705,000 tons – the fourth-largest reserves worldwide – and accounting for 5% of global output. The reserves ensure the stable operation of the country’s nuclear energy sector.
The report also said that rising demand for lithium, nickel, rare earths, aluminum, and other metals, will open up “new opportunities” for the efficient development of Russia’s mineral resource base.
The energy strategy outlined steps to fast-track infrastructure projects and create conditions for redirecting oil, gas, and refined product exports to new “friendly” markets. Plans include expanding transshipment capacity at Arctic and Far Eastern ports via the Northern Sea Route.
The document also looked at stress scenarios, including a faster global shift to renewables by 2050, but said the risk was low as it would require a 20% drop in energy use and triple the investment in alternatives, placing a heavy burden on consumers and the world economy.
The report emphasized that fossil fuels are expected to remain the backbone of global energy supply at least through 2050. Liquefied natural gas is projected to play an increasingly important role in global trade due to its flexible logistics, intensifying competition in the market.
Russia ‘not chasing anyone’ for sanctions relief
Washington’s “illegal” restrictions have undermined bilateral trade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said
Trade between Russia and the US has seen a major downturn as a result of Washington’s “illegal sanctions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. However, Moscow is “not chasing after anyone” to lift the restrictions, according to the top diplomat.
Washington and its allies placed punitive restrictions on Moscow after Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014, and later over Moscow’s alleged meddling in American elections. The sanctions were drastically expanded by the former US President Joe Biden’s administration following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Speaking to Kommersant on Monday, Lavrov said the globalization of the world economy had been destroyed after sanctions became “the only tool of [Biden’s] foreign policy.”
He noted that the administration of President Donald Trump had begun discussing trade and economic cooperation with Moscow already during initial contacts, but made no secret of pursuing material gain in its foreign policy decisions.
According to Lavrov, economic cooperation between the countries has dropped “by about 95% compared to the peak of around $30 billion ten years ago, mostly due to illegal sanctions.”
Future cooperation would depend entirely on Washington, Lavrov said, stressing “We are not chasing anyone or asking for sanctions to be lifted.”
Russia has repeatedly condemned the Western sanctions as illegal and ineffective, saying they have failed to destabilize its economy or isolate it from the global financial system. Sanctions have instead backfired on the countries that imposed them, while Russia has focused on shifting trade to Asia and the Global South, primarily China and India.
In March, Trump said Washington might consider lifting certain sanctions on Russia in order to advance the Black Sea Grain Initiative – key maritime agreement that ensures the safety of navigation in the Black Sea – as a step towards settling the Ukraine conflict.
On Saturday, Trump prolonged the restrictions for another year, based on the supposition that Moscow still poses a serious threat to American national security.
Lavrov said Russia had to avoid relying on foreign partners in critical sectors even if sanctions are lifted, echoing President Vladimir Putin’s calls to preserve economic sovereignty.
Russia’s top diplomat explains why Moscow trusts Trump
Russia appreciates Donald Trump’s efforts to “get to the bottom” of the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said
Moscow is open to continuing negotiations with the United States because it sees a clear difference between President Donald Trump and his predecessors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Unlike the UK and EU countries, “the Trump administration is trying to get to the bottom of the issue and, most importantly, understand the root cause” of the Ukraine conflict, Lavrov told the newspaper Kommersant in an interview published Monday evening.
The US and the EU “organized and funded the anti-constitutional coup” in Kiev in 2014, which triggered the confrontation with Russia, the minister stated.
“Trump has repeatedly said that the colossal mistake which led to the current events in Ukraine was the Biden administration’s decision to drag Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov added.
Asked whether American negotiators can be trusted, Lavrov said that Moscow should “not brush off” Trump’s overtures. During the first round of negotiations in Saudi Arabia in February, the US delegation emphasized that other countries “have their own national interests that do not always coincide with the national interests of the United States,” he said.
According to Lavrov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made it clear that Trump values a pragmatic, “common-sense” approach to world politics.
Lavrov said the message Moscow heard from Washington was that “when their national interests don’t align, Russia and the US, as responsible players on the world stage, must do everything possible to prevent those contradictions from escalating into confrontation.” In areas where their interests do align, both sides should “not waste an opportunity” to pursue joint initiatives, he added.
“We know perfectly well what a mutually beneficial deal looks like – something we have never rejected – and what a deal designed to lure us into another trap looks like,” the minister said.
Trump initiated direct talks with Russia in February, stressing the need to broker a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev as soon as possible. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday, marking their third meeting this year.
Russia not to ‘offer anything to anyone’ on New START Treaty
The ten-year treaty was to expire in February 2021, when Moscow and Washington agreed to extend it for a maximum period of five years, with Russia describing it as the gold standard of disarmament accords
MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. Russia will not be offering anything to anyone regarding the New START Treaty, which expires next year, and there have been no bilateral initiatives from US President Donald Trump’s administration, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Kommersant daily.
“Donald Trump’s administration has offered to sit down ‘at three’ with China regarding this issue. They’re not offering us anything,” Lavrov noted. “We are not going to offer anything to anyone as well, because we are not the ones who ruined the tools of arms control, the START III Treaty.”
“The basic principles without which it could not take place were refused by the [former US President] Joe Biden administration,” the Russian foreign minister said. “The Trump administration has not yet returned to these principles, although the dialogue is underway regarding many issues.”
“We’re self-sufficient. We have everything. We know how to ensure our defense capability,” Lavrov pointed out.
“If they feel that their nuclear arsenals are very outdated and continue to become obsolete against the backdrop of our upgraded weapons, then they should be probably interested in somehow correcting this discrepancy. We have not received any such proposals,” he added.
New START Treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 21, 2023, that Moscow was suspending its participation in New START Treaty but was not withdrawing from it. The head of state emphasized that before resuming discussions about further activities under the treaty, Russia needed to understand how the arsenals of NATO’s other nuclear-weapons countries, the UK and France, would be taken into account along with US capacities.
Thetreaty stipulated that seven years after its entry into effect, each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers.
The ten-year treaty was to expire in February 2021, when Moscow and Washington agreed to extend it for a maximum period of five years, with Russia describing it as the gold standard of disarmament accords.
FSB Detains Ukrainian Spy Who Planned Terrorist Acts in Russia
Moldovan citizen Marius Prunyanu previously fought on the side of Ukraine near the city of Artemovsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian Federal Security Service informed.
Prunyanu arrived in Russia on the instructions of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) to organize acts of sabotage and terrorism.
Before leaving the Moldovan capital of Chisinau for Russia ,Prunyanu received money from a Ukrainian handler to purchase a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado vehicle with Moldovan license plates.
The SUV was equipped with a cache, which was disguised as a battery and which stored three 1.6-kilogram explosive devices made of the C-4 plastic explosive, according to FSB.
OUTSIDE RUSSIA
Medvedev brands incoming German chancellor a ‘Nazi’
The former Russian leader slammed Friedrich Merz for suggesting that Kiev could use Berlin-supplied missiles to destroy the Crimean Bridge
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has branded incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz a Nazi after he allegedly suggested that Kiev should destroy the Crimean Bridge.
In an interview with state broadcaster ARD, Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the likely future leader of Germany, stated that Berlin could supply long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, but only if it is done in coordination with other EU nations.
Kiev should in the future use Western-supplied missiles to go on the offensive and destroy, for example, “the most important land connection between Russia and Crimea,” Merz said.
Merz did not clarify if he meant the Crimean bridge, which stretches from Russia’s Krasnodar Region to Crimea, or the ‘land bridge’ that Russian forces established with the peninsula when the former Ukrainian region off Kherson joined Russia.
However, many critics have interpreted Merz’s words to mean the Crimean bridge, especially given that Kiev has already conducted a number of attacks on it since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
In a post on X on Monday, Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that Merz was following in the footsteps of his Nazi father.
“Chancellor candidate Fritz Merz is haunted by the memory of his father, who served in Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Now Merz has suggested a strike on the Crimean Bridge. Think twice, Nazi,” Medvedev wrote.
According to media reports, Merz’s father Joachim was conscripted into the Wehrmacht – the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany – around 1941. His grandfather, Josef Paul Sauvigny, had also been a member of the Nazi party since 1933.
Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechaev, warned that delivering Taurus missiles to Ukraine would not alter the battlefield situation but could escalate the conflict, as the missiles would be guided by German specialists. He suggested this might provoke Moscow to take retaliatory measures.
Germany is Kiev’s second-largest military donor, after the US. Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that Berlin would provide the country with an additional $12 billion worth of military aid over the next four years and would continue to support it regardless of the upcoming change of government in Germany.
Russia has repeatedly slammed continued foreign assistance to Ukraine, arguing that it only serves to prolong hostilities and cause more bloodshed without affecting the ultimate outcome of the conflict.
SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE
Russian military confirms shooting down Ukrainian F-16 jet
Moscow has reported the destruction of a US-designed warplane over Ukraine
Russian forces have shot down a US-designed F-16 fighter jet operated by Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
It is the first time that the Russian military has announced the destruction of an F-16 since Kiev’s Western backers began deliveries of the fourth-generation aircraft to Ukraine last summer.
“An F-16 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down by air defense means,” the ministry said in its daily briefing on Sunday without revealing any further details.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the loss of one of its F-16 fighters. An interdepartmental commission was then established to find out what caused the plane to go down, it added.
Vladimir Zelensky later confirmed that Ukrainian pilot Pavel Ivanov had been killed “during an F-16 combat mission.” He promised a “strong and precise” response, implying Russia was behind the destruction of the jet.
A government source told BBC Ukraine on Saturday that the F-16 had been shot down by the Russian military. “In total, the Russians fired three missiles at the plane. It was either a guided anti-aircraft missile from a S-400 ground-based system or an R-37 air-to-air missile,” the outlet claimed.
The source also ruled out friendly fire as a reason for the loss of the jet, claiming that Ukrainian air defenses have not been active in that area.
It marks the second confirmed loss of an F-16 by Ukraine. The first was destroyed and its pilot killed under unclear circumstances last August. The results of an investigation into the incident were never announced to the public. However, multiple media reports indicated that the plane was likely shot down by the country’s own anti-aircraft defenses by mistake.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway pledged to supply Kiev with up to 80 F-16s after receiving permission to do so from the previous administration of US President Joe Biden, though most of them will take years to arrive. In 2024, Ukraine received about 18 aircraft.
The Kiev authorities once claimed that the US-designed jets would become a game-changer in the conflict with Russia. But since the loss of the first aircraft, their use in combat has been limited, with the F-16 being mainly deployed away from the contact line for air defense purposes.
Sumy strike targeted meeting of Ukrainian commanders
The attack left at least 60 Kiev servicemen dead, the Russian Defense Ministry has said
The Defense Ministry in Moscow has confirmed that Russian forces were behind the missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, saying that it targeted a gathering of the country’s commanding officers.
The attack has left more than 60 Ukrainian servicemen dead, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
It was carried out with the use of two Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles despite “active counteraction by the Ukrainian military’s electronic warfare means and foreign-made air defense systems,” the statement read.
The target of the attack was “a meeting of the command staff of the Seversk operational-tactical group” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which was taking place in Sumy that day, the ministry said.
“The Kiev regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and holding events with the participation of servicemen in the center of a densely populated city,” the statement read.
The local authorities in Sumy said on Sunday that the Russian strike left over 20 dead and more than 80 wounded, all whom were civilians.
Sumy is a regional capital and a frontline city of over 250,000 people, located just 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the border with Russia. It has become a focal point of the Ukrainian retreat which has following Kiev’s failed incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Following the attack, ArtyomSemenikhin, a mayor of the Ukrainian city of Konotop and member of the right-wing Svoboda party, blamed the head of Sumy’s military administration for the loss of life, claiming that he had been the one to organize an award ceremony for the troops so close to the line.
“He was warned that this should not be done,” Semenikhin insisted, adding that he was confident that Artyukh will be prosecuted for his conduct.
Ukrainian lawmaker Mariana Bezuglaya, a former member of Vladimir Zelensky’s political party, suggested that “the Russians had information about the gathering” in Sumy. She urged the Ukrainian military “not [to] gather the troops for award ceremonies, especially in civilian cities.”
Ukrainian journalist and former legislator Igor Mosiychuk also called for the arrest of Artyukh and Zelensky party legislator Mikhail Ananachenko, who, he claimed, “beside the soldiers, gathered civilians, including children” for the ceremony.
Scott Ritter: Russia Must Not Allow West to Use Sumy Attack as Ammo for Propaganda War
The biggest problem with the April 13 missile strike against Sumy is the “perception” of this attack, attempts by propagandists to frame it as a “war crime,” may endanger the entire “US-Russia peace process,” military analyst and former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik.
Though Russia has all the information needed to justify this attack, the fallout from the missile strike is now being used “against the interests of Russia and in the service of those who are trying to undermine a peace process.”
“It has led to confusion within the Trump administration, where the president himself has taken up the Ukrainian narrative, saying that he believes that this was a mistake by Russia, and his heart goes out to the Ukrainian casualties,” Ritter observed.
It is imperative that Russia prevents the Sumy attack from becoming “another Bucha, where the West seized control of the narrative and used a fabricated case against Russia to undermine the possibility of… peace that was being negotiated in Istanbul,” he added.
INSIGHTS
Fyodor Lukyanov: Here’s what Trump really wants from his trade war
The US president believes the EU will obey — and he may be right
US President Donald Trump wasn’t joking. As promised, he has launched a dramatic overhaul of his country’s trade policy, introducing sweeping tariffs to force what he calls a rebalancing of imports and exports with key partners. The move has shaken markets and triggered warnings of a looming global recession – or even a depression. Trump, known for his aggressive, high-stakes tactics, has left little doubt that his strategy is deliberate and flexible only on his terms. Yet the outcome remains uncertain, and most experts predict the US will suffer alongside everyone else, if not more.
Economists are largely in agreement: any gains from this approach, if they come, will be long-term. In the short term, Americans can expect higher inflation, struggling manufacturers, weakened consumer power, and declining market capitalization. But Trump is not concerned with consensus. He is a political brawler, and his goal is not simply economic reform, but to fundamentally reshape the global system that, in his view, is dragging America toward decline.
To understand Trump’s mindset, it is worth recalling the now-infamous 2016 essay “The Flight 93 Election,” written by conservative thinker Michael Anton. In it, Anton compared Trump voters to the passengers of the hijacked plane on 9/11 who charged the cockpit, sacrificing their lives to stop disaster. The metaphor was stark: America, hijacked by liberal globalists, was on a suicidal course. Trump, in this framing, was the last-ditch response to avert collapse.
Anton went on to serve in Trump’s first administration, grew disillusioned, but has returned to prominence in the second. He now reportedly heads policy planning at the State Department and is involved in talks with Russia. It is as if the logic of Flight 93, once applied to US domestic politics, has now expanded to the entire world. The Trump administration sees the current global order as unsustainable and even dangerous to American power. In their view, if the system isn’t smashed now, the US will soon be unable to fix it at all.
Trump believes he can strongarm countries into renegotiating trade deals by leveraging America’s market power. For some, this may work. Many nations simply cannot afford a full-blown trade war with the US. But the two key targets of Trump’s economic offensive – China and the European Union – are not so easily bullied.
In China’s case, the country is close to parity with the US in global economic weight and influence. While it is not a hegemon, China sees itself as a peer, a necessary pole in a multipolar world. That self-image makes capitulation to US demands unthinkable. Beijing is confident it can weather the storm and perhaps even outlast Washington. It may be underestimating its opponent, but it will not back down without a fight.
The EU, meanwhile, presents a different challenge. Its trade policy is controlled by the European Commission, not individual member states. This centralization limits flexibility and slows response times, especially in crises. While countries like Germany, Europe’s top exporter, are directly impacted by US tariffs, they cannot negotiate alone. Coordination within the EU has always been difficult, and in moments of real pressure, national interests often override collective ones.
Moreover, the EU is militarily and politically dependent on the United States, a dependency that has long complicated its ability to assert itself. While Trump views Western Europe increasingly as an adversary, particularly on trade and even in security, the bloc still sees the US as a vital ally. It cannot, for now, imagine a future without the American security umbrella. This imbalance gives Washington leverage that it doesn’t have with China.
Paradoxically, Western Europe is now caught between the rhetoric of defiance and the instinct to comply. Trump appears to believe that, unlike China, the EU will eventually fold. And traditionally, it has done just that. But this time, submission would come at the cost of significant ambitions and without any clear reward.
While the US-China standoff is entering a phase of public defiance followed by expected negotiations, the trajectory of US-EU relations is murkier. Trump seems to expect full capitulation from Brussels, and soon.
This expectation may be misguided. Western European governments are under internal economic pressure, especially with growing protests from industry and agriculture, which bear the brunt of rising costs and lost export markets. Yet Brussels remains ideologically committed to the transatlantic alliance and the liberal economic order, even as that order is being rewritten from Washington.
Trump’s ambitions are vast and immediate: to restructure world trade, settle the conflict in Ukraine, and contain Iran – all simultaneously, and all in his second term. He sees no need to wait, compromise, or follow established diplomatic pacing. This is the Flight 93 strategy applied to geopolitics: crash the system before it crashes you.
It remains to be seen how much of this the rest of the world will tolerate. China won’t yield easily. The EU may grumble, delay, and attempt to negotiate – but if pushed far enough, it may also split internally under the strain. What is clear is that the US, under Trump, is no longer trying to lead the world. It is trying to reset it – on its own terms.
This article was first published in the newspaper RossiyskayaGazeta and has been translated and edited by the RT team
Top 6 of Russia’s Most Effective Air Defense Systems
April 13 marks the Day of the Russian Air Defense Forces, which are currently equipped with sophisticated military hardware capable of hitting any target.
Let’s dive into the air defense systems keeping Russian skies under lock and key.
Tor
Short-range tactical missile system, designed to protect ground forces and critical sites from aircraft, drones, precision-guided munitions, and cruise missiles. Their range is 20 km (12 miles), while altitude coverage stands at 12 km (7 miles).
Buk
The system’s range and altitude coverage are 85 km (52 miles) and 35 km (21 miles), respectively. Equipped with phased-array radar for target tracking and missile guidance, the Buk can operate in high electronic countermeasure environments.
Pantsir-S1
Its combined missile and gun system allows for effective layered defense. The range of the system’s 12 missiles and two guns are about 30 km (18 miles) and 4 km (2 miles), respectively.
S-300
One of the first missile systems capable of engaging multiple targets, it has a range of up to 200 km (124 miles) and can tackle aircraft, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles. Altitude coverage is 30 km (18 miles).
S-400
With a range of about 400 km (248 miles) and altitude coverage of 35 km (21 miles), the system can track and engage 80 targets simultaneously. Apart from warplanes and missiles, the S-400 can tackle unmanned aerial vehicles and stealth targets.
S-500
This next-gen system has a range of 600 km (372 miles) and altitude coverage of 200 km (124 miles). It is designed to counter ICBMs and low-orbit satellites, in addition to stealth and hypersonic strategic targets.
