Zelensky to meet Scholz in Germany; Putin ready to continue sending gas to Europe via Kyiv post-2024

Russia was ready to continue sending gas to Europe via pipelines across Ukraine beyond 2024, according to President Vladimir Putin.

Raiffeisen Bank International said a Russian court ordered shares of its unit in the country to be frozen — further complicating protracted efforts to sell it.

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Scholz in Germany on Friday

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would meet on Friday, said a spokesperson for Germany’s government said.

The two men would meet for a one-on-one conversation in the early afternoon in Germany, according to the spokesperson, who declined to give any further details on location and other logistics. AFP reported earlier that the meeting would take place in Frankfurt.

Ukraine’s allies, including US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, were also scheduled to meet in Ramstein, Germany on Friday to discuss continued support for Ukraine.

Germany has been one of the most generous backers of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, supplying or promising materiel worth about €28-billion — behind only the US in value. Scholz said on Wednesday that Germany would procure 17 advanced air defence system units for Ukraine to help repel Russian attacks.

Russia ready to continue sending gas via Ukraine, says Putin

Russia was ready to continue sending gas to Europe via pipelines across Ukraine beyond 2024, according to President Vladimir Putin.

Europe has tried to wean itself off Russian gas since Moscow’s invasion, but some nations continue to receive it through those pipelines. However, Zelensky has said he doesn’t want to extend the transit contract with Russia. “We don’t want them making money here,” he said in July.

Speaking in the keynote session of the Eastern Economic Forum on Russia’s Pacific coast, Putin said Moscow “can’t force” Kyiv to extend the agreement, but could redirect those volumes to alternative export routes such as Turkey. While some of that gas could also be switched to the domestic market, Putin acknowledged that state-controlled Gazprom would lose revenues.

Gazprom, which all but stopped supplies to Europe in 2022 in retaliation for Western support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, posted its first annual net loss this century in 2023.

Now the US and its allies have toughened restrictions on Russian gas, an industry that was for long spared due to the significant role it played in firing Europe’s economy. The European Union will ban transshipments of Russian liquefied natural gas at its ports from March, while the US has focused on sanctioning future projects for the super-chilled fuel that could eventually boost Moscow’s energy revenues.

“We will resolve our issues, potentially with some losses, but we will do it anyway,” Putin said. Even if sanctions are imposed on all gas supplies from the nation, “prices will jump to the skies and yet our sales will still happen”, he added.

Read more: Russia’s Gazprom group reports first net loss in 24 years

Putin also said that one string of the controversial underwater Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany remained intact after explosions destroyed the other conduit in September 2022. It would take “just one push of the button” from Germany to start Russian gas flows on that route, which can deliver 27.5 billion cubic metres a year, he said.

If Europe doesn’t want Russian pipeline gas, Gazprom would increase exports to other markets, according to Putin.

Raiffeisen says Russian unit sale delayed with shares frozen

Raiffeisen Bank International said a Russian court ordered shares of its unit in the country to be frozen — further complicating protracted efforts to sell it.

The Viennese lender said a preliminary injunction ordered an immediate ban on the transfer of shares in the subsidiary, according to a statement late on Thursday. The decision is related to legal proceedings initiated by Rasperia Trading against the unit, construction company Strabag and its core Austrian shareholders.

The bank said it would challenge the decision.

In emailed comments to Bloomberg, a Raiffeisen spokesperson said the decision did not affect the bank’s ability to manage its subsidiary, nor its ambitions to scale back operations in Russia significantly. Meanwhile, the bank would continue to serve clients, he said.

Raiffeisen operates the largest foreign-owned lender in Russia and has been trying — unsuccessfully — to sell or spin it off for more than two years. US, European Union and Russia sanctions enacted in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine have so far blocked those efforts, according to the lender.

Putin quips he prefers Harris to Trump now that Biden is out

To laughter from some in his audience, a smiling Putin said he had made his choice in the US presidential election.

Having previously favoured a second term for Joe Biden, Putin said Russia now wanted US Vice-President Kamala Harris to win in November because she’d been endorsed by the incumbent Democrat.

“Biden was our favourite but he dropped out of the race,” Putin said in response to a question at the Eastern Economic Forum’s plenary session in Russia’s Vladivostok on Thursday. “But he recommended that all of his supporters support Harris, so we will as well.”

Putin’s comments effectively amounted to presidential trolling a day after the Biden administration announced that Russia-backed entities had pursued a yearslong operation to meddle in the US election and broadly boost the Kremlin’s interests. The FBI cited internal planning documents from one of the entities saying it was in Russia’s interest to ensure that Donald Trump or another Republican candidate won the White House.

Read more: Biden calls Putin ‘crazy SOB’ and steps up attacks on Trump

But they also reflect the Kremlin’s view that, with relations at their lowest in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s little prospect for improvement whoever wins the US presidency. Putin said Biden was “predictable” when he told state television in February that he’d prefer him over Trump in the White House.

On Thursday, Putin said Trump had imposed “so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia” during his first presidency. Harris “laughs so contagiously and expressively, it shows she’s doing well” and in that case, she may refrain from similar steps, said Putin.

Ukraine Parliament approves Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister

Ukraine’s Parliament approved Zelensky’s nominee to lead the Foreign Ministry as part of a series of votes pushing through a Cabinet shakeup aimed at rebooting the country’s war effort.

Andrii Sybiha, a senior diplomat and former ambassador to Turkey, will succeed Dmytro Kuleba as Ukraine’s top diplomat after a vote confirmed by legislator Oleksiy Honcharenko on Telegram Thursday. Legislators in Kyiv were also set to approve a raft of new Cabinet members in a broad overhaul that Zelensky said would set a “somewhat different emphasis”.

The reshuffle, the biggest since the full-scale war began in 2022, has left Ukraine’s Nato allies guessing after they were already caught off guard by last month’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. While several ministers are being shuffled to new positions, the overhaul is likely to draw scrutiny to Zelensky’s wartime planning.

Sybiha will lead diplomatic efforts as Moscow’s invasion reaches a crucial point with Russian missiles destroying Kyiv’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter. Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold back a Russian offensive in the east and the war-battered nation seeks air defence weapons from allies to protect civilians.

Six Ukrainian cabinet members resigned over the last three days. Kuleba, the public face of Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato and the European Union, was the most prominent official to leave his position. He is likely to be tasked by Zelensky to focus on strengthening Nato ties.

Ukraine’s top envoy to Turkey from 2016 to 2021, Sybiha went on to work in Zelensky’s office, including under the powerful chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak. Yermak often overshadowed Kuleba on issues including bilateral security guarantees, relations with the US and seeking support from the so-called Global South.

As he climbed the diplomatic ranks in Kyiv, Sybiha also did two stints in the embassy in Poland, one of Ukraine’s strongest backers in its war against Russia.

In total, Parliament was expected to vote on nine candidates to fill vacant cabinet seats, Honcharenko said earlier. Other top ministerial positions include those of infrastructure, agriculture and regional policy chiefs, which have been vacant for months.

Malaysia PM praises Putin, pledges to deepen Russia ties

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim praised Putin for steering Russia’s development and pledged to deepen ties, saying there was “enormous potential” to enhance regional trade relations already focused on semiconductors.

Anwar, who was on a two-day visit to Russia, said it would be to Malaysia’s benefit if Russia shared its achievements and agreed to “collaborate in all fields of endeavour”. The countries were discussing tie-ups ranging from aerospace and advanced technologies to agriculture and food security.

“You have shown your determination to be able to undertake difficulties and survive, and we would certainly benefit from this experience,” Anwar said in a meeting with Putin on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

The Malaysian prime minister followed in the footsteps of other Asian leaders in meeting with Putin since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, unmoved by the West’s condemnation of the Russian leader and his charges for alleged war crimes. The decision to visit Russia, Anwar said, was “not an easy feat”, but it was “the right decision”. DM