TASS is Russia’s leading state news agency, and on September 1, 2021, the agency celebrated its 117th anniversary.
Almost 2,000 employees worldwide ensure the agency's operation in real time. Regional information centers in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg, in addition to dozens of offices in Russia’s regions, along with 63 global branches in 60 countries enable TASS to quickly receive information from any corner of the globe. In 16 countries, TASS correspondents are the only Russian media representatives.
TASS publishes about 3,000 news items and about 600-800 photographs and videos from correspondents in Russia and across the world daily, forming a complete and objective picture of events. TASS subscribers, including Russian and foreign media, as well as federal and regional government bodies, have access to a wide range of 70 news feeds and topic-oriented services in Russian, English, Spanish, French, and Chinese.
The agency's main digital product — tass.ru — is one of the largest online media outlets in Russia. In 2021, its audience exceeded 267 million users. The number of unique visitors per month is over 34 million. TASS content is presented on all social networks available in Russia. TASS posts and videos have been seen by approximately 83 billion users in 2021.
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Hostilities to end if Kiev orders nationalists to lay down weapons — Kremlin spokesman
MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Hostilities in Ukraine may end "before the end of today," if Kiev orders the nationalists to lay down their weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.
"The Ukrainian side can end all this before the end of this day; an order is necessary for the nationalist units to lay down their weapons, an order is necessary for the Ukrainian military to lay down their weapons; and they must fulfill all Russia’s demands. Then everything will be over before the day ends," the spokesman said, commenting on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s remark that he would like to end the hostilities before the cold comes.
"Everything else are just speculations of the Ukrainian head of state," the spokesman added.
"We orient ourselves on the statements made by our President [Vladimir Putin] that the special military operation proceeds according to the plan and achieves its goals," the spokesman underscored.
When asked if the Russian side has any approximate timeframe for the end of the special operation, Peskov answered in a negative.
"No," he said."
China urges NATO to give up attempts at destabilizing Asia — Foreign Ministry
It is stated that "as a product of the Cold War and the world's largest military alliance, NATO has long professed outdated views on security issues and has long become a tool for individual countries in attempts to maintain their hegemony"
BEIJING, June 28. /TASS/. The Chinese government is calling on NATO to stop trying to destabilize Asia in the wake of the crisis in Europe, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said while commenting on Bloomberg's report China would be called a "systemic challenge" in NATO’s new strategic concept.
"What NATO needs to do is to abandon the Cold War mindset, zero-sum games and the practice of creating enemy images. After the turmoil in Europe, NATO countries should abandon their attempts to destabilize Asia and the world," Zhao told a news conference on Tuesday.
"As a product of the Cold War and the world's largest military alliance, NATO has long professed outdated views on security issues and has long become a tool for individual countries in attempts to maintain their hegemony," he stressed.
"China pursues an independent and peaceful foreign policy. It does not interfere in the internal affairs of other states. Nor does it export its ideology or use extraterritorial jurisdiction, economic blackmail, or unilateral sanctions. How can China be a systematic challenge?" Zhao said.
"China's development is an opportunity for the world, not a challenge to anyone. We strongly urge NATO to immediately stop spreading false information about China and refrain from provocative statements," he stressed.
NATO’s meeting at the level of heads of state and government will take place in Madrid on June 28-30. The summit’s participants will adopt a new strategic concept, consider ways of strengthening the alliance and the implications of global climate change for the security sphere."
UK Foreign Secretary urges West not to show signs of fatigue over Ukraine
MADRID, June 28. /TASS/. The West should not show signs of fatigue amid the Ukrainian crisis, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in an interview published in Spain’s El Pais newspaper.
"There is a lot of support for Ukraine in Europe," the foreign secretary said, "I spoke with ministers from the Group of Seven on Friday, and we all agree to give Ukraine all the support it needs and to strengthen sanctions against Russia." "But in this crisis, the unity that has been shown has become very important," she added, "I ask you to maintain it (unity - TASS) and not to show signs of fatigue or a desire to give in."
According to Truss, NATO's response to the situation around Ukraine "should be to increase its presence [in eastern Europe] and make it more permanent". She also believes that Western troops "must prepare for all possible contingencies."
"We cannot have an unconvenient peace with Russia's continued presence in Ukraine," the minister argued, "I believe that all of Ukraine's territories have been illegally occupied. <...> Ultimately, this is about what Ukrainians want."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation, after which the US, the EU, the UK, as well as some other states, imposed sanctions against Russian persons and legal entities."
Press review: West’s payment block part of ‘default’ scheme and G7 plans Russian gold ban
Media: West pushing Russia into foreign debt default
A 30-day grace period for Russia’s payment of $100 mln in interest on eurobonds expired on June 27 but bondholders did not get the money, which creates grounds for a default, Bloomberg claimed. The Kremlin and the Russian Finance Ministry refused to confirm it as a fact because the country had made a payment but foreign infrastructure facilities failed to pass it through, Izvestia notes.
Legally, a default can be declared by rating agencies or 25% of investors based on a court ruling, Finam Analyst Alexey Kovalev explained. According to him, this time, it was Bloomberg that actually announced Russia’s default.
Unsurprisingly, it was widely covered in the Western media who described it as a result of the sanctions on Moscow, regardless of whether it really happened or not, the expert said.
Russia’s current ‘default’ is unique and completely artificial because the country has the money and the will to pay its foreign debts, Sovcombank Chief Analyst Mikhail Vasilyev told Vedomosti. "The West has deliberately pushed Russia into a default by making it impossible to pay the debt," the economist pointed out, adding that the situation was perfectly clear to all financial market participants. The expert does not see any serious consequences for Russia as a borrower because the country has been blocked off from the Western financial system since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Russia has an abundance of dollars and euros based on the current-account surplus in its balance of payments so there is no need for external borrowing at the moment.
If the default is eventually recognized, the main risks for Russia will stem from the possibility of a cross default on its other foreign obligations and attempts to collect debts by seizing assets, Chief Economist at Otkritie Bank Maxim Petronevich stressed. However, given that Russia’s already frozen assets ($300 bln) many times exceed this amount, it does not change the situation much.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Tajikistan needs to choose between Russia or US
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe on his way to Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat, where a Caspian Summit is set to take place on June 29. It is important for the Kremlin to figure out whether Tajikistan can be a reliable partner for Russia in the current situation, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.
First, there was the coronavirus pandemic, then the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) came to power in Afghanistan and now, the global situation is complicated, making it possible for the West to try to strengthen its influence in Central Asia. "A marked increase in the American activity with regard to Tajikistan is worth mentioning, which is one of the things that surely cause concern for Moscow," St. Petersburg State University Professor Alexander Knyazev pointed out.
According to him, Dushanbe’s policy towards the situation in Afghanistan is not only different from Russia’s but is fully in line with the approaches that the Americans and the Europeans apply to the Afghan track. However, in the expert’s view, if tensions start mounting on the Tajik-Afghan border, Dushanbe will turn to Russia, citing allied ties within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
The analyst believes Dushanbe needs to understand that Russia has been and remains the main and almost the only guarantor of Tajikistan’s territorial integrity and the current relative stability in the country. "Another thing to note is Russia’s de facto neutral position on the years-long perpetual military conflict on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Clearly, such a conflict between CSTO member states is not in Russia’s interests and it’s a pressing issue. Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan earlier rejected Russia’s mediation offers but the thing is that there is no other way to solve the problem," the expert stressed.
Izvestia: Will NATO and Russia achieve progress in relations
A summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is about to kick off in Madrid. The bloc is expected to declare Russia to be the most significant security threat. However, experts believe that such rhetoric does not mean that Moscow and Brussels cannot interact since the most realistic goal in the current situation is to build dialogue between the militaries in order to prevent any unintended escalation, Izvestia writes.
"Relations between Russia and NATO countries did not become this tense at a moment's notice," First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Dmitry Novikov emphasized. "It was a long process that made itself quite clear after Putin had stated at a Munich Security Conference that Russia had its own national interests. It was met with hostility because the West had been used to hearing totally different things from Russian leaders. The new rhetoric was taken as Russia’s desire to go beyond the role that it had been given," the lawmaker added.
"In politics, it is better to avoid strong language. It’s hard to say where Russia and NATO will be ten years from now," Russian International Affairs Council Director General Andrey Kortunov noted. "As for the short term, it’s definitely possible to raise the issue of resuming dialogue between the militaries. Neither Moscow nor Brussels is interested in any unintended escalation and this kind of direct interaction - both on the higher and the working level - is a goal worth pursuing. If the parties succeed, they will be able to gradually move towards more complicated and sensitive issues," the expert emphasized.
The NATO summit could serve as a catalyst for such a process, Kortunov said, adding that after dotting all the i’s, the parties might reasonably look at the areas where interaction would be possible.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: G7 nations seek restrictions on Russian gold and oil
G7 members are determined to employ various methods to limit Russia’s revenues, the group’s leaders said in a joint statement at a summit in Germany. They particularly seek to restrict Russia’s gold exports and reduce their own dependence on Russian energy, Rossiyskaya Gazeta notes.
An embargo on Russian gold purchases (the country exported more than $17 bln worth of gold in 2021) was announced by the leaders of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Canada. The European Union, however, is divided on the matter.
"G7 countries account for less than one-fifth of the world’s gold consumption, yet about half of the consumption comes from end customers in China and India. In such a situation, it’s hard to say how measures to control trade infrastructure will relate to the real gold consumption market. If a need arises, direct gold supplies are possible," Finam Analyst Alexander Potavin stressed.
Energy supplies are another area where G7 nations seek to reduce Russia’s revenues. The American proposal to enable Russian oil buyers to determine the maximum price they are willing to pay was discussed at the meeting but no specific decisions were made.
The initiative will make sense only if it involves all members of the European Union, as well as China and India, who are unlikely to support the move, BCS World of Investment expert Igor Galaktionov noted. In addition, some European countries almost entirely rely on Russian oil, which makes a consensus on such measures look questionable."
Moscow honors commitments, despite West’s ploys to drive Russia into ‘default’
The Kremlin firmly rejected default allegations
MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Russia is said to have an event of default on sovereign debt commitments, the Bloomberg news agency reported. According to the news agency, investors did not receive money due and the situation can be treated as a default. This is the first case since 1918 when Russia failed to honor its sovereign debt commitments, the news outlet said.
The Kremlin firmly rejected such default allegations. "These allegations of a default are absolutely unjustified, because back in May, the obligatory payment in the currency was fulfilled, and the fact that Euroclear withheld this money, or did not deliver it to the recipients is no longer our problem," he told reporters.
Developments
The deadline for paying $100 mln in Russian Eurobond coupons expired at night on June 27, Bloomberg said. Reuters also reported that a development had occurred that could be viewed as a default. According to the news agency, some Taiwan-based holders of Russian bonds not assuming repayment in rubles did not receive payments after the grace period had lapsed.
The Russian Finance Ministry reported on May 20 that it had made the payment under Eurobonds maturing in 2026 in the amount of $71.25 mln and in 2036 in the amount of 26.5 mln. The US license authorizing the currency debt servicing expired on May 25. Nevertheless, bondholders did not receive the money by May 27, Bloomberg reported. The 30-day countdown for the default announcement started from then.
Russian Finance Ministry’s position
The Russian Finance Ministry denies any default. "In accordance with issuing documentation for mentioned issues, the event of default is the failure to pay on the part of the debtor, but the payment was made in advance - on May 20, 2022. In this case, the failure of investors to receive funds occurred through third party action and not as a result of the failure to pay, which is not expressly provided in issuing documentation and should be considered within the framework of the general norms of law governing conditions of the issue, with consideration of all the circumstances and good faith in the actions of the parties," the Ministry stated.
Ruble payments
The West continues depriving Russia of the opportunity to normally service its external debt. The paying agent’s functions for sovereign Eurobonds maturing in 2023, 2028, 2042 and 2043 were transferred in early June to Russia’s National Settlement Depository. The European Union later included the Depository into the sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions.
On June 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an executive order, whereby Moscow views its Eurobond payment obligation as honored "if they are made in rubles in the amount equivalent to the value of foreign currency commitments" on the day the funds are transferred to the National Settlement Depository. The first such payment was made on June 23 for Eurobonds maturing in 2027 and 2047.
No grounds to announce default
The transfer of payments to rubles is caused by the refusal of foreign counterparties to process payments in foreign currency but this does not translate to an international debt default announcement, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
Documents of all Russian issues contain the Currency Indemnity clause allowing lawful payments in rubles if sanctions prevent payment in the original currency, in case of court judgment, court order or any other decision.
Russia has all the opportunities to repay foreign debts using its financial resources, Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said earlier.
Further developments
The default procedure can be implemented in two ways, either a global rating agency can announce it, or a court may do so upon a motion filed by investors or courts, says Kyle Shostak, CEO of US-based Navigator Principal Investors.
If the West announces the default on Russian sovereign Eurobonds, Russia will go to court, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier in an interview with Izvestiya newspaper."
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