Press review: NATO complicit in Kursk attack and Russian military officials get new roles

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Russian intelligence points to NATO hand in Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk Region, Russia’s top brass appoints key figures for the defense of borderline regions, and Iran confirms its intent to receive observer status in the EAEU. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
 
Ukraine’s operation in the Kursk Region was planned in coordination with US, UK and Polish special services, the press service of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) told Izvestia. It added that units engaged in the incursion underwent combat training at centers in the UK and Germany. Experts stress, however, that the Ukrainian attack has no chance of succeeding. Moreover, now Moscow will not agree to any talks with Kiev due to its aggressive actions.
“It’s only a matter of time before all enemy units are eliminated. These are small terror and sabotage groups of 10-12 people; they are hiding in the woods, in abandoned villages, apartments, basements, and so on. They are making forays, and it is not easy to detect them because they may not even have any transportation,” military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.
According to him, from a military point of view, the operation was doomed from the start. The Russian side has already blocked all the lines of retreat for the intruders.
“Those who are still in the Kursk Region are basically committing suicide. That said, the West and Kiev were also banking on creating some media buzz in a desperate attempt to show that they can cause damage to Russia. And, against this background, try to mobilize the population and its armed forces for a standoff,” he added.
According to the experts, the Ukrainian armed forces did not have the technical and logistical capabilities to plan and conduct such an operation without Western support.
“Ukraine wouldn’t have dared to do this on its own due to the seriousness of the operation. After all, invading sovereign Russian territory is an act of aggression. This could not have been done without consulting the Americans,” American historian and former Harvard University professor Vladimir Brovkin told Izvestia. “The Americans are monitoring everything going on at the line of combat engagement, constantly, around the clock. They have both satellite surveillance, and people on the ground, and a huge staff at the embassy, and military advisors.”
According to Brovkin, the US’ involvement in the Kursk incursion has everything to do with the upcoming presidential election in the country.
“Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats currently in power want to win. And they need some successes. They are constantly saying that supposedly the Ukrainians are winning, that their foothold is expanding, that more troops are coming in. They are spinning this attack in the Western media as a big victory for the Ukrainians and, accordingly, the Americans. They are creating the illusion of success. But where they went wrong is that they did not expect such a strong and patriotic reaction from the Russian leadership,” he added.
Since the operation in the Kursk Region failed to destabilize Russia, the West will adopt a wait-and-see approach and try to distance itself from the attack, Artyom Sokolov, researcher at the Center for European Studies at the Institute of International Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), thinks. Currently, Germany and other countries are paying very close attention to Russia’s reaction, he added. That said, according to him, the incursion into the Kursk Region demonstrates that the West is not going to accept Kiev’s failure and is trying to deal as much damage to Russia as possible by proxy of Ukraine.
 
Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov announced yesterday the distribution of responsibility zones for members of the coordination council in order to secure borderline territories. Thus, he decided which of his deputy ministers will be responsible for material and technical supplies, transport and assistance to civilian authorities in evacuating residents, which – for arms supplies, which – for building fortifications and which – for interagency coordination. The head of the Main Army Medical Directorate will be in charge of medical support. An unnamed representative of the General Staff and the commanders of Battlegroups Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk will be responsible for protecting the residents and territories from attacks by drones and other means.
Battlegroups Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk were formed before the Ukrainian attack on the Kursk Region on August 6, a source close to the Defense Ministry said. Now, after counterterrorism efforts have been stepped up in these regions, these groups received interagency status and, in addition to forces from the Defense Ministry, include units from the FSB and the National Guard.
The make-up of the coordination council shows that Belousov is building a top-down command structure in order to control the situation, political scientist Alexander Nemtsev told Vedomosti. By forming this chain of command, he is taking responsibility for Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod.
That said, it is telling that the coordination council does not include Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, although a representative of his will be involved, the expert noted. This also confirms that the borderline regions are the zone of the defense minister’s responsibility, he concluded. “Everyone is at their proper place, whatever they are in charge of in general, they will be responsible for the same issues in the coordination council as well,” political scientist Vitaly Ivanov told Vedomosti.
 
The Eurasian Economic Commission has welcomed Iran’s intention to receive observer status in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the agency told Izvestia following consultations on the matter held on August 19. For the last six years, the sides have been actively developing economic cooperation, resulting in the signing of an agreement on a free trade zone at the end of 2023.
In spite of Iran’s complex economic situation, both Tehran and the EAEU will benefit from the Islamic Republic’s observer status, said Hayk Khalatyan, who heads the Analytical Center for Strategic Research and Initiatives.
“The main advantage for Iran is access to the major markets of EAEU countries, while for the EAEU countries, the door to a large country’s market opens up amid a standoff with the West and sanctions pressure both on Russia and Iran. This will allow them to work with a new market and provide a new source of import for its goods,” he said.
On top of that, by bolstering cooperation with Tehran, EAEU countries will be able to site industrial facilities in Iran. The Islamic Republic has a vast territory, a large workforce and low labor costs, Iranian political scientist Amir Chahaki told Izvestia.
Increased economic cooperation between Iran and the EAEU will also lead to stronger ties with Russia. Over recent years, Moscow and Tehran have been actively cooperating not only economically, but also politically – in particular, within the SCO and BRICS which has had an overall positive effect on economic stability in the region.
“A new geopolitical center of the countries supporting a multipolar world is being created within the framework of the SCO and BRICS. And on this issue, the approaches of Russia, as the EAEU leader, and of Iran coincide in many ways,” Khalatyan said.
As for external pressure, such as Western sanctions, this is unlikely to affect the boosting of trade cooperation with Tehran. Given the number of sanctions introduced against Russia and Iran, they cannot stand in the way of bolstering cooperation between the EAEU and Iran, the expert concluded.
 
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has passed a law banning religious organizations with ties to Russia, legislator Yaroslav Zheleznyak from the Holos (Voice) faction said on Telegram on August 20. Out of 450 delegates, 265 voted for the document, 29 – against it, and four abstained. The law will go into effect 30 days after it is published but religious communities, those alleged to have ties with Russia, will be given nine months to disassociate themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The draft bill is mainly directed against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) which the Kiev regime views as being linked with Moscow and the Moscow Patriarchy.
The Ukrainian authorities, by meddling in the internal affairs of religious organizations, are violating the right to the freedom of conscience, while the UOC’s jailed priests become de facto political prisoners, said religious scholar Roman Lunkin of the Institute of Europe under the Russian Academy of Sciences. In his opinion, banning the UOC will not consolidate Ukrainian society: even if some UOC priests cross over to the OCU, the breakaway schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, others will refuse.
According to him, there are more UOC supporters in Ukraine than those of the OCU, especially in the country’s east and center, with 12,000 UOC parishes and up to 5,000 OCU parishes. The ban on the UOC, fraught with creating political divisions, may be used by the Ukrainian authorities as a justification for potentially conceding territories controlled by Russia: their residents will be portrayed as “incorrect” Ukrainians worshipping in the “wrong, Moscow church,” the expert added.
“The UOC will remain in Russia’s new territories. Priests in Ukrainian regions will be ordered to distance themselves from their brethren. If they don’t condemn them, they will be branded as ‘collaborators’ themselves,” the expert said.
There will be no mass protests in Ukraine: the country is under martial law, which makes any kind of dissent practically impossible. Furthermore, there is a campaign underway to discredit the UOC for its purported link to Moscow, said Ivan Skorikov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of CIS Studies. Even though, since the 2022 Bishops Conference, no legal connection between the UOC and the Russian Orthodox Church could be established, Ukrainian experts claim there are “hidden ties,” Lunkin noted.
In essence, the law forces the UOC “to go underground,” Skorikov added.
 
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesia’s President-Elect Prabowo Subianto have announced that a defense agreement will be signed between the two countries. According to them, this will bolster security in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The document will also allow the two nations to deploy military units on each other’s territories and conduct joint operations. Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles noted that the two countries share the world’s longest maritime border, making them intricately connected. However, Australia is part of the AUKUS bloc which also includes the UK and US. Does this signal that Jakarta is coming over to the Western camp?
In a conversation with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Andrey Karneev, head of the Asian Studies Department at HSE University, noted: “Indonesia was one of the countries at the forefront of the non-aligned movement. Later, in its policy, it teetered between the non-aligned camp and the wish to boost relations with Western countries. During the presidency of Muhammad Soeharto, Indonesia tried to profit from its ties with the US. But Australia is not America, after all. It is actively beginning to work with the countries of Southeast Asia, following the US policy course. So there is a tilt toward the US but this does not mean that Indonesia has ended its policy of non-participation in military blocs.”
Alexander Lukin, research director at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, concurs that overall, Indonesia has an independent foreign policy course, but it is wary of Beijing.
“So on issues of security, there are signs that they are coming over to the camp of the US and its allies. Essentially, in the South China Sea, there is a bipolar structure shaping up, with China on one side and the US, its allies, and some countries in the region being drawn to them on the other. And Jakarta’s policy is also influenced by the fact that a Chinese diaspora has long existed in Indonesia,” the expert told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
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