MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. The sweeping US sanctions may hinder Ukraine talks, the Kremlin warned as Russian voters go to polls. Meanwhile, the EU is putting forward Ukraine for a proposed European Security Council. These stories topped Friday's newspaper headlines across Russia.
The White House will use the latest bill on additional sanctions on Russia passed by the US Congress as an instrument of pressure, experts say. However, using it in the context of a spike in oil prices could further destabilize energy markets. The largest buyers of Russian oil and gas, such as India, have displayed no willingness to follow Washington's instructions. Meanwhile, preparations for a new trilateral meeting on Ukraine are ongoing: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports holding talks at the UN General Assembly High-level Week 2026 in New York City.
The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which the US House of Representatives approved on September 16 with 262 to 159 lawmakers voting in favor of the measure, would only hamper the Ukrainian settlement process if introduced, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on Thursday. The upper chamber of parliament voted for the document last month, and the vote at Congress has now sent it to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Against the backdrop of rising oil prices due to the Middle East conflict, Washington will act cautiously so as not to further destabilize energy markets, Tigran Meloyan, an analyst at the HSE Center for Mediterranean Studies, told Izvestia. In his opinion, the Trump administration may use the measure as a pretext to impose tariffs on countries that have nothing to do with trade with Russia. In addition, the document provides for the expansion of powers to impose sanctions on Iran's energy and weapons sectors - these provisions were proposed by Trump himself.
Trump will use the threat of tariff imposition as a political lever to pressure the sides to engage in active talks, Yegor Toropov, an analyst at the Higher School of Economics, argued. Even if the latest US trade restrictions on Russia are actually imposed, certain trade categories will probably be excluded from the sanctions regime under the pretext of their critical importance for the American economy, the expert believes.
Meanwhile, UN chief Guterres voiced his backing for holding trilateral talks during the UNGA High-level Week between September 22 and 28. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is planning to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at this venue. Russia’s top diplomat stressed earlier that Moscow is ready for another round of talks on Ukraine and that it "has something to say."
A new potential round of talks will enable the parties to coordinate their positions and make their positions clear, said Oleg Karpovich, department head at the Diplomatic Academy of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
This weekend, from September 18 to 20, 450 State Duma seats will be contested, eight governors and members of parliaments of various levels will be elected nationwide. Residents of Kamchatka and Chukotka have already cast their first ballots. Ten parties which have nominated more than 4,300 candidates, including participants in the special military operation, will vie for seats in the lower house of the Federal Assembly. For the first time ever, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, where martial law is in effect, will take part in the parliamentary election. Also, as many as 333 polling stations will be open abroad.
Ten parties are running in the Duma election, namely the ruling United Russia party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), the Liberal Democratic Party of the Russian Federation (LDPR), New People, A Just Russia - For Truth, the Party of Pensioners for Social Justice, the Communists of Russia, Rodina, the Party of Direct Democracy, as well as the Greens Ecological Party. A total of 4,300 candidates from these parties, including more than 180 participants in the special military operation, have been registered.
In an address to the nation ahead of the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that everyone’s vote will be a small contribution to the protection of national interests. On July 1, the number of eligible Russian voters stood at 111 million, of them over 4 million have chosen to vote online. This time around, online voting will take place in 33 regions.
By restricting the voting of Russians, a number of European countries plan to demonstrate their negative attitude toward Russian politics and elections, Yegor Sergeyev, a senior researcher at the Institute of International Studies at MGIMO University, told Izvestia. According to him, European authorities understand that the votes cast by Russians abroad are unlikely to significantly affect the overall election result.
At that, unfriendly European countries treat Russia and its citizens differently, the expert added. In France, for one, four polling stations will be open - in Paris, Strasbourg, Marseille and Villefranche-sur-Mer. The Fifth Republic takes a softer stand on some of the anti-Russian measures discussed at the EU, Yegorov noted.
The European Union will involve Ukraine in a planned European Security Council, a certain analogue of NATO that doesn’t perhaps include the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the EU address on Wednesday. Some US politicians and military leaders, too, view Ukraine as a flagship asset of the North Atlantic Alliance. Former CIA director David Petraeus, who recently visited Kiev, called Russia a "shared threat" to the alliance as he stated that Ukraine is essentially fighting a war on behalf of NATO and that the West must support it.
His remark runs counter to the policy line being pursued by US President Donald Trump who has been pushing for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Trump’s peace push in no way overrides the opinion of a range of US military leaders that Russia is an enemy of NATO.
Finland, for one, is building a TNT production facility with US support. The new plant will produce explosives to serve the needs of Finland and NATO as it will also provide long-term support to Ukraine, the Nordic country’s defense chief, Antti Hakkanen said.
"The Americans share intelligence data with Kiev and supply IT technology to its armed forces. Washington is ready to continue to sell Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine at the request from Europe and the EU, AI-powered drones among other modern weapons. Therefore, Trump’s rhetoric about putting an end to the conflict is empty words. The US earns as it encourages the EU to support Ukraine and works to reduce Russia’s defense capabilities," military expert and retired Colonel Nikolay Shulgin told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko has acknowledged that Kiev will need more than $52 billion in international financial assistance in 2027. According to Vladimir Zelensky, Ukraine has secured approximately $20 billion in financial commitments from its Western partners and is in talks to bridge the remaining deficit.
Amid the financial issues facing Ukraine, its army is struggling to hold the front, Shulgin continued. "Kiev is trying to deliver long-range strikes inside Russia. But these attacks cannot cause substantial damage to Russia’s military capabilities thanks to effective air defenses," he concluded.
September 19 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Arctic Council, once a powerful regional structure that was even considered a de facto "shadow Arctic government." The organization is not in its best form ahead of the anniversary: since seven of its Western member countries refused to cooperate with Russia, the group’s previously rigorous activities have largely ground to a halt, and the Council itself is increasingly viewed globally as a mechanism lacking an exclusive mandate.
Before, member countries of the Arctic Council were wary of claims against the Arctic from countries outside the region as they considered it their exclusive zone of influence. Players outside the region, such as China and India, could only seek the role of observer countries with quite modest rights and powers. Against the background of the Ukraine conflict and a major diplomatic freeze, Russia has increasingly embraced cooperation with extra-regional countries, including BRICS nations, in the polar realm.
Countries outside the region themselves, including China and India, have been more active in expressing their interest in participating in affairs in the region which they are eying for logistics, among other reasons. The situation in the Strait of Hormuz and broader instability regarding southern deep-sea transit are driving interest in trans-Arctic routes among many nations.
At the same time, amid confrontation between Western Arctic states, all seven of which are now NATO members, and Russia in the region, once called an area of cooperation, is increasingly transforming into a hotbed of tensions.
For the time being, the Arctic Council remains relevant to all its member countries, including Russia, Irina Strelnikova, an associate professor of the School of International Regional Studies at HSE University and a member of the Valdai International Discussion Club, told Kommersant.
"It was established to address critical practical tasks regarding the region's development, the protection of its unique ecosystem, and support for its indigenous peoples. The council lost its effectiveness not because it failed to handle these tasks, but because Western nations introduced issues into its work that had absolutely nothing to do with its agenda," the expert said. "Even as the Council is not in its best form ahead of its anniversary, it still matters to Arctic countries as it legitimizes their exclusive rights to govern the region and prevents attempts to internationalize it," she added. And it’s too early to create alternative mechanisms, Strelnikova argued. "The Arctic Council simply needs to go back to fulfilling its original functions," she concluded.
On September 16, the US Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75-4% for the first time since 2023, and the market expects at least one more hike later this year and continued monetary tightening in 2027. The Fed’s new forecast sees rates returning to where it stood before the latest meeting, or 3.6%, only in 2029. Experts interviewed by Vedomosti said that global regulators are embracing the era of high rates.
Dmitry Kulikov, senior director of the regional ratings group at ACRA, expects the Fed to almost certainly raise its rates once more and said two more are highly likely to come by the year-end. The combination of effects from rising energy prices and utility tariffs as well as labor market conditions and the frenzy of investment in AI, which will only increase its productivity later on, points to more monetary tightening, the expert told Vedomosti. Wednesday’s rate hike is unlikely to be the last, Olga Belenkaya, head of Macroeconomic Analysis at Finam Financial Group, said in agreement. In her view, there is a high probability of at least one or two more rate hikes before the end of this year and in the first quarter of 2027.
The era of zero or low rates in key global economies has come to an end, economist Yegor Sunin, the author of the TruEcon channel on Telegram, argued. And it happened about two years ago, post COVID-19 and large-scale fiscal stimulus. In the next few years, global central banks will gradually tighten monetary policy, the expert believes. "Many global central banks will feel the pressure from dollar rates, and other markets too will likely embrace monetary tightening," Kulikov agrees.
However, even this may not be enough, Susin warned, as global regulators will not act too aggressively t
