MOSCOW, June 18 /TASS/. SPIEF may yield $95.5 billion in contracts, and US President Donald Trump leaves the G7 summit in Canada early. Meanwhile, Iran deploys a hypersonic missile to strike Israel. These stories topped Wednesday's newspaper headlines in Russia.
Izvestia: Experts expect SPIEF 2025 to yield $95.5 bln in contracts
Contracts to be signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which kicks off on Wednesday, may reach 7.5 trillion rubles ($95.5 billion), marking a 20% rise year-on-year, experts interviewed by Izvestia estimate. The key agreements are expected to contribute to developing Russian exports in new directions and other international initiatives. More than 20,000 delegates from over 140 nations are planning to attend the forum, running through June 21, with Bahrain enjoying the status of guest country at SPIEF 2025, which will be themed "Shared Values: The Foundation of Growth in a Multipolar World." This year’s forum will differ by featuring deeper international cooperation and a more active investment strategy by both regions and individual companies, experts say.
The traditional plenary session, to be chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will crown SPIEF. It will take place on Friday, June 20. Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov specified that the head of state will present his vision of the situation in the Russian and global economy.
Also, events in the format of business dialogues with foreign partners from Africa, Bahrain, India, Iran, China, and EU countries will be held at the forum. The Russian side plans to sign a declaration on strategic cooperation with Indonesia, Ushakov added. In addition, American entrepreneurs will participate in SPIEF.
Politicians from around 50 countries will attend. A number of nations will be represented by heads of government and ministers, including Hungary’s top diplomat Peter Szijjarto, Qatari Finance Minister Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, and Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Oscar Perez-Oliva.
"While SPIEF 2024 focused on identifying growth points in the evolving multipolar system, SPIEF 2025 will emphasize such shared values as trust, equal rights, and transparency as a foundation to build new international relations amid global fragmentation," Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov noted.
Contracts will likely be tied to the expansion of Russian exports, including in the fields of energy and defense, independent expert Andrey Bakhota suggested. "The most valuable agreements at the forum usually involve high-tech services that Russia offers to other nations - in constructing nuclear power plants, maintaining advanced weapons systems, or education," he explained. Bakhota said this year’s forum may even yield 8 trillion rubles ($102 billion) worth of contracts. Among other major agreements, Finam expects projects in technological sovereignty, import substitution, digital economy, infrastructure modernization, and enhanced cooperation with partners from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Vedomosti: G7 short-lived as Trump leaves early
On June 17, US President Donald Trump decided to return home on the first day of the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Canada. He attributed his early departure to efforts to contribute to stabilizing the situation in the Middle East, as Israel and Iran have been exchanging strikes since June 13, when Israel launched its Operation Rising Lion.
So far, Trump has not put forward any specific proposals to either Israel or Iran. He reiterated that Tehran should have signed a nuclear deal with the United States. Meanwhile, Trump slammed a statement from French President Emmanuel Macron on why he had to leave the G7 summit even as he called on everybody to "evacuate Tehran," the city with a population of roughly 14 million, minutes before he departed from Canada.
Trump always goes against the current, so it was typical how he violated the protocol, said Pavel Koshkin, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies. According to him, this is how Trump shows his weariness with both Europe and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, Trump is concerned about prospects of resolving the confrontation between Israel and Iran, the expert in American studies emphasized.
Nor did the US leader meet with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who was originally scheduled to attend the G7 summit. In that, it differed from all the previous summits, which have focused on the Ukraine crisis since 2022. Trump and Zelensky last met in the Vatican in May, when they attended the funeral of Pope Francis.
The format of G7 meetings is largely losing its relevance due to global shifts and the foreign policy course being pursued by the United States under Trump, Associate Professor at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics Lev Sokolshchik told Vedomosti. According to the expert, the current US administration tends to prioritize unilateral actions or bilateral format to multilateral institutions. This rhymes with the principle of Trump’s foreign policy of putting American interests first, Sokolshchik stressed.
As regards the Iran-Israel conflict, the expert says the positions of the United States and Europe on Israel’s security coincide. "The G7 leaders’ statement affirmed Israel’s right to self-defense. But any escalation poses serious risks to European countries, ranging from the disruption of transportation routes in the event of a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz to new migrant waves," the expert concluded.
Izvestia: Iran uses its latest hypersonic missile to strike Israel
As the Israel-Iran conflict continued into the fourth day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the newly appointed Iranian Chief of Staff Ali Shadmani was killed. He became the 14th representative of the Islamic Republic’s military establishment killed in the Jewish state’s operation, which claimed at least 300 civilian casualties over three days, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said on Tuesday.
Since the launch of Operation Rising Lion targeting Iran’s nuclear program, over 15,000 centrifuges at Iran’s biggest underground enrichment plant in Natanz have been damaged. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said there was a possibility of both radiological and chemical contamination within the Natanz facility.
Meanwhile, Shlomi Binder, who heads the IDF Intelligence Directorate, told his officers that they will soon "break ground" in other areas of Iran.
The conflict between Israel and Iran is escalating rapidly with complete unpredictability, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 17. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel’s attacks on civilian nuclear facilities in Iran are illegal, as they are pushing the world toward a nuclear disaster.
Since the latest escalation, Iran has fired more than 400 missiles and hundreds of drones on the Jewish state, IDF Spokeswoman Anna Ukolova told Izvestia. The chief of the Islamic Republic’s General Staff called on residents in Israel’s Tel Aviv and Haifa to evacuate the two cities. Tehran delivered strikes on the building of Israel’s military intelligence and the Mossad headquarters, killing multiple Israeli officers and servicemen. Iranian attacks have killed 24 people in Israel and injured more than 640, Dmitri Gendelman, an adviser in the Israeli prime minister’s office, said in a bulletin. In the early hours of June 17 alone, the Israeli military recorded 30 missile launches, the majority of which were destroyed.
On Tuesday morning, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a fresh and more devastating wave of missile strikes against Israel, in which it fired a new missile that the Zionist regime failed to detect until it struck. Analysts think Tehran might have used its Fattah hypersonic missile in the attack.
Only several countries, namely Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, possess hypersonic missiles, military expert Dmitry Lyamin told Izvestia. "Systems that can not only fly at hypersonic speed but also make maneuvers are considered such weapons today," the expert explained. Exactly how many such missiles Iran has in service is classified, he emphasized. Also, he added, Tehran may have a hypersonic missile not previously disclosed.
Kommersant: Investors see diminished risks in US economic policy
Global portfolio wealth managers are becoming less fearful of trade wars, the latest survey conducted by Bank of America showed, with US trade talks with Britain and China inspiring their cautious optimism. However, the hostilities between Israel and Iran may now take center stage. Russian wealth managers believe that any potential US involvement in the conflict or the closure of the Strait of Hormuz may impact the global economy the most, even as they see such a scenario as unlikely.
Given that BofA’s latest survey was conducted before Israel launched a surprise missile attack on Iran, it did not cover the recent escalation in the Middle East. Alyona Nikolayeva, portfolio manager at Astero Falcon, said the latest flare-up may disrupt expectations of a "soft landing of the economy" among most portfolio managers.
Even as missile attacks will heighten geopolitical risks, trade war risks will not be automatically pushed aside, portfolio managers interviewed by Kommersant believe. This is because, over the past two years, Iran and Israel have exchanged strikes for a third time already, with the two previous rounds being quite brief and not escalating into a broader conflict. Therefore, the role of this factor will largely depend on how long the hostilities last and what actions the parties involved take. "Should the US directly interfere in the conflict and the physical oil market comes under real pressure from supply shortages, oil prices may easily spike above $100 per barrel," Nikolayeva warned.
According to Igor Kozak, managing investment director at TKB Investment Partners, a potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could be critical for the global economy and markets, pushing oil prices to $130 per barrel. If prices remain at that level for an extended period, a likely outcome in a sustained oil shortage, global inflation will rise, forcing central banks worldwide to return to monetary tightening.
Vedomosti: Russian coal exports seen recovering all of a sudden
In January-May 2025, Russian coal exports unexpectedly returned to growth, despite an unfavorable market situation. Coal supplies to overseas countries saw a 1% year-on-year increase to 81.3 million metric tons, data from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) showed.
The growth is attributed to increased exports to China and Turkey, as well as the expansion of trading, CCI analysts note. In the first five months of 2025, coal exports to China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, grew by 14% to 43 million metric tons, while exports to Turkey increased by 1.5 times to 7.9 million metric tons.
Over the past three years, Russian coal exports have been declining amid sanctions, issues with railway infrastructure, and falling global commodity prices. Data from the Energy Ministry showed that last year, coal supplies abroad stood at 195.9 million metric tons, an 8% decline from 2023.
This year, Russian coal exports have been rising due to a flexible pricing policy of coal suppliers and a partial reduction in logistics costs, Sergey Suverov, an investment strategist at Aricapital, told Vedomosti. According to Dmitry Baranov, lead expert at Finam Management, the positive trend stems from low market prices that encourage additional purchases and favorable freight rates. Some importers chose to build coal reserves in advance amid emptying warehouses and expectations of a hotter-than-usual summer, he explained.
Independent industry expert Maxim Khudalov said that the evolution of trading schemes has enabled Russian companies to circumvent sanctions barriers and increase supplies, even though this has reduced export margins. According to the expert, Russia’s eastern regions, capable of maintaining exports to China even amid low coal prices, have stronger export prospects.
TASS is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews