MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/. Russia and the US see possible common ground on Ukraine following Putin – Trump phone call; the US is shifting its Middle East strategy from direct strikes on Iran to a blockade-based approach; and global demand for gold reached a 13-year high in Q1 2026. These stories topped Thursday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Russia is ready to declare a ceasefire on the occasion of Victory Day celebrations, President Vladimir Putin said during a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, who supported the initiative. The US president noted that his representatives would continue contacts with Moscow and Kiev and that a settlement deal is already close. However, Ukraine is not showing a willingness to pursue peace and is instead intensifying strikes on civilian targets, Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry on crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia.
Ukraine is not showing readiness for peace and is instead increasing strikes on civilian targets, Miroshnik said. “We see that on the eve of the May holidays there is a fairly serious escalation across a number of areas, specifically in terms of the increased number of strikes on civilian targets: attacks on administrative buildings and passenger transport. The number of people affected by deliberate terrorist actions on the part of Kiev is increasing,” the diplomat noted.
The outcome of the conversation between the leaders of Russia and the United States indicates that points of contact have been reached, Miroshnik believes. According to him, growing mutual understanding between a mediator and one of the parties to the conflict is an important step toward a settlement.
“In any case, pressure from both sides offers more chances for achieving a settlement than pressure from only one,” he emphasized.
Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Grigory Karasin told Izvestia that a conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States is always useful for clarifying positions and finding a solution to the crisis situation in Ukraine.
“I believe this is an absolutely correct step with a positive orientation. I hope that the Ukrainian leadership will respond accordingly, but in any case, we are, so to speak, at the forefront of the process of greater mutual understanding,” Karasin said regarding Russia’s readiness to declare a ceasefire for Victory Day.
A new telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States is a serious signal to the international community and a step toward normalizing Russian-American dialogue, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky told Izvestia.
Shortages of precision-guided munitions and the threat of a large-scale crisis in the Asia-Pacific region are forcing the White House to adjust its strategy in the Middle East, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe. Washington is abandoning plans for intensive strikes against Iran in favor of a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This compromise is an attempt to preserve leverage without depleting its own reserves, as it would take the US defense industry about eight years to restore stockpiles to 2024 levels. The new US priorities directly affect Europe: recognizing the risks of escalation, EU countries are compelled to shift their focus toward strengthening their own defenses.
Concerns over a potential confrontation around Taiwan are prompting the United States to conserve its missile reserves, the experts noted. Current operations have exposed a systemic issue: the country’s arsenals are not designed to sustain high-intensity combat across multiple theaters simultaneously. Given that Washington’s primary priority remains the Asia-Pacific region and the containment of China, the Pentagon is pursuing a policy of maximum caution, the newspaper writes.
As military expert Vasily Dandykin told Izvestia, the US leadership, aware of the risk of “unacceptable losses” in the event of a full-scale invasion, has abandoned direct aggression.
“The shift in the Trump administration’s tactics toward Iran – from plans for large-scale strikes to a scenario involving a prolonged economic blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – reflects a profound reassessment of US capabilities under current conditions. In this context, a blockade is a necessary compromise, an attempt to maintain pressure while minimizing direct expenditures of its own forces,” he said.
“Massive strikes carry the risk of irreversible regional escalation,” Middle East expert Kirill Semyonov told the newspaper. “The United States fears that if hostilities begin, Iranian proxy groups in Iraq and Syria will act in coordination, potentially spreading tensions to Kuwait, Jordan, and other allied countries. In such a scenario, the US risks becoming drawn into a protracted regional conflict whose scale would be difficult to manage,” the expert added.
The United States has put forward its conditions for updating the United Nations, warning that it may further restrict funding if these are not met, Devex reported citing two US diplomatic documents submitted to UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and New York. According to experts interviewed by Vedomosti, the Trump administration is using financial leverage to push cost-cutting UN reforms, curb the autonomy of the Secretary-General’s office, and limit the influence of key actors.
Media reports indicate that the United States outlined nine conditions in a document they described as “quick wins,” while a more comprehensive version is said to contain up to 11 points. A significant portion of these proposals is aimed at reducing UN expenditures, including changes to the staff pension system, cutting back on business-class travel (partly for top management and for all mid-level officials), and reducing the number of senior roles.
The US is also calling for a 10% reduction in funding for what it describes as “inefficient” peacekeeping operations, while promising an “additional substantial” contribution to the UN budget for peacekeeping initiatives in exchange.
The proposals that have entered the public domain and the approach used to promote them are not an innovation of the Trump administration but rather a continuation of a long-standing US practice, former UN Deputy Secretary-General Sergey Ordzhonikidze said. He explained that, given the specifics of how the UN budget is formed and approved, Washington is likely to seek the implementation of reforms favorable to itself through pressure tactics and by delaying its own payments. In addition, the US is expected to exert pressure on the organization’s main contributors, urging them to increase their support.
The Trump administration believes it is necessary to reduce the autonomy of the Office of the UN Secretary-General, Andrey Kortunov, expert at the Valdai International Discussion Club, told Vedomosti. This is linked to the White House’s desire to remove earmarked funds from the Office of the Secretary of State, which will limit its independent authority.
The US Department of Commerce has lowered the import duty on phosphate fertilizers for Apatit (part of Phosagro) by 5.5 percentage points to 12.7%, according to materials reviewed by Vedomosti. The decision took effect on April 17. Experts believe that while the reduced US duty is not prohibitive, it still weakens the competitiveness of Russian fertilizer exports due to added logistics costs, though Middle East supply disruptions could support higher shipments.
The current duty rate for Apatit is calculated based on an assessment of state subsidies for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023, according to US Department of Commerce data.
Previously, the duty rate was 18.2%. Duties for other Russian companies have not been revised this year. For Eurochem, the rate is 23.8%, and for other Russian producers – 16.3%.
At current prices for phosphate fertilizers, a 12.7% duty is not prohibitive, according to Viktor Kutlumbetov, consultant at Implementa consulting company, and Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at Finam Management.
Nevertheless, it remains a significant barrier on supplies, Maxim Shaposhnikov, adviser to the managing partner of the Industrial Code fund, told Vedomosti. Exporting to the United States entails additional logistics costs of $45-50 per ton compared with shipments to Europe, the expert emphasized. Combined with the duty, this makes exports of Russian phosphate fertilizers to the US less profitable than deliveries to other markets.
According to Kutlumbetov, the conflict in the Middle East is contributing to increased shipments of Russian phosphate fertilizers to the United States, as the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is creating a physical supply gap in the market. At the same time, the import duty raises the cost of Russian fertilizer supplies to the US and reduces their competitiveness compared with products from alternative suppliers.
In Q1 of 2026, investors purchased a record volume of gold in the form of bars and coins over the past 13 years — nearly 474 tons. The main demand for the metal came from Chinese citizens, who accounted for more than 40% of this total. Purchases of physical gold in Russia increased by one and a half times. According to experts interviewed by Kommersant, demand will remain robust in the near term, although some investors, primarily institutional ones, will reduce their holdings in response to changes in interest rates and the US dollar exchange rate.
At the beginning of 2026, global demand from private investors for gold bars and investment coins surged sharply. According to data from the World Gold Council (WGC), nearly 474 tons of gold were purchased in this form in the Q1, up 11% compared to Q4 and almost 42% higher year-on-year. This is the highest level since the second quarter of 2013, when investors bought nearly 602 tons of physical gold.
The main contribution came from private investors in emerging markets, led by China. According to WGC data, Chinese citizens’ investments in bars and coins reached nearly 211 tons in the Q1, 1.66 times higher than a year earlier. India, the second-largest consumer of physical gold, increased its purchases of bars and coins by 34% to 62.3 tons.
Bars and coins are primarily purchased by retail investors, while ETFs are favored by institutional investors. Despite a decline in gold prices over the past two months (by the end of April, prices fell to $4,500 per ounce), demand from individuals for the metal is expected to remain high. However, according to investment banker Ilya Sushkov, the growth in investment will be less linear, as some investors will take profits. “In May and summer, the key factors will be the trajectory of Federal Reserve rates, the US dollar exchange rate, and US Treasury yields, as well as developments in the Middle East conflict and demand for the metal from central banks,” the expert noted.
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