NATO members to attempt sway Russia on Syria

On May 7th US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Moscow for the first time since assuming office. Izvestia writes that the purpose of this visit is quite clear: the American official will try to convince Russia to change its stance on the Syrian issue – specifically, to stop supporting the current regime and if not join, at least ignore hostile actions from other countries targeting Syria. However, the daily writes that chances of this outcome are slim – on the backdrop of general deterioration of US-Russia relations, especially following the Magnitsky Act, the recent discovery of Syrian rebels using chemical weapons leave little hope for the United States to bring Russia on their side. For instance, head of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma Alexey Pushkov believes that it’s virtually impossible. Quote "I feel like the United States pushes for a fundamentally incorrect attitude towards Syria, because their objective is to oust Bashar Al-Assad with any means necessary, even if it means leaving the country in the hands of radicals. I think Russia will not support this.” Unquote. The expert reminds that in a few weeks embargo on selling military hardware to Syria imposed by the European Union expires, and several countries, such as France and the United Kingdom, already expressed their readiness to arm the Syrian opposition. Seeing as how this basically means that these countries support one of the conflicting sides, Pushkov believes Russia will have nothing to do with this. Other experts have a similar opinion and the bottom line is the best Kerry can do at this point is reduce tension between Moscow and Washington.

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The Syrian issue will be discussed with another NATO member in the immediate future, Kommersant reports. According to the daily, May 10th Vladimir Putin will meet with United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David Cameron in Sochi and the main agenda of the foreign policy aspects of the two nations is quite obvious. The article writes that British and Russian approaches to the Syrian conflict are not just different - they’re polar opposites. London has been very open regarding its opposition towards the current rule; United Kingdom has been calling for international intervention which would include support of the rebels for quite some time now. Alleged use of chemical weapons has been the point of no return, according to David Cameron. Moscow, on the other hand, believes that this is simply a good excuse to tip the scales towards an outcome beneficial to external interested parties; the Kremlin believes this should not be the case, the daily concludes.

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Russia is going through a new national holiday schedule this year: a two day work week with five days off followed by three work days and again four days off. Rossiyskaya Gazeta tries to understand whether such concentration of national holidays in May is good idea. One of the problems is that a lot of people chose to take a few days off work and make this into a longer vacation – in other words, those who did come to work May 6th were faced with lack of clients and partners ready to do business. Still, it’s better than a whole week off, claim representatives of retail business. Director of the Strategic Analysis Department of FBK Company Igor Nikolaev believes that in May retail will severely underperform – and it’s a significant blow to the Russian economy, given that this economic sector accounts for 18% of the GDP. Unlike January, another month when a lot of Russians are resting away from malls, it’s not complemented by heavy spending in December – there is nothing to drive sales in April. Those companies which work with international partners have to keep staff working at least through part of the May holidays – this is especially true for the Moscow Exchange, the daily writes. The bottom line that the article draws is that the only economic sector that’s not taking a hit is tourism – a lot of Russians decide to use extra-long holidays for travel.

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The Moscow Times writes that spending a vacation on a private island has become a fashionable trend among wealthy Russians according to real estate companies. But while most holiday-makers in that class tend to rent a place in the middle of an ocean for a two-week getaway, some are choosing a more permanent solution by purchasing their own property. Leasing an island for a vacation is "what Russians like very much," said Farhad Vladi, the owner of Vladi Private Islands, an international island brokerage with a 40-year history. A new real estate trend sees wealthy Russians purchasing their own floating islands, but with prices from $10 million, some opt to rent. Russians accounted for a significant part of the 26,000 islands leased out by his firm over the last eight years, Vladi said.

Voice of Russia