MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. The United States is threatening broad sanctions against Iran; Donald Trump is pursuing renewed ties with Pyongyang as US-South Korea military drills are scaled back; and Moscow and New Delhi are developing alternative transport routes to accelerate bilateral trade. These stories topped Friday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

US President Donald Trump has announced the launch of the "most crushing economic operation" against Iran. In a post on his Truth Social account, he threatened "massive economic consequences" for countries whose financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government agencies offer any assistance to Tehran. According to experts interviewed by Vedomosti, Washington has little scope for fundamentally new sanctions against Iran but could expand secondary sanctions against third-country entities and pressure Iran’s neighbors to restrict economic ties with Tehran.

Iran has been under sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies since 1979. Since the Middle East crisis began in late February, the United States has imposed a naval blockade of the Iranian coast and added 50 individuals, more than a dozen companies, and vessels that helped circumvent economic restrictions to its sanctions list.

It will be difficult for the United States to add anything new to the 26 executive orders issued by previous presidents, 10 acts of Congress, various targeted programs, and other sanctions measures against Iran adopted since 1979, BGP Litigation partner Sergey Glandin told the newspaper. "Everything that can be prohibited in transactions involving dollars, US persons, and Iranian persons has already been banned many times over," the lawyer said.

In theory, Glandin noted, Washington could try to block payments by a broader range of Chinese foreign trade entities on the grounds that they conduct transactions on behalf of or in the interests of parties linked to Iranian counterparties, thereby widening the criteria for becoming subject to secondary sanctions.

Amid US threats, the UAE government announced on August 19 that it was suspending all trade activity and financial transactions with the Islamic Republic. Turkey could potentially do the same, according to President of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Murad Sadygzade.

However, there is potentially little the United States can do beyond expanding the number of secondary sanctions against individuals and entities in third countries that maintain contacts with Iran, Ivan Timofeev, Program Director at the Valdai Discussion Club, noted. "It is difficult to come up with anything qualitatively new," he said. According to Timofeev, Washington could try to force countries that share borders with Iran to close them through threats such as freezing Iraq’s oil export revenues held in US banks or imposing secondary sanctions. However, the United States currently lacks the technical capabilities to monitor land borders, Timofeev noted.

US President Donald Trump’s unexpected decision to reduce military exercises with South Korea in an effort to seek reconciliation with Pyongyang has been followed by another move. The White House chief has now said he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year. Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, said she was unaware of any contacts between Kim and Trump on the matter but acknowledged that her brother retains "good memories and feelings" about the US president. Trump’s renewed outreach to North Korea could raise concerns among US allies about Washington’s reliability as a regional deterrent, Kommersant writes.

Trump mentioned a forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on August 19, albeit somewhat in passing, while inspecting a new helipad at the White House and responding to a reporter’s question. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported with confidence that the White House chief is planning to meet with Kim during his trip to the Chinese city of Shenzhen for the APEC summit in November.

The president himself provided no details on the matter but again commented on the joint US-South Korean military exercises, which he had ordered curtailed less than 24 hours before they began on August 17.

A day earlier, Seoul announced that it was ending its annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with the United States roughly a week ahead of schedule -- they had originally been due to conclude on August 27 -- "at the suggestion of the American side."

The South Korean leader has long sought to normalize relations with his northern neighbor, but to no avail: North Korea, which has formally enshrined in its constitution that the Republic of Korea is a "hostile state," has repeatedly rejected all of Seoul’s conciliatory gestures, Kommersant writes.

According to the newspaper, "Trump’s sudden focus on Kim and the scaling back of joint US-South Korean military exercises, of which Seoul was not even informed in advance, have clearly alarmed US allies across Asia." In the long term, experts warn, uncertainty about the United States as a deterrent to China and North Korea, which are expanding their nuclear capabilities, could push Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear arsenals of their own, the newspaper writes. Such discussions, although still occasional and largely conducted in private, are already taking place in both countries.

Russia remains the only country in the world with expertise across the entire nuclear energy chain, Vladimir Putin emphasized at a meeting on August 20. Russia is also strengthening its presence on the global stage. Rosatom has already reached agreements to build 17 power units in six countries and is negotiating deals with another 15, potentially amounting to around 50 new agreements. The geographic scope of nuclear power units will also expand domestically, from the Urals to the Far East. Plans call for commissioning around 30 GW of new nuclear power capacity, including small nuclear power plants. Experts told Izvestia that Russia’s nuclear expansion depends on developing small modular plants and fourth-generation reactor technologies.

Russia continues to maintain its position as the undisputed global leader in the international nuclear power plant market. Rosatom’s export portfolio already includes 28 power units under construction in various parts of the world.

In addition, Rosatom is actively seeking to broaden its global presence. According to company CEO Alexey Likhachev, the state corporation has already signed agreements to build another 17 power units in six countries and is simultaneously negotiating with 15 countries, with expectations of reaching around 50 new package agreements.

Russia’s industry now faces an ambitious task: starting serial production of small nuclear power plants for both land-based and offshore deployment. This represents a serious technological challenge, as it requires research and development, the creation of new materials, and the introduction of innovations while ensuring strict nuclear safety, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade Alexander Spiridonov told Izvestia.

Russia’s main technological advantage is its transition to fourth-generation nuclear power.

The transition to a two-component nuclear energy system is not simply about new reactors but about a fundamentally different raw-material framework, Nikita Illeritsky, Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an energy expert, told Izvestia. According to him, conventional nuclear power plants use less than 1% of uranium, while the rest becomes waste. Fast-neutron reactors make it possible to reprocess spent fuel and reuse it in a closed cycle. As a result, what was previously considered waste becomes usable raw material. The main benefit is not an immediate reduction in the cost of a kilowatt-hour but strategic security: uranium utilization efficiency will increase by dozens of times, while the country’s accumulated reserves will be sufficient for centuries to come.

Moscow and New Delhi are exploring new ways to expand trade and economic cooperation. In particular, plans call for finally putting the Vladivostok-Chennai maritime corridor into operation. The two sides are discussing the development of capacity for handling energy resources and fertilizers, Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov told Izvestia. This would cut cargo delivery times from 40 to 24 days. However, launching the corridor could take up to 10 years, while its construction will require significant investment from both the government and the private sector.

"Moscow and New Delhi maintain regular contacts on establishing stable cargo flows along the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC). The agenda includes creating the necessary infrastructure and commercial capabilities, including the development of facilities in Vladivostok for handling oil, LNG, and fertilizers for shipment to India," Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov told Izvestia.

Anastasia Gavrilova, international relations specialist at the Higher School of Economics, noted that creating such an extensive network would require considerable investment from the government and major private businesses. However, projects of this kind are always geared toward the long term. A hub in Vladivostok would create an economic framework for cooperation between the two countries for decades to come, she added.

Russia has remained India’s largest oil supplier since 2022, surpassing Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in terms of volumes, Izvestia writes. Under current conditions, the sudden disappearance of Russian crude oil would trigger a major shortage on the Indian market, according to Igor Yushkov, Leading Analyst at the National Energy Security Fund.

There are other options as well - the possibility of linking the route with the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor is being discussed, which would link India’s eastern coast with Russia’s Northwest and Arctic zone.

"There are also favorable conditions for intensifying dialogue with New Delhi on India’s participation in the development of the Northern Sea Route," Alipov added.

The traditional route through the Suez Canal, the Bab el-Mandeb, the Strait of Hormuz, and European ports is currently vulnerable, logistically overloaded, and unsafe, Gavrilova noted. This is precisely why Russia and India are actively developing sovereign transportation arteries protected from external shocks.

The sharp rise in bitcoin’s price on the evening of August 19 triggered record short-position closures, with total liquidations already surpassing $1.6 bln. The price increase is likely to be temporary, as investors await regulatory changes as well as a signal from the US Federal Reserve that it intends to cut its key interest rate, Kommersant writes. Institutional demand for bitcoin remains extremely low, as does activity among retail traders, amid its seasonal decline.

According to Coinmarket.cap, investments reached around $518 mln on August 19 alone, nearly 1.5 times the net inflow recorded for the entire month of July. Experts believe the reaction may have been driven by the outcome of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with representatives of the crypto industry, during which the White House chief reaffirmed his intention to push for passage of the Clarity Act in the US Congress - legislation designed to clarify cryptocurrency regulation among US agencies and make the industry more accessible to institutional investors.

The current increase in bitcoin’s price appears to be largely technical and is likely to prove temporary, as many investors are expected to move to lock in profits, market participants say. "The sharp closing of positions can temporarily push the price higher, but it does not indicate increased interest in the asset," Millpay Chief Operating Officer Igor Plotnikov said.

In the coming months, a key factor determining cryptocurrency prices will be the US Senate’s decision on the Clarity Act, which the current US president is actively backing, experts say.

"The bill is intended to create a clear regulatory framework for the US crypto market, but its passage has stalled in the Senate due to political disagreements, so if it is not adopted in September, pressure on bitcoin’s price will increase," Oleg Abelev, Head of the Analytical Department at Ricom-Trust Investment Company, told Kommersant. "Investors are counting on the bill’s passage because, without it, any current regulatory easing could easily be rolled back by a future White House administration," Dmitry Tsarkov noted.

Major investors are also waiting for "a clearer position from the Federal Reserve on cutting its key interest rate," Plotnikov noted.

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