Page 20 - RusRPTJul24

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un personally invited Putin to Pyongyang during his rare foreign visit to Russia’s Far East last September. This visit created international concern about a weapons deal between the two countries. Experts speculated that Russia may trade military technology or food aid to North Korea in exchange for sorely-needed munitions, despite a UN prohibition on arms deals with North Korea. Shortly after Kim’s visit, Western sources reported that Russia was using North Korean military supplies on the battlefield in Ukraine. North Korea, however, denied supplying weapons to Russia.
The culmination of Putin’s visit to Pyongyang was a mutual defense agreement between Russia and North Korea. The document closely echoeslanguage used in the “Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance” between the USSR and North Korea in 1961, promising mutual assistance in the case of aggression against one of the parties. “It is really a breakthrough document,” Putin said at the press conference on Wednesday, adding that Russia “does not exclude military-technical cooperation with the DPRK in accordance with the signed document.” Kim called the agreement “exclusively peace-loving and defensive in nature,” but also declared “full support” for Russia’s war in Ukraine. It is unclear how the agreement may change North Korea’s engagement in the war.
The international community reacted with alarm. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called the possibility that Russia may supply weapons to North Korea “incredibly concerning.” South Korea promptly summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to Seoul. “Violating Security Council resolutions and supporting North Korea will harm our security and inevitably have a negative impact on Korea-Russia relations,” South Korean First Vice Minister Kim Hong-kyun said. South Korea also announced that it would reconsider its position on sending arms to Ukraine, a move that Putin said would be “a very big mistake.”
2.7 Wildberries’s merger with outdoor advertising operator Russ group
The merger was announced with a modest message on the Wildberries telegram channel, published at a surprising time for such an event - after 20:00. What is meant by merger was not specified in the press release, and the companies themselves declined to comment.
If you believe Kommersant’s sources, we may be talking about creating a joint venture, but from the statement of Wildberries and Russ it directly follows that we are not just talking about a joint project, but about “consolidation” and “infrastructure unification.” The fact that we are talking about a large-scale deal is directly indicated by the fact that Wildberries and Russ decided to coordinate it with Vladimir Putin.
In a letter to Putin, company directors Tatyana Bakalchuk and Robert Mirzoyan described the brilliant prospects for the deal. It followed that: The merger will
20 RUSSIA Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com