Russia in Review

I. U.S. and Russian priorities for the bilateral agenda.

Nuclear security agenda:

• When asked to assess the threat that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction would fall into hands of terrorist groups Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “This threat exists.” (Ekho Moskvy, 04.22.15).
• “While relations with Russia are severely strained, we anticipate that we will continue to cooperate in efforts to repatriate Russian-origin weapons-usable HEU material to Russia,” NNSA administrator Frank Klotz said. Klotz also said that the U.S. President's FY 2016 Budget Request for NNSA, which comprises more than 40% of the DOE's budget, is $12.6 billion, up $1.2 billion or 10.2% over the FY 2015 enacted level. (Congressional Documents and Publications, 04.15.15).

Iran:

• U.S. President Barack Obama has admitted he was “surprised” that Moscow held back resumption of S-300 supplies to Iran for so long. Obama also said U.S. weapons could penetrate Iran's defenses if necessary, even if Russia delivers S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Tehran. (Russia Today, 04.18.15, MSNBC, 04.22.15).
• "We don't want to be last in the list of new participants in new trade and scientific programs. We don't want to be after the E.U., France, or after our friends from the United States,” Andrey Klimov, who is deputy chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee. "We'd like to be among them, or maybe a little bit ahead. That's why we started now,” he said of Putin’s decision to lift the ban on sales of S-300s to Iran. (Washington Post, 04.20.15).

NATO-Russia relations, including transit to and from Afghanistan:

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “As regards the United States, all government issues and issues of the international order should be resolved at the negotiating table. It is no accident that Americans are sending us official and unofficial signals via the most diverse channels with a proposal to establish mechanisms for interaction and notification (for instance, aircraft flying around one another or dangerous military activities being conducted). It wasn't us who ruined these mechanisms. If the Americans are interested in them, let them make an official proposal and we will likely accept it.” (Ekho Moskvy, 04.22.15).
• "It's not an assumption. There is a Russian threat," commander of the U.S. army in Europe Lt-Gen Frederick "Ben" Hodges said. “And when you look at the unsafe way Russian aircraft are flying without transponders in proximity to civilian aircraft, that's not professional conduct."  "I don't think a military confrontation is inevitable. But you have to be militarily ready in order to enable effective diplomacy," he said.  (Telegraph, 04.18.15).
• The North Atlantic alliance is ready for dialogue with Russia but it will never compromise on its principles, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.  (Interfax, 04.24.15).

Missile defense:

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed to the “speedy development of global missile defense facilities,” which he said was happening “despite the fact that President Obama, when announcing the "phased adaptive approach" several years ago, said that if there was progress on the Iran nuclear program, adapting these plans would mean scaling back.” (Ekho Moskvy, 04.22.15).

Nuclear arms control:

• The failure of the world's nuclear powers to make headway on disarmament is threatening to unravel a landmark treaty coming up for review next week, the UN's disarmament chief warned. (AFP, 04.22.15).

Counter-terrorism agenda:

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in reference to countering the Islamic State: “We are interested in Americans being part of the coalition against terrorism. And we participate in this informal coalition.” When asked whether the United States or the Islamic State constituted a bigger threat to Russia Lavrov said: "I consider [IS] to be our main enemy right now, if only for the simple reason that hundreds of Russian citizens, hundreds of Europeans, hundreds of Americans are fighting in the ranks of IS, as well as citizens of the CIS,” Lavrov said. “They are already coming back... and to enjoy themselves could stage vile acts at home." Russia is arming Iraq and Syria to help them fight Islamic State, he said.  (Ekho Moskvy/RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Americans see ISIS as a bigger threat to the United States than Iran, Russia, North Korea or China, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. Overall, 68% say ISIS is a very serious threat, compared with just 39% who say so about Iran, 32% about North Korea, 25% on Russia and 18% on China. Nearly 9 in 10 see ISIS as at least a moderately serious threat. (CNN, 04.23.15).

Cyber security:

• The Pentagon on Thursday took a major step designed to instill a measure of fear in potential cyber adversaries, releasing a new strategy that for the first time explicitly discusses the circumstances under which cyber weapons could be used against an attacker, and naming the countries it says present the greatest threat: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. During the rollout of the Pentagon's new cyber strategy U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that Russian hackers had accessed an unclassified Pentagon network earlier this year in a sign of the continuing vulnerability of government computer systems to attack.  (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, 04.24.15).
• Hackers linked to the Russian government used previously unknown flaws in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows and Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash to try to infiltrate discussions on sanctions policy, a person familiar with the attack said. (Bloomberg, 04.18.15).

Energy exports from CIS:

• European antitrust regulators on Wednesday charged Gazprom with abusing its dominance in natural gas markets. The European Commission said that unfair pricing might have resulted in higher gas prices in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Gazprom has 12 weeks to officially respond to the charges. On Wednesday, Gazprom suggested that it was not subject to the European Union’s antitrust jurisdiction because it is a state-controlled company. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that EU charges against Gazprom were an unacceptable attempt to retroactively apply the bloc's latest energy rules to earlier contracts.  Gazprom could eventually face a fine theoretically running higher than 10 billion euros. (New York Times, 04.23.15, Reuters, 04.22.15).
• "Oil prices are not as important to the Russian economy as before," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. Oil exports represented about 13.1 percent of Russia's economy in 2013, down from 14.6 percent in 2011, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the most recent figures from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. (Bloomberg, 04.20.15).
• Greece has held "constructive" talks with the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom who visited Athens and hopes that the two sides would soon reach a deal on a pipeline that will bring Russian gas to Europa via its territory. (Reuters, 04.22.15).

Bilateral economic ties:

• Russian companies are bringing in far fewer employees from the United States and European Union under Russia's quota system, according to data from the Labor Ministry. In the first three months of the year, companies were granted the right to employ 411 Americans under Russia's foreign worker quota system, 68 percent fewer than in the same period last year, RBC reported. Quotas given for EU citizen dropped 37 percent to 10,628 people. (Moscow Times, 04.22.15).

Other bilateral issues:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia and the United States share "a common agenda" in many areas and that Moscow is prepared to work with whoever is elected U.S. president in November 2016. Putin said the United States and Russia should cooperate in areas such as combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and organized crime. He added that the two countries should do more to make the global economy "more democratic, stable, and balanced.” (RFE/RL, 04.18.15).
• U.S. President Barack Obama says the European Union should maintain current sanctions against Russia until it implements a cease-fire and peace deal agreed in Minsk in February to end the fighting in Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 04.17.15).
• Moscow would welcome the involvement of any country that could pressure Kiev into observing a cease-fire with separatists, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, after the U.S. ambassador to Russia suggested President Barack Obama would readily participate in the Ukrainian peace talks if he were invited. Ambassador John Tefft later said, however, there was no need for contact between the U.S. and Russian leaders in the near future, adding that it was important to work on the Ukraine situation in the "Normandy format". (Interfax, 04.24.15, Moscow Times, 04.22.15).
• The Kremlin does not confirm the information from one U.S. publication stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the U.S. president make Steven Seagal an honorary consul of Russia in California and Arizona. (Interfax, 04.22.15).
• A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee wants the Pentagon plan for replacing special operations helicopters and is mandating defense officials to spell out plans to counter Russian and Iranian unconventional weapons. Specifically, The House Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee states it is concerned about "growing unconventional warfare capabilities and threats being posed most notably and recently by the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Defense News, 04.21.15).
• Concern about Russia drives much of this year’s mark-up by the Strategic Forces subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, from space launch rockets to nuclear warheads.  When the subcommittee met to mark up its portion of the National Defense Authorization Act Rep. Doug Lamborn introduced an amendment forbidding the Pentagon from using Russian or Chinese weather satellites. (DefenseOne, 04.23.15).
• In honor of the 70th anniversary of the allied victory in WWII, the Russian Embassy in the U.S. has prepared some 5,000 medals commemorating the event to be presented to veterans. As part of the commemoration of Elbe Day medals will be presented in Washington, D.C. on April 24 after the laying of flowers at the Arlington cemetery. (RIA Novosti, 04.23.15).
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he felt “very comfortable working with” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and that then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright allowed him to smoke in her residence at Waldorf Astoria in spite of the ban on smoking. (Ekho Moskvy, 04.22.15).
• As Rosatom took over a Canadian company that controls a-fifth of United States uranium production capacity, donations flowed from Canadian executives who headed the company to former President Bill Clinton's foundation. The sale of the company had to be approved by several U.S. government entities, including the State Department when it was headed by Hillary Clinton. (CBS/New York Times, 04.23.15).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that the ruble had strengthened even more than needed. The ruble was over 1 percent stronger against the dollar on Friday at 50.15 to the dollar.  (Reuters, 04.24.15).
• Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on April 21 that the country's economy has lost an estimated 25 billion euros as a result of Western sanctions and that the losses could be "several times" higher this year. "If external pressure intensifies, and oil prices remain at an extremely low level for a long time, we will have to develop in a new economic reality," he said. (RFE/RL, Reuters, 04.21.15).
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov and replaced him with governor of the Krasnodar Krai, Aleksandr Tkachyov. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced Thursday that Russia would not scrap pension fund contributions. (Moscow Times, 04.24.15).
• Russia will have the world's first floating nuclear power station ready in 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday, the Interfax news agency reported. (Moscow Times, 04.21.15).
• Russia surpassed France to become Europe's largest shopping center market last year. (Moscow Times, 04.20.15).
• Russian airlines flew 15.6 percent fewer passengers on international flights in the first quarter of this year. (Moscow Times, 04.22.15).
• Unpaid wages, or wage arrears, rose on April 1^st to 2.9 billion rubles, or about $56 million, according to the Russian statistical service. That is a 15 percent increase over a year earlier. (New York Times, 04.22.15).
• Russia's leading environmentalist, Yevgenia Chirikova, has moved to Estonia under increasing government pressure. (Wall Street Journal, 04.21.15).

Defense and Aerospace:

• Russia has doubled the number of S-400 air defense system it deploys in its far east region as part of a larger military buildup in the region. Russia has also conducted military anti-landing drills in a Pacific island chain, parts of which are also claimed by Japan. (Reuters, 04.23.15, National Interest, 04.21.15).
• Russia is cutting spending on its space program by more than a third over the next 10 years because of the country's economic crisis, forcing it to scrap plans to develop a super-heavy launch rocket. (Reuters, 04.22.15).

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee has confirmed that Aliaskhab Kebekov, a successor of Doku Umarov, the head of the terrorist organization Imarat Kavkaz, has been eliminated in Dagestan. (Interfax, 04.20.15).
• Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has told his security forces to fire on Russian federal troops if they operate in Chechnya without his permission. (BBC, 04.23.15).
• A young woman from Russia's republic of Chechnya has been detained on her way to Syria, where she was to join her fiancé in the ranks of an armed group in the conflict-stricken country. (Moscow Times, 04.22.15).
• The Moscow Regional Court on April 24 found Robert Amerkhanov guilty on charges of preparing a terrorist attack. Another suspect in the case, Yulai Davletbayev, was sentenced to eight years in prison in January. Authorities said the men confessed that they were instructed by the Islamic Party of Turkestan to conduct a series of terrorist acts in Moscow. (RFE/RL, 04.24.15).
• The top court in Russia's Dagestan region on April 21 sentenced three men to life in prison for helping a female suicide bomber kill influential moderate Muslim leader Said Afandi Atsayev in 2012. (RFE/RL, 04.21.15).
• Police in Tajikistan's southern city of Panj on the Afghan border have killed a Russian citizen suspected in being a radical Muslim. Panj local law enforcement officers shot Semyon Nagebin, who is from the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, late on April 23 after he escaped from a local hospital with two pistols he took by force from police officers. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• A court in Moscow has convicted opposition journalist Boris Stomakhin on charges of terrorism and extremism, sentencing him to seven years in prison. He had initially been sentenced to five years in prison in 2006 and to 6 1/2 years in jail in 2014 on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and extremism, and threatening the territorial integrity of Russia. Those charges were filed after articles he wrote criticizing Moscow's policies in the North Caucasus were published by the Kavkazcenter.com website, which is associated with Islamic insurgency (RFE/RL, 04.20.15).
• An alleged member of the banned Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir has been detained in the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia's Ural Mountains. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• A Russian court on April 21 sentenced two ultranationalists to life in prison after convicting them of killing a Moscow judge. The Moscow Region Court sentenced a third defendant, Mikhail Volkov, to 24 years in jail on the same charges. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• A Russian nuclear physicist has been arrested on suspicion of revealing classified material during a scientific conference in Prague. Vladimir Golubev's lawyer, Yevgeny Gubin, said on April 22 that his client had been arrested overnight in the city of Sarov. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• The Russian state has apologized to Svetlana Davydova, a woman who faced treason charges after telephoning the Ukrainian Embassy to report possible Russian troop movements near the two nations' border. (RFE/RL, 04.24.15).
• A senior Russian lawmaker says up to 400,000 people will be released, have suspended sentences voided, or have charges dropped under an amnesty timed to coincide with Victory Day celebrations next month. (RFE/RL, 04.20.15).

Foreign affairs and trade:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Argentine’s President Fernandez de Kirchner oversaw signing of a series of framework agreements on energy cooperation following talks in Moscow on April 23. The countries also pledged that Russia will build a new nuclear reactor in Argentina. Putin said the two countries also agreed to expand cooperation between their defense agencies. (RFE/RL, 04.24.15).
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, in Yerevan. The talks between Putin and Hollande centered on the conflict in Ukraine as well as France's frozen $1.3 billion deal to sell two Mistral-class warships to Russia. Earlier Hollande said France would refund payments made by Russia for the two ships if the warships are not delivered. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15, 04.24.15).
• Alexei Pushkov, the head of the lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee, suggested Thursday that the worst was over in a crisis in relations between the European Union and Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine and called for better cooperation with Brussels. (Reuters, 04.23.15).
• The European Union has agreed that Hungary can receive nuclear fuel from Russia to expand its only nuclear plant. (Wall Street Journal, 04.20.15).
• Russia's ministries of Education and Science and Foreign Affairs have asked the government to increase the number of foreign students admitted to Russian universities by 30 percent in order to “form pro-Russian national elites” and promote Moscow's interests abroad, a news report said Friday. (Moscow Times, 04.24.15).
• On Friday, diplomats from eight nations will meet in Canada's far north, as the United States takes the reins of a body known as the Arctic Council. People in Arctic nations want to maintain cooperation with Russia despite tensions over Ukraine, an opinion poll showed Wednesday. The poll found the percentages of people in favor of suspending Arctic cooperation with Russia ranged from just 19 in Norway to 44 in Sweden. (Reuters, Washington Post, 04.22.15).
• Norway says it has demanded that Moscow explain a visit to a Norwegian island by a Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin' who is banned from entering the country. (RFE/RL, 04.19.15).
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he “I see no threats from the Chinese side.” (Ekho Moskvy, 04.22.15).
• Russia's Skolkovo Foundation and Chinese investment group Cybernaut have agreed to launch a $200 million venture fund and joint business incubator. (Moscow Times, 04.21.15).
• Prosecutors have charged a Latvian man with calling for the "liquidation" of the Baltic nation's independence over an Internet petition to make it part of Russia. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).

Russia's neighbors:

• World leaders including Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin gathered in Armenia on Friday to mark 100 years since the start of the Armenian genocide. A minute's silence was held in Yerevan, the capital, at a ceremony that saw Serzh Sarkisian, Armenia's president, and other leaders lay flowers at a hilltop memorial. "I am grateful to all those who are here to once again confirm your commitment to human values, to say that nothing is forgotten, that after 100 years we remember," Armenian president, to a standing ovation. Mr. Putin said that “there is no and cannot be any justification for mass murder of people. “François Hollande said he "bowed down" in memory of the victims who would never be forgotten. (Telegraph, 04.24.15).
• As he has for the last six years, President Obama on Thursday marked the day set aside to commemorate the mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire without using the word "genocide." Obama announced on Tuesday that he would send his Treasury secretary, Jacob J. Lew, to Yerevan to commemorate the anniversary. (New York Times, 04.22.15, Washington Post, 04.24.15).
• Germany took a step Friday toward recognizing the killing of more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Turks one hundred years ago as genocide. While a formal vote won’t come before the summer, the vast majority of lawmakers who support the text leaves no doubt about the outcome. (Wall Street Journal, 04.24.15).
• Turkey says it is recalling its ambassador to Austria after parties represented in parliament issued a joint declaration calling the massacre of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago genocide. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• A leaked letter addressed to European Commission President Jean-Paul Juncker from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urges the European Union to quickly ease "Russian concerns" regarding the implementation of a free-trade agreement with Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• Ukraine's industrial output fell by 21.5% year on year in the first quarter of 2015. (Anders Aslund’s tweeter, 04.21.15).
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has repeated a pledge to put the question of NATO membership before the Ukrainian people in a referendum vote. Ukraine will definitely join the European Union but its membership in NATO remains in question in the case of the alliance's ineffective response to contemporary challenges, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said. (Interfax, 04.17.15, RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• The Pentagon has denied a Kremlin claim that U.S. military trainers have been sent into eastern Ukraine, calling the statement a “ridiculous attempt to shift the focus” from Russia’s own military activities there. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• The United States says Russia has deployed more air defense systems into eastern Ukraine and is involved in training exercises of separatist forces in the area in breach of a cease-fire agreement. One Western official said Russia had moved 12 battalion tactical groups close to the border. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15, New York Times, 04.23.15).
• The Ukrainian-U.S. Fearless Guardian 2015 command post exercise began in the Yavoriv district in the Lviv region on Monday. The exercise will last until November 2015.  The equipment delivered by the United States Army to Ukraine's Yavoriv training ground for international drills will remain in Ukraine. (Interfax, 04.21.15).
• U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden assured Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in a recent phone call that the United States is ready to extend $1 billion worth of loan guarantees and additional non-lethal military assistance to Kiev.  (Interfax, 04.21.15).
• The U.S. does not plan to deliver Javelin shoulder-mounted anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine for the moment and is sending defensive gear alone to that country, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft said. (Interfax, 04.22.15).
• Dutch investigators say they have recovered "many" more body parts and pieces of wreckage after returning to the site of the MH17 plane crash in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Ukraine's unity and neutrality are in Russia's best interest. In an interview on April 22 Lavrov said, "It is in our interest not to divide Ukraine. It is in our interests to keep it neutral, primarily in a military-political sense." (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kiev on Monday that no Ukrainian servicemen had been killed or injured in fighting over the previous 24 hours. (Reuters, 04.21.15).
• Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Lavrov said Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot who is being held in a Russian jail, could not be freed as part of prisoner swaps. But he said Savchenko might be eligible for release under an amnesty envisaged by the agreement if she is convicted by a Russian court. Investigators have brought an additional charge against Savchenko. (Reuters, RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Ukraine's army chief of staff has listed for the first time some of the specific Russian military units alleged to be fighting against Kyiv. Viktor Muzhenko named the Russian army's 15th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the 331st Airborne Regiment, and the 98th Airborne Division. Russia has repeatedly denied claims by Kiev and the West that it is arming and sending troops to help separatists who have gained control of parts of the east. (RFE/RL, AFP, 04.18.15).
• Giorgi Janelidze, Georgian citizen fighting along Ukrainian forces against Moscow-backed separatists has been killed in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 04.17.15).
• Russia says it has a negative view of the EU's Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Latvia next month, calling it "anti-Russian. “The Eastern Partnership summit on May 21-22 in Riga will group officials from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine and EU members with the goal of strengthening economic and political relations with EU members. (RFE/RL, 04.24.15).
• A senior Kazakh official says the Central Asian nation will not accept a single currency in a trade bloc championed by Moscow. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says his country supports the territorial integrity of Georgia, making clear he does not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. (RFE/RL, 04.23.15).
• Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Joomart Otorbaev and his government. (RFE/RL, 04.24.15).
• Special forces from Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states are holding joint military maneuvers in Kyrgyzstan. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• The Kyrgyz Armed Forces General Staff said on April 24 that the annual parade was rescheduled because President Almazbek Atambaev has been invited to attend Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on May 8-9. Neighboring Tajikistan moved that country's parade to May 7 because its president, Emomali Rahmon, would be visiting Moscow on May 8-9. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says he will travel to Moscow to participate in events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on May 7 and 8, but he will not attend the May 9 parade. (RFE/RL, 04.18.15, 04.24.15).
• Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry says several Syrian opposition groups have asked President Nursultan Nazarbaev to host talks with opposition delegates in a bid to resolve Syria's civil war. (RFE/RL, 04.20.15).
• Deadly clashes erupted between troops from Azerbaijan and the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday, the two sides said, giving conflicting casualty tolls and disputing who was to blame. Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said five Armenian soldiers were killed and about 10 wounded on Tuesday. Nagorno-Karabakh's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said at least one Azeri soldier was killed and several wounded, while there were no Armenian casualties. (Reuters, 04.22.15).
• A prominent human rights lawyer in Azerbaijan, Intiqam Aliyev, has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison after a trial that he called politically motivated. (RFE/RL, 04.22.15).
• The Committee to Protect Journalists has included Azerbaijan and Iran on its list of the 10 most censored countries in the world. (RFE/RL, 04.21.15).

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