Russia in Review

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

Nuclear security agenda:

The Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Russia’s Dimitrovgrad has completed decommissioning of the research reactor RBT-10/1. Russian regulator Rostechnadzor last month removed the reactor from the list of supervised nuclear facilities, NIIAR said on 1 September. (WNN, 09.03.14).
As Ukraine looks like a country teetering on the edge of an out-right war, there's an important factor to keep an eye on: The country's 15 nuclear reactors. Nuclear material also presents a problem: ARD reports that 100 containers of burned nuclear fuels were found in the open air 120 miles away from the front line. This waste product is radioactive and dangerous if stored incorrectly. (Washington Post, 09.03.14).
Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn wrote: “In my view, without the U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation that we’ve had over the last two decades, there is a high probability that the world would have experienced catastrophic terrorism with a weapon of mass destruction.” (NTI, 09.04.14).
Kazakh authorities are searching for a canister of radioactive cesium 137 that has gone missing in the western part of the Central Asian nation. (RFE/RL, 09.02.14).

Iran nuclear issues:

Full nuclear talks between Iran and the six power group will resume in New York on September 11.Iran is negotiating a final nuclear agreement with the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China. Iranian Foreign Minister said this week he is "quite optimistic" about hopes of reaching an agreement. (Wall Street Journal, 09.05.14).

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

NATO leaders approved plans on Friday for a 4,000-person rapid reaction force to be based in Eastern Europe. The NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that the force would send a clear message to potential aggressors, namely Russia, and would represent “a continuous presence.” U.S. President Obama said the leaders had agreed to a “new readiness action plan,” including the creation of the new force, the stationing of more equipment in Central and Eastern Europe, more rotations of forces into the area and more training exercises there. When visiting Estonia on Wednesday Obama said he planned to increase the American air force presence in Estonia for training purposes. (New York Times, 09.05.14, Wall Street Journal, 09.03.14).
With NATO leaders set to endorse a rapid-reaction force of 4,000 troops for Eastern Europe Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said on Tuesday that Moscow would revise its military doctrine to account for “changing military dangers and military threats.” (New York Times, 09.02.14).
NATO leaders at the Wales Summit on Thursday pledged to provide strong support to help Ukraine improve its own security at a meeting with Ukraine President Poroshenko. The focus of NATO support will be on four areas; rehabilitation for injured troops, cyber defense, logistics, and command and control and communications. NATO’s assistance to Ukraine to boost cooperation will amount to around 15 million euros. . But NATO leaders also made clear at a summit in Wales that their military alliance would not use force to defend Ukraine. (NATO, 09.04.14,Reuters, 09.05.14).
Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk on Wednesday reaffirmed Kiev's desire to join the NATO alliance, which will hold a two-day summit this week. "Concerning NATO, I consider the most correct decision would be one to accept Ukraine as a member of NATO," Yatsenyuk said. Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 4 that any attempts by Ukraine to abandon its non-aligned status could "derail all efforts aimed at initiating a dialogue with the aim of ensuring national security," suggesting they would make it impossible to resolve the conflict in the east. (RFE/RL, Reuters, 09.04.14).
In a news conference at the close of the NATO summit, US President Barack Obama said the 28-member alliance was “fully united in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and right to defend itself.” (Washington Post, 09.05.14).
NATO may hold military drills and establish a military training center in Georgia, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday.(RIA Novosti, 09.01.14).

Missile defense:

NATO officials are considering deploying a long-planned missile defense system -- aimed at protecting Europe from attacks from the Middle East -- against Russia as well. Calls for such an expansion to the system's remit, which is backed by the United States, are growing in Poland as well as in NATO member states Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. But the majority of NATO members, especially Germany, are opposed to the proposal, warning that it could result in an unnecessary provocation of Moscow. (Der Spiegel, 08.25.14).

Nuclear arms control:

No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki spoke of the US government's plan to form a coalition with other nations to fight the growing threat of terrorist organization the Islamic State, yet no mention was made of Russia. (Moscow Times, 09.04.14).

Cyber security:

NATO leaders agreed on Friday for the first time to add cyber defense to the alliance’s core mission, meaning that a major cyber attack on a member state - such as a 2007 attack on Estonia's digital infrastructure - could trigger a military response. (France24, 09.05.14).
Last week, some briefed on the investigation suggested the hack against J.P Morgan may have been retaliation for U.S. sanctions against Russia. On Tuesday, Dallas-based cybersecurity firm iSight Partners Inc., which works closely with U.S. law enforcement, argued that likely wasn't the motive and there isn't enough evidence to suggest a coordinated attack on the U.S. financial sector. (Wall Street Journal, 09.02.14).

Energy exports from CIS:

Russia President Vladimir Putin said Monday the Kremlin may let China have a share in one of the largest Siberian energy projects, the Vankor oil and gas field. (Wall Street Journal, 09.01.14).

Bilateral economic ties:

No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

The U.S. and European Union are pressing ahead with additional sanctions against Russia, as leaders voiced skepticism over a cease-fire struck in Ukraine and urged further punitive measures to be implemented. European Union diplomats meeting in Brussels Friday were putting the finishing touches to the bloc’s broadest sanctions. The U.S. is considering limiting high-tech exports to Russia's Arctic oil and gas industry. U.S. President Barack Obama said the U.S. has readied penalties to be enacted in coordination with EU governments. Earlier Obama blasted Russia for what he called a "brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” (Reuters, 09.03.14, Bloomberg, 09.05.14, Wall Street Journal, 09.03.14).
Russia and China are trying to close the technology gap with the U.S. military and developing weapons systems that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. advantages, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday. (Reuters, 09.03.14).
FATCA, the U.S.'s global tax avoidance law, is a threat to Russia's financial system, the head of Russia's money laundering watchdog said Thursday, in the latest outburst from a Russian official against Washington's unilateral application of its own laws beyond its borders. (Moscow Times, 09.04.14).
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak used a closed-door session of energy officials from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to rap sanctions as disruptive and unhelpful to global energy supply, two officials at the session said. That brought a riposte from U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman, who made a clear jab at Russian actions in Ukraine by saying sanctions were meant to protect nations' sovereignty and territorial integrity and weren't intended to impair energy security, said the two officials. (Wall Street Journal, 09.01.14).
The former Senate majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, as well as John Breaux, a former senator from Louisiana, were hired to lobbying on sanctions and other matters by Russian Gazprombank that the Obama administration punished in July, according to a recent filing. (Wall Street Journal, 09.02.14).
Organizers of the Mrs. America beauty contest revealed Monday that they were planning to hold their 2015 pageant in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea, which was in March annexed by Russia from Ukraine. (Moscow Times, 09.05.14).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

Russia's two oil revenue-funded sovereign wealth funds swelled by 353.3 billion rubles ($9.4 billion) last month to reach combined reserves of 6.54 trillion rubles ($177 billion. (Moscow Times, 09.02.14).
Russian Finance Ministry has proposed regulating the SWIFT international bank transaction system, as well as Bloomberg and Reuters terminals that are used to monitor real-time financial market data, according to a notification published Thursday on the government's legislation portal. (Moscow Times, 09.04.14).
Russia's Agriculture Ministry has proposed restricting grain exports in the 2014/2015 season as a possible way of balancing the domestic market. (Reuters, 09.05.14).
The Central Bank said Friday that capital outflow in Russia could reach $100 billion in 2014, the highest level since the global economic crisis of 2008. (Moscow Times, 09.05.14).
Russia moved up 11 positions to 53rd out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness rating for 2014-2015 published Wednesday, putting it between the Philippines and Bulgaria. (Reuters, 09.03.14).
President Vladimir Putin called for the pace of construction at the far-eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome to be picked up during a visit to the site on Tuesday, and pledged an extra 50 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) to help see the job through. (Moscow Times, 09.03.14).
Sanctions-hit Russian oil producer Rosneft may cut its 2014 output by 2 million tons (40,000 barrels per day). Data from the Energy Ministry showed on Tuesday that Rosneft's daily oil production was down 1.3 percent in August, year-on-year. (Reuters, 09.03.14).
Installation of the first of the four steam generators at the Leningrad II nuclear power plant in western Russia will be completed within the next few days, general designer of the new plant Atomenergoproekt (AEP) said. (WNN, 09.03.14).
Russian power engineering R&D institute NIKIET has completed the engineering design for the BREST-300 lead-cooled fast reactor. (WNN, 09.03.14).
The number of Russians who support Crimea joining Russia has grown to 73 percent from 64 percent in March when Moscow annexed the peninsula, a recent poll, conducted by independent pollster Levada Center, has shown. (Moscow Times, 09.02.14).
Media outlets that are deemed to promote extremism, violence, terrorism or pornography could soon be hit with heavy fines in line with a draft bill that journalists fear may bankrupt many Russian publications. (Moscow Times, 09.05.14).
Russia's Justice Ministry added the PIR Center think tank that specializes in nuclear arms research to its controversial list of "foreign agents" on Wednesday. The designation means that the PIR Center has been found to receive funding from abroad and to conduct political activities, thus meeting two criteria that require registration as a "foreign agent" in accordance with the 2012 law. (Moscow Times, 09.03.14).
The majority of Russia's urban population is breathing highly polluted air, including at least 14 million people in 38 cities where pollutant concentrations are 10 times above acceptable levels, according to a recent report by the national weather and environment service. (Moscow Times, 09.04.14).
The number of Russian tourists going to Europe has decreased by almost a third this year. (Moscow Times, 09.03.14).

Defense:

President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia's armed forces, backed by its nuclear arsenal, were ready to meet any aggression, declaring at a pro-Kremlin youth camp that foreign states should understand: "It's best not to mess with us." (Reuters, 09.29.14).
The updated Russian military doctrine will not designate a potential enemy and conditions of a preventive nuclear strike against it; such information is available in classified directives, former Russian General Staff Chief Gen. of the Army Yuri Baluyevsky, who co-authored the 2010 military doctrine of Russia, said. Earlier, General Yury Yakubov, a senior Defense Ministry official, has called for Russia to revamp its military doctrine to clearly identify the U.S. and its NATO allies as Moscow's enemy number one and spell out the conditions under which Russia would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the alliance. (Interfax, 09.05.14,Moscow Times, 09.03.14).
The forces responsible for Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal will conduct major exercises this month involving more than 4,000 soldiers. The maneuvers will reportedly include extensive use of air power, with supersonic MiG-31 fighters and Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft taking part. (RFE/RL, 09.03.14).
The Russian Air Force will add at least 180 new planes and helicopters to its fleet by the end of 2014. (Moscow Times, 09.01.14).

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

Russian media reports say Islamic State militants, in a video published online, have threatened to start a war in Chechnya and other provinces of Russia's mostly Muslim North Caucasus. (RFE/RL, 09.03.14).
Security forces in Russia's North Caucasus province of Dagestan were searching for armed militants after police found the bodies of five people with gunshot wounds in a car in the capital, Makhachkala. (RFE/RL, 09.03.14).
A nongovernmental organization representing the parents of the nearly 200 children killed at a school in the Russian town of Beslan 10 years ago say they are seeking justice abroad as Russian courts have failed them. (RFE/RL, 09.01.14).

Foreign affairs and trade:

Zhang Gaoli, Chinese vice-premier, said during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I want to make it clear that China categorically opposes the sanctions the United States and Western countries have taken against Russia.” (FT, 09.02.14).
French President Francois Hollande has said a cease-fire and a political settlement in Ukraine are conditions for France to deliver the first of two Mistral-class warships to Russia. (RFE/RL, 09.05.14).
EU officials have proposed sanctions to starve Russian firms of cash as punishment for Moscow's role in Ukraine. The new proposals would widen a ban on Russian state banks raising capital in EU markets to cover all Russian state-owned firms. The capital markets borrowing ban would be extended to include syndicated loans from EU banks, and a ban on sales in Europe of Russian debt instruments for periods of less than 90 days would be reduced to 30 days. Bans on sales of energy technology and technology with dual military and civilian uses would be tightened. The new EU sanctions package against Russia could be coordinated with other G7 countries — the United States, Canada and Japan. (Reuters, 09.03.14).
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said he would study ways to reduce the harm to his country from sanctions, and seemed unconvinced by the entire strategy. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has also expressed concern, calling sanctions "meaningless and counterproductive". (Reuters, 09.03.14).
European Union nations are rejecting for now the idea of sanctioning Russia's high-profile sports events, such as its hosting of the 2018 World Cup, as part of a new round of penalties on the country. (AP, 09.03.14).
Australia, the most uranium-rich nation in the world, said Wednesday that it would ban exports of the material to Russia because of that country's actions in Ukraine. (Moscow Times, 09.03.14).
Poland refused permission for a plane carrying Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to fly through its airspace Friday while attempting to return from a visit to Slovakia, RIA Novosti news agency said. (Reuters, 09.29.14).
Russia and Algeria have signed an intergovernmental agreement to cooperate in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The agreement provides for the design, construction, operation and servicing of nuclear power plants as well as research reactors in Algeria. (WNN, 09.04.14).
President Vladimir Putin cited a 1939 Soviet victory over the Japanese army as a foundation of relations with Mongolia during a visit to Ulan Bator on Wednesday, despite a risk of upsetting Tokyo. . (Reuters, 09.03.14).

Russia's neighbors:

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine agreed Friday to a temporary cease-fire, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. The agreement contains 12 points, of which the cease-fire was one. Other provisions call for the withdrawal of military hardware, the release of captives and the delivery of humanitarian aid. Although there were initial reports of shelling shortly after the cease-fire was to take hold on Friday evening, witnesses in southeastern Ukraine said the region quickly quieted. (Washington Post, 09.05.14).
The Kremlin said Friday that it welcomes the moves toward a cease-fire. “Moscow hopes that all of the document’s provisions and that the agreements reached will be thoroughly observed by the parties and that the negotiating process will continue until the crisis in Ukraine is fully resolved,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Earlier this week Peskov said that “Putin and Poroshenko really discussed the steps that would contribute to a ceasefire between the militia and the Ukrainian forces. Russia cannot physically agree to a ceasefire because it is not a party to the conflict," (Reuters, 09.03.14, Washington Post, 09.05.14).
US President Barack Obama welcomed the announcement while expressing skepticism that the separatists and their Russian backers would adhere to the truce. “We haven’t seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires,” US President Barack Obama said after meeting with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia. “ (Washington Post, 09.05.14, New York Times, 09.03.14).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would not intervene militarily in Ukraine, defying reports by the Ukrainian government, NATO and Western nations that Russia has already sent troops, artillery and tanks across Ukraine's southeast border to reinforce the separatists. (Moscow Times, 09.01.14).
Amid rising international tension over Ukraine, the United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday that the fighting there had displaced more than a million people and warned of ''devastating consequences'' if it did not end soon. (New York Times, 09.03.14).
The Russian media conglomerate Rossia Segodnya has confirmed that photographer Andrei Stenin, who disappeared last month in Ukraine, is dead. ( RFE/RL, 09.03.14).
Dutch authorities leading the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine will publish their preliminary report on Tuesday. (Moscow Times, 09.04.14).
On Tuesday morning, an aide to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia played down but did not deny a report that he had told José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, “if I want, I will take Kiev in two weeks.” (New York Times, 09.02.14).
Soldiers from the U.S. and some other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members will take part in military exercises in western Ukraine. (Wall Street Journal, 09.03.14).
Slovakia’s natural gas pipeline operator Tuesday initiated deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine from the European Union state, the third Western country to do so. (Wall Street Journal, 09.02.14).
Ukraine plans to sign an agreement to construct new nuclear power reactors by the end of this year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the country's cabinet of ministers today. (WNN, 09.03.14).
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev said that Kazakhstan "has a full right to revoke its membership" in the Eurasian Economic Union (EES) if "regulations agreed upon earlier are not fulfilled." Russian President Vladimir Putin said on August 29 that Nazarbaev "managed to create a state on a territory that never had statehood." (RFE/RL, 09.01.14).
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed "strong concern" to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan over recent violence around the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. (RFE/RL, 09.05.14).
Uzbek police have questioned dozens of people in an attempt to discover who hung the black flag of the Islamic State militant group from a bridge in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. (RFE/RL, 09.04.14).

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