Russia in Review

Abstract

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for June 17-24, 2016

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

Nuclear security:

• Russia dismisses the attempts to impart a counterterrorist character to the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1540 as inadmissible, Grigory Mashkov, the chief advisor to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Nonproliferation and Arms Control Department said. “This document has neither the appropriate powers nor the inventory of instruments for performing the counterterrorist functions,” he said.(Tass, 06.21.16).
• Officials  at NNSA’s Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence have noted that the conflict between the Ukrainian government and separatist groups has led to the destruction of 29 radiation portal monitors, and NSDD officials do not know whether the program will be able to fix or replace them and, if so, when. ( US Fed News, 06.17.16).
• The National Nuclear Security Administration is working on developing a more comprehensive plan for its nuclear smuggling detection and deterrence program, with the aim of finishing it by this fall, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said in a response to a draft Government Accountability Office report. According to GAO,  NNSA’s Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence cannot measure its progress toward completing key activities and achieving these goals because its program plan does not fully incorporate leading practices for program management. (Inside the Pentagon, 06.23.16, US Fed News, 06.17.16).
• Frank G. Klotz, undersecretary for nuclear security at the National Nuclear Security Administration, said, "The NNSA is probably the busiest it's been with weapons activities since the end of the Cold War." (The Santa Fe New Mexican, 06.22.16).

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• No significant developments.

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• “No-one can regard the envisaged scope of NATO measures as a threat to Russia, and, in all measures, strict adherence to the NATO-Russia Founding Act was a clear red line for us,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (Das Bild, 06.18.16).
• Addressing parliament on the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin berated the West for being unwilling to build "a modern, non-bloc collective security system" with Russia. “NATO is strengthening its aggressive rhetoric and its aggressive actions near our borders. In these conditions, we are duty-bound to pay special attention to solving the task of strengthening the combat readiness of our country." (Reuters, 06.22.16).
• German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticized NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe as "warmongering” and called for phasing out European Union sanctions against Russia if there is substantial progress in the peace process in Ukraine. "What we should avoid today is inflaming the situation by warmongering and stomping boots," Steinmeier said. It is a mistake, he said, to think "you can increase security in the alliance with symbolic parades of tanks near the eastern borders." Steinmeier also urged diplomatic dialogue between NATO and Russia rather than military confrontation.(RFE/RL, 06.18.16, RFE/RL, 06.22.16).
• NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg brushed aside comments from Germany’s foreign minister that accused the alliance of “warmongering,” saying the 28-nation bloc needed both a military response and a political dialogue in dealing with Russia.  (RFE/RL, 06.20.16).
• On Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on CNN to play down the idea that his country and NATO were edging toward a "new cold war." He accused NATO, along with the Ukrainian government, of "scaremongering" after the annexation of Crimea. "If we stick to this very logic, the scaremongering, that's probably the way to a cold war," he told Zakaria, through a translator. (Washington Post, 06.20.16).
• Top U.S. Navy officials say increased U.S. and NATO exercises in Eastern Europe do not amount to "saber-rattling.” Vice Admiral James Foggo, who heads the U.S. Navy's fleet in Europe, said this year's 'BALTOPS' exercise saw "much less Russian activity and harassment" than in 2015, and Russian officials had apparently shifted to more strategic messages by senior politicians than tactical incidents like the flyover. (Reuters, 06.20.16).
• The commander of the U.S. Army Europe says NATO would currently be unable to protect the Baltics against a Russian attack. Russian forces could capture Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania "quicker than we could get there to defend them," Lieutenant General Ben Hodges said. Hodges also said he agreed with an assessment by military analysts that says Russian forces could seize the capitals of the Baltic States within 36 to 60 hours. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16).
• Russia is likely to deploy advanced nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its European exclave of Kaliningrad by 2019, casting the move as a reply to a U.S.-backed missile shield, and may one day put them in Crimea too, according to sources close to its military predict. (Reuters, 06.23.16).
• The buildup of NATO troops in Eastern Europe, and Russia's own troop movements along its western borders, are deepening the risk of an accidental outbreak of war, according to Ian Brzezinski, former deputy assistant secretary of defense. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said increased U.S. shipbuilding deliveries - with the current fleet of 274 ships expected to grow to 308 by 2021 - would allow the U.S. Navy to increase its presence in Europe for the first time in 15 years, even as it also boosts its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. (Reuters, 06.20.16).
• A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a resolution condemning Russia for "dangerous and unprofessional" military actions in recent months. The Senate resolution takes aim specifically at a series of recent close-calls between Russian jets and U.S. naval ships and air force planes in the Baltic Sea and Sea of Okhotsk. The draft resolution also calls out Russia for violations, alleged by the U.S. State Department, of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark Cold War agreement that has come under growing stress. (RFE/RL, 06.21.16).
• The buildup of NATO troops in Eastern Europe, and Russia's own troop movements along its western borders, are deepening the risk of an accidental outbreak of war, according to Ian Brzezinski, former deputy assistant secretary of defense. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• Earlier this month NATO has defense ministers agreed to send 4,000 troops to Poland and the Baltic States many on either side of the Suwalki gap, which is 60-mile corridor that represents the Baltic States' only border with the rest of NATO. The United States, Britain, Germany, Canada and Poland will all contribute "battle groups" of about 800 soldiers that would be in place as early as 2017. Britain's battle group will be based in Estonia. The Americans are likely to be based in Poland, the Germans in Lithuania and the Canadians in Latvia. (Washington Post, 06.20.16).
• Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has signed a law reinstating compulsory military service. (Moscow Times, 06.21.16).

Missile defense:

• “The United States will continue to insist on having the flexibility to respond to evolving ballistic missile threats with the crucial hedge of missile defense,” Assistant Secretary of State Frank A. Rose said.(State.gov, 06.16.16).

Nuclear arms control:

• No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism:

• Turkish authorities have arrested two Russians and a Turkish national, saying they are suspected members of the so-called Islamic State (IS), after an investigation into a planned attack against a transgender rights rally. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16).
• Kyrgyz security officers have detained three men who allegedly fought alongside Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria. (RFE/RL, 06.17.16).
• Germany says it has arrested a Tajik man suspected of joining the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria. The 30-year-old is accused of traveling from Tajikistan to Syria in April 2015, where prosecutors said he joined the IS group.  Prosecutors said Mukhamadsaid S. left Syria no later than the beginning of September 2015, and then ended up in Germany. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16).
• Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov says gunmen who attacked two gun stores and a military unit in the northwestern city of Aqtobe on June 5 were following a call by the leader of the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group. (RFE/RL, 06.20.16).

Cyber security:

• The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation was among the organizations breached by suspected Russian hackers in a dragnet of the U.S. political apparatus ahead of the November election, according to three people familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg, 06.21.16).
• Vadim Polyakov, a Russian man charged with leading a computer-hacking gang that fraudulently bought more than $1 million worth of sports, music, and theater tickets has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to being a member of the criminal group. (RFE/RL, 06.21.16).

Energy exports from CIS:

• Gazprom, announced that it will begin to gradually reduce exports to Europe via Ukraine's pipeline system and that a new pipeline, Nord Stream 2, will be operational by 2030.Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said that transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will be reduced by as much as five-fold. (RBTH, 06.20.16).
• Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom could gain control over some of the assets that Shell acquired earlier this year from BG group, a senior Gazprom executive said in an interview. (Reuters, 06.20.16).

Bilateral economic ties:

• Boeing Co is in advanced talks with Moscow-based Volga-Dnepr Group to convert a year-old commitment into more than 10 firm orders for 747-8 freighters, two of the people said. (Bloomberg, 06.20.16).
• Moscow has signed an agreement with a Los Angeles company to explore building a futuristic, high-speed transportation system known as a Hyperloop in the Russian capital. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16).

Other bilateral issues:

• "America is a great power — today probably the only superpower. We accept that," Vladimir Putin said. "We want to and are ready to work with the United States." (Washington Post, 06.18.16).
• Billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday he saw Russia emerging as a global power as the European Union collapses, in much the same way as the EU flourished when the Soviet Union started falling. Soros added that he felt "more than ever" that the EU's destiny hinged on Ukraine's future. (Reuters, 06.20.16).
• U.S. Vice President Joe Biden questioned Donald Trump's willingness to engage Russian President Vladimir Putin "at a time of renewed Russian aggression," which he said "could call into question America's long-standing commitment to Europe.". (RFE/RL, 06.21.16).
• Russia's Foreign Ministry has warned Washington against imposing new rules on the movements of Russian diplomats in the United States, threatening that Moscow might institute similar restrictions. The U.S. legislation calls for limiting Russian diplomats' travel to 80 kilometers from their post for a period of three months unless the FBI has certified in writing that all Russian diplomats followed existing reporting requirements within the prior three-month period. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• An International Space Station crew of a Russian, an American, and a Briton has arrived safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan after a three-hour journey from space. (RFE/RL, 06.20.16).
• Russia's culture minister Vladimir Medinsky asserted in an interview published on June 22 that Netflix is part of a U.S. government mind-control project. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering selling a 19.5 percent stake in the Rosneft oil giant to companies in India and China to cover Russia's budget deficit, the Bloomberg news website reported Monday. The value of the deal is estimated at 700 billion rubles ($11 billion), which would set a privatization record for the country. Rosneft could be worth as much as $130 billion, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin. (Bloomberg, 06.22.16, Moscow Times, 06.20.16).
• Russians saw their real incomes fall by 11.5 percent in May compared to the previous month, the Rosstat state statistics service reported Monday. In annual terms, real incomes fell by 5.7 percent in May, Rosstat said. Real wages shrank by 1 percent year-on-year in May. (Moscow Times, 06.20.16).
• On average,  Russian families with an annual income between 15 million and 100 million rubles ($235,000 to $1.5 million) lost 45 percent of their revenue, according to a report prepared by the NICA Multi Family Office asset management company, the Aspire Lifestyles marketing agency and Savills and Tranio real estate companies. There at least 100,000 families with such an income in Russia , and 84,000 of them are in Moscow, according to the report.  (Moscow Times, 06.23.16).
• The Bank of Russia says $56.9 billion in capital left the country in 2015. (Wall Street Journal, 06.22.16).
• Russia's troubled state development bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), says it will restructure more than 200 billion rubles ($3.1 billion) in loans tied to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• The head of the Moscow region’s electoral commission, Irek Vildanov, has resigned amidst mounting pressure over alleged voting violations, the Vedomosti news website reported Wednesday. (Moscow Times, 06.22.16).
• Individual Russian athletes "who can clearly and convincingly show that they are not tainted by the Russian system because they have been outside the country and subject to other effective anti-doping systems" could apply to compete in international competitions, the IAAF said in a June 23 statement. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).

Defense and Aerospace:

• The heavy nuclear-powered submarine The Dmitry Donskoi will stay operational at least till 2020 and participate in the testing of upgraded inter-continental ballistic missile Bulava-M. (Tass, 06.21.16).
• The Russian Air Force has successfully carried out tests of a new short-range anti-ballistic missile system, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. (Moscow Times, 06.21.16).
• The United Engine Corporation has launched production of TV7-117V engines for the newest Mi-38 multi-purpose helicopter, as well as for the Ka-52 and Mi-28 attack helicopters. Previously, these rotorcrafts used engines made by Ukraine's Motor Sich plant. (RBTH, 06.24.16).

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Five staff administrators at a children's summer camp in Russia have been detained and were being questioned on June 20 after a boat tragedy on a lake that killed at least 13 teenagers. (RFE/RL, 06.20.16).
• The State Duma Committee of Security and Anti-Corruption decided to exclude rules that could deprive dual citizens working for foreign intelligence or those guilty of terror offenses of their Russian citizenship.  (Moscow Times, 06.23.16).
• Sergei Ostrovsky, designer of Russia's new space center in the Far East has been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on embezzlement charges. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• A Russian court has ordered that Yevgeny Dod, the chairman of the Quadra power company, be held in custody for two months. Dod was detained on suspicion of awarding himself an excess bonus. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• Russia's Investigative Committee has closed their case into the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, a statement published on their website announced Monday. (Moscow Times, 02.20.16).
• Police have raided the St. Petersburg offices of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper. (Moscow Times, 06.23.16).
• Russia's Federal Security Service and municipal police have reportedly searched offices of the Church of Scientology in Moscow and St. Petersburg. (RFE/RL, 06.21.16).

Foreign affairs and trade:

• Syria:
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agrees with an American proposal to incorporate opposition representatives in Syria's government, but balked at the idea that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down immediately. He called the basic U.S. proposal "quite acceptable," but said any settlement "should be guided by the current realities." (Voice of America, 06.19.16).
  • Russia called on Tuesday for a swift resumption of stalled Syrian peace talks, saying it was the only way to halt "massive violations" of human rights perpetrated in the five-year-old conflict.(Reuters, 06.21.16).
  • U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry met Tuesday morning with 10 of the 51 diplomats who signed an internal memo urging the United States to use more military force in Syria to compel the government to abide by a truce and negotiate a political solution. "We are not advocating for a slippery slope that ends in a military confrontation with Russia," the memo said. "Rather, we are calling for a credible threat of targeted U.S. military responses" to enforce a truce and negotiations. (Washington Post, 06.22.16).
  • Russia has warned the United States against striking at Syrian government forces, saying regime change in the country could "plunge the region into total chaos." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments on June 17 while asked to comment about an internal memo in which dozens of U.S. State Department employees called for air strikes against Assad's forces.(RFE/RL, 06.17.16).
  • Russia's defense minister has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a visit to the Syrian capital. Sergei Shoigu also visited a Russian air base in the coastal province of Latakia. (RFE/RL, 06.18.16).
  • Immediately after the initial Russian strikes on a New Syrian Army unit at At-Tanf last week, the U.S. military scrambled two F/A-18 Super Hornets to the area, according to reports in the U.S. press. Sometime shortly thereafter, the F/A-18s ran low on fuel and left the area, according to Washington Free Beacon. That’s when Russian Su-34s r returned and bombed the rebels again. The second strike killed two first-responders assisting survivors of the first bombing run. On June 17 senior U.S. Defense Department officials organized an “extraordinary” video conference with Russian counterparts to discuss the incident. In the course of the conference Russia agreed to improve coordination with the United States on military operations in Syria, Reuters reported. However, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov also pointed out that the area targeted was 300 kilometers away from locations the United States had designated as controlled by legitimate opposition forces, AP reported.(Belfer Center, 06.23.16).
  • The main Syrian opposition group has asked the United Nations to investigate charges that Russia has repeatedly used cluster and incendiary bombs in Syria. (RFE/RL, 06.24.16).
  • Russian serviceman Andrei Timoshenkov suffered a lethal injury after having prevented a suicide bomber from driving towards a humanitarian aid post in the Syrian province of Homs, the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax on June 19. 11 Russian soldiers have been confirmed as having died in Syria; one reported to have committed suicide, nine killed “while performing military assignments” and two in a helicopter crash. ISIS’ Amaq News Agency claimed this week that three Russian soldiers were allegedly killed when a roadside bomb exploded in northern Syria, but claim could not be independently verified. (Long War Journal, 06.22.16, Interfax, 06.19.16, Daily Beast, 06.21.16).
  • Almost 160 populated areas are already engaged in Syria's truce, the Russian Defense Ministry said.  (Interfax, 04.24.16).
• Other countries:
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected allegations by British Prime Minister David Cameron that Russia improperly influenced public opinion in Britain ahead of a vote by Britons to leave the European Union. He  predicted that negative consequences for stock markets around the world would correct themselves in the near future. With Britain seen here as a primary source of perceived anti-Russian sentiment in Europe, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said that "without Great Britain in the E.U., no one will so zealously defend the sanctions against us." (Moscow Times, Washington Post, 06.24.16).
  • German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, “On the subject of sanctions, I sometimes get the feeling that some people are interested not in the objective, i.e. resolving the Ukraine conflict, but simply and solely in weakening Russia…An ‘all or nothing’ approach, for all that it sounds good, will not do the job. That’s why I am calling for the possibility of incrementally easing sanctions if – and only if – there is substantial progress on implementing Minsk.” (Märkische Allgemeine, 06.20.16).
  • Italy has once again delayed an attempt to extend the European Union's economic sanctions against Russia, despite an accord reached by EU diplomats earlier in the week for sanctions to be prolonged by another six months. Italy wants the summit conclusions to acknowledge a commitment for Brussels to review Russian policy later in 2016. But Italy’s latest demand means a final decision on extending the sanctions against Russia is likely to be postponed until after the gathering of EU leaders in late June. Earlier the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union had agreed to extend sanctions on Russia until the end of January 2017. The decision need to be approved by the Council of the European Union by the end of the next month.  (RFE/RL, 06.23.16, Moscow Times, 06.21.16).
  • EU presidency chair Slovakia said EU governments could not ignore the political pressure in some EU countries for a shift in sanctions policy with Russia, the bloc's biggest energy supplier. Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, whose country will help shape European policy from July to December, said it was necessary to hold talks because there was "a growing demand for a political discussion" about sanctions levied on Russia. Diplomats said such talk was code for potentially softening the measures implemented by the West in July 2014 after Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in February of that year. (Reuters, 06.20.16).
  • Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz suggested that the European Union gradually lift sanctions against Russia.  (Moscow Times, 06.20.16).
  • Russia will immediately take reciprocal steps once the sanctions against it are lifted, Russian Presidential Administration chief Sergei Ivanov said.(Interfax, 06.18.16).
  • After talks between Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian and Italian companies signed a number of agreements worth more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion).(RFE/RL, 06.17.16).
  • Russia is prepared to hold bilateral talks with the Turkish Foreign Minister in Sochi, according to Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebezhnya, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.  (Moscow Times, 06.23.16).
  • The China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization has refused to enlist Iran, despite a request from Russia. Bakhtiyor Khakimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the organization, said there were no objections to the idea "in principle," but there were "technical nuances" related to the timing that caused Iran's bid to fail. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said Beijing wanted to focus on the ongoing accession of India and Pakistan before moving on.  (RFE/RL, 06.24.16).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 25. "As we had never reached this level of relations before, our experts have had trouble defining today's general state of our common affairs. It turns out that to say we have strategic cooperation is not enough anymore. This is why we have started talking about a comprehensive partnership and strategic collaboration," , Russian president Vladimir Putin said of his country’s relations with China. “He is a very good friend and a reliable partner," Putin said, speaking of Xi Jinping. Thirty agreements may be signed within the framework of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China, Russian Ambassador to Beijing Andrey Denisov told TASS on Tuesday. (Interfax, 06.20.16, Interfax, 06.22.16, Tass, 06.22.16)
  • There are 60 countries that China says stand behind it as it faces potential censure by an international tribunal over its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Russia, the only major power on China's list, agrees the dispute shouldn't be internationalized, but hasn't explicitly backed Beijing on the tribunal—a position that reflects its close defense ties with Vietnam, one of China's rivals in the South China Sea. (Wall Street Journal, 06.17.16).
  • Even with Russia mired in its second year of recession and whipsawed by the crash in oil, one of China’s three biggest rating companies, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., still has its foreign-currency government debt at A with a stable outlook, the sixth-highest investment level and one above the U.S. (Bloomberg, 06.21.16).

Russia's neighbors:

• Ukraine:
  • Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland focused on issues concerning security in Donbas at their talks in Moscow, the U.S. Embassy to Russia said on Friday. During the meeting, the sides discussed further steps to implement the Minsk agreements, in order to support 'Normandy Four' efforts as part of the Ukrainian settlement process, the embassy said. Nuland was in Kyiv on June 22 for talks with Ukrainian government officials about the situation in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 06.22.16, Interfax, 06.24.16).
  • Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the European Union that he "expects the sanctions against Russia as a country-aggressor" to be extended. (RFE/RL, 06.24.16).
  • In the course of the two-day NATO summit on June 14 and 15 in Warsaw Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak presented his roadmap" for reforming the country's defense sector, which by 2020 should align the Ukrainian army with NATO standards. Ukraine said that one of its plans in the near future was to join the NATO patrol mission in the Black Sea with Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. (RBTH, 06.21.16).
  • Units of the Ukrainian armed forces fired 274 mortar shells overnight in Donbass. Ukrainian positions in the east of the country also came under heavy fire from Russia-backed separatists. (Tass, 06.23.16, RFE/RL, 06.22.16).
  • Ukraine has fortified its border with Russia in the Kharkov and Chernigov regions with more than 120 miles of anti-tank trenches and about 43 miles of metal fencing. These upgrades were announced by the press center of the State Border Service of Ukraine. (Tass, 04.24.16).
  • Ukrainian authorities have arrested four former officers of the "Berkut" riot police for their alleged role in the violent dispersal of pro-European protesters in Kyiv in early 2014. (RFE/RL, 06.24.16).
  • The chairman of Belarus's KGB says investigations have been launched into the activities of 138 Belarusian citizens who are thought to have been combatants in Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
  • A report, written by Princeton University fellow Nikita Melnikov and economist Sergey Guriev, found that Russians living closer to the Ukrainian conflict felt more empathy with Ukrainian citizens. (Moscow Times, 06.24.16).
  • Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman has said his country will receive a total of $1.7 billion in financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year. (RFE/RL, 06.21.16).
  • The National Bank of Ukraine announced on June 23 that it was trimming its benchmark interest rate to 16.5 percent from 18 percent. (RFE/RL, 06.23.16).
• Other neighbors:
  • The latest talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict show some promise. An official statement issued after the June 20 meeting, held in St. Petersburg and mediated by Russia, called for more international observers in the conflict zone and noted that all parties involved in the negotiations were satisfied with the existing cease-fire agreement. (Stratfor, 06.21.16).
  • Pope Francis hailed Armenia's steadfast Christian heritage on Friday as he arrived in the former Soviet republic for a three-day visit to commemorate the centenary of the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians that the pope himself has called a "genocide." (AP, 06.24.16).
  • Amnesty International (AI) says torture and other ill-treatment by members of Kazakhstan's law enforcement bodies and prison authorities remain "largely unchecked and unpunished." (RFE/RL, 06.20.16).

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