Russia in Review

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 15-22, 2013

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

Nuclear security agenda:

U.S. President Barack Obama said in his 2013 State of the Union address: “We'll engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands, because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead and meet our obligations.” (Washington Post, 11.21.13).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved the Public Security Concept of the Russian Federation through 2020. The concept notes that “serious threat to public security is posed by possibility of likelihood of emergencies at nuclear and hazardous radiation facilities and hazardous production facilities.”(Kremlin.ru, 11.20.13.)
A spokesman for Rosatom said Friday that a facility for the disposal of Soviet-era radioactive waste is to be built in the country's Far East. The plant will also be used to remove radioactive elements from decommissioned nuclear ships and submarines. (RIA Novosti, 11.22.13)
Representatives from the NNSA, U.K.’s Ministry of Defence, and Russia’s Rosatom met on Nov. 5-6 for the Eighth Nuclear Security Best Practices Exchange. The workshop focused on overcoming mutual challenges related to securing nuclear material. (NNSA, 11.19.13).
U.S. President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to former Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) Wednesday afternoon, lauding "his visionary work, the destruction of Cold War arsenals in the former Soviet Union." (Washington Post, 11.21.13).

Iran nuclear issues:

Russian President Vladimir Putin says there is now a "real chance" to find a solution to Iran's "longstanding" nuclear problem. The statement comes after Putin discussed the issue on the phone with his Iranian counterpart, President Hassan Rouhani. (Russia Today, 11.18.13).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Moscow on Thursday after failing in a last minute attempt to move Russian President Vladimir Putin away from backing an Iranian nuclear deal taking shape in Geneva. (Voice of America, 11.21.13).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is headed to Geneva to join talks already under way between the leading world powers and Iran over that country's disputed nuclear program. (RFE/RL, 11.22.13).
If the Sextet adheres to the stance of recognizing Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful, energy purposes during the talks with Tehran, the parties might have a chance to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. (RIA Novosti, 11.18.13).

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

Russia's presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, has voiced concerns over U.S. plans to retain nine military bases in Afghanistan after their planned withdrawal from the country. (RIA Novosti, 11.21.13).
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday expressed support for a newly forged security pact that would permit thousands of U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan for 10 years. Karzai said India, China, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan and most Arab nations have urged him to sign the agreement. (Washington Post, 11.21.13).
The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed surprise about the statements made by some Polish and Baltic countries leaders saying that the NATO training Steadfast Jazz 2013 indicates the allies' readiness to defend the Eastern European countries from threats from the East. (Interfax, 11.15.13).

Missile defense:

No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

No significant developments.

Cyber security:

No significant developments.

Energy exports from CIS:

Gazprom has set up a special purpose company to implement a reported $13.5 billion investment in an LNG plant at Vladivostok. The new plant’s proximity to Japan means Russia could easily increase its share of natural-gas supply to that country, which currently stands at 8%. (Wall Street Journal, 11.22.13).
Lithuania won approval from the European Commission to provide 448 million euros ($606 million) in loan guarantees and other aid to finance a liquefied natural gas terminal, which will reduce its dependence on Russian gas. (Reuters, 11.21.13).

Bilateral economic ties:

New York investment bank Morgan Stanley has held talks aimed at selling some of its oil-and-gas business to Russian state oil company Rosneft. (Wall Street Journal, 11.20.13).
U.S.-born banker Alexis Rodzianko has been elected president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, or AmCham, the chamber said Tuesday. (Moscow Times, 11.19.13).
Gay rights activists got a Russian investment conference barred from a prominent New York venue and convinced the New York Stock Exchange to cancel plans to allow a visiting Russian government delegation to ring the closing bell. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.13).

Other bilateral issues:

US intelligence and military are pressing the State Department not to license construction of monitor stations for Russia’s GLONASS navigation system on US territory. In May 2012, Moscow requested that the United States allow the Glonass ground-monitoring stations on American soil. C.I.A. analysts reviewed the proposal and concluded in a classified report this fall that allowing the Russian monitor stations here would raise counterintelligence and other security issues. The State Department does not think that is a strong argument, said an administration official. (The New York Times, Russia Today, 11.17.13).
"Probably, I will not tell you a big secret if I say that at Americans' request we assisted in the establishment of their direct contact with Syria's certain structures," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. (Interfax, 11.19.13).
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said he was angry with mass media reports on Washington supporting the Russian opposition. (Interfax, 11.21.13).
The 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the United States of America fell on 16 November. (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 11.18.13).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with leaders of major non-parliamentary parties for the first time in his 13 years in power, to discuss issues that will be addressed in his state-of-the-nation speech to be delivered next month. Putin said said his annual address might contain objectives not only for the coming year but for a more distant future (The Moscow Times, 11.21.13,Interfax, 11.20.13).
The State Duma lower house of Russia's parliament on Friday intends to pass in the third and final reading amendments to the Constitution of Russia on the creation of a unified Supreme Court merging the current Supreme Court and Supreme Commercial Court. (Itar-Tass, 11.22.13).
President Vladimir Putin has warned that if protesters are allowed to evade justice, this could spark a crisis similar to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Russia Today, 11.21.13).
President Vladimir Putin is opposed to the nationalization of companies sold at loans-for-shares auctions at the end of the last century. (Interfax, 11.20.13).
President Vladimir Putin doubts that the introduction of a progressive personal income tax will lead to better collection of the tax. (Interfax, 11.20.13).
Energy saving measures may ensure an additional growth of the GDP in Russia by 2-3%, Energy Minister Alexander said. (Itar-Tass, 11.20.13).
The OECD again cut its 2013 growth outlook for Russia, to 1.5 percent from the 2.3 percent it forecast in May. It also reduced its 2014 outlook to 2.3 percent from 3.6 percent, but saw growth picking up to 2.9 percent in 2015. (Reuters, 11.19.13).
A Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 airliner crashed Sunday night as it tried to come around for a second landing attempt in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people aboard, officials said. Russian aviation experts say the pilots of the jet carried out a maneuver that put the plane into a dive. (Wall Street Journal, 11.18.13, BBC, 11.19.13).
Russian oil giant Rosneft's President Igor Sechin topped Forbes magazine's rating of Russia's 25 highest-paid top managers with $50 million. (Itar-Tass, 11.20.13).
Russia's central bank revoked the license of Master Bank, notable for the presence on its board of a relative of President Vladimir Putin, for alleged false accounting and repeated violations of anti-money-laundering laws. (Wall Street Journal, 11.21.13).
The head of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has reached agreement with the ruling family of Bahrain on founding a new airline. (RFE/RL, 11.18.13).
For every six orphans awaiting adoption in Russia, there is only one family in the country hoping to take in a child, government statistics show. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.13).

Defense:

No significant developments.

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

New devices currently being developed by Russia’s Institute of High Current Electronics for the Interior Ministry make possible x-ray vision through walls and taking a car out of action just by pointing a high energy beam at it. (The Moscow Times, 11.18.13).
Russian Federation’s Public Safety Concept through 2020 says: “Being a systemic threat to public safety, corruption considerably complicates normal functioning of state bodies and local self-government bodies, hinders social reform and modernization of the Russian economy, causes serious concerns in society and mistrust of state institutions, and creates a negative image of Russia on the international scene.” (Kremlin.ru, 11.20.13.)
Russian authorities have released from jail most of the members of a Greenpeace group arrested on their ship in September while protesting oil drilling in the Arctic. Four were let go Friday, bringing to 18 the total number freed so far from the original 30 who were detained, the environmental group said Friday. (CNN, 11.22.13).
Russian law enforcement agencies say five suspected militants, including an alleged mastermind of last month's bombing of a bus in Volgograd, have been killed in a special security operation outside Makhachkala, Dagestan. (RFE/RL, 11.16.13).
Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has dismissed the head of the Federal Migration Service of the Chechen Republic, Asu Dudurkaev, after it was found that the daughter of this official joined “in the ranks of the Wahhabis and bandits that shed the blood of innocent civilians, shattering the Islamic shrines in Syria." (Gazeta.ru, 11.22.13).
Unknown people tried to fire at a oil refinery in Tatarstan with home-made rockets. (Itar-Tass, 11.20.13).
Anti-terrorism drills conducted by the Federal Security Service in Sochi this month in anticipation of the upcoming Winter Olympics have used some of the most vociferous opponents of the Games as practice targets.(The Moscow Times, 11.21.13).
Two-thirds of Russians (66%) say new terror attacks of the kind that happened in Volgograd in October are possible and 71% fear that their kin or themselves may fall victim to such crimes, Levada Center told Interfax. (Interfax, 11.15.13).
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has dropped its charges against the Skolkovo Foundation after the latter corrected the violations uncovered earlier. (Interfax, 11.16.13).

Foreign affairs and trade:

The head of Russia's state-controlled industrial holding company says Moscow has signed a deal to provide Egypt with air defense missile systems. Monday's statement by Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov followed last week's trip to Egypt by Russia's foreign and defense ministries. (AP, 11.18.13).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces' demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go as a precondition for its participation in the Geneva II conference as unrealistic (Interfax, 11.18.13).
Moscow fears that the Syrian opposition would receive weapons through humanitarian corridors, should they be created, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. (RIA Novosti, 11.18.13).
President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan oversaw a ceremony to sign formal agreements about this at a meeting in Strelna near St Petersburg on Friday. They have also provided for closer cooperation between their national electricity companies and between their leading engineering giants. (Voice of Russia, 11.22.13).
Russian planes skirted Japan's territory twice this past weekend – an oddly provocative move given recent improvements in Russo-Japanese relations. (CSM, 11.18.13).

Russia's neighbors:

Ukraine's government decided Thursday to call off the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU that could have weakened the former Soviet nation's bonds with Russia. The Cabinet said in a decree that the decision was motivated by the need to consolidate economic ties with Russia and members of the Kremlin-led Customs Union trade bloc. President Viktor Yanukovich, who was on a visit to Vienna, issued a statement saying, “Ukraine has been and will continue to pursue the path to European integration.” (RIA Novosti, 11.21.13, New York Times, 11.22.13).
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov of Ukraine told enraged opposition lawmakers on Friday that the government’s decision to walk away from far-reaching political and free trade agreements with the European Union was prompted by excessively harsh terms demanded by the International Monetary Fund in a debt refinancing plan. (New York Times, 11.22.13).
Russia is not against Ukraine becoming an associated EU member, but it would object if Ukraine decided to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. "We are not against Ukraine's sovereign choice, whatever it is. We are talking about something absolutely different. If we heard that Ukraine joins NATO, then we would really be against it," Putin said at a meeting of the Russian Literary Assembly on Thursday. (Interfax, 11.21.13).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the EU of "blackmailing" and “pressuring” Ukraine over its decision to suspend preparations for a trade pact with the bloc. He added that Ukraine’s decision will be clear in the next few days. (Russia Today, 11.22.13).
Russia and Ukraine have reached a compromise deal allowing Kiev to alter its payment schedule for Russian natural gas imports, Ukrainian Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky said Monday. (RIA Novosti, 11.18.13).
Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Monday that Russia allow its onetime subjects -- particularly in Ukraine -- to exercise the sovereign right to make alliances as they choose. (New York Times, 11.19.13).
“This is a disappointment not just for the E.U. but, we believe, for the people of Ukraine,” Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement. Calling the pact that Ukraine was walking away from “the most ambitious agreement the E.U. has ever offered to a partner country,” Ms. Ashton suggested the country would suffer financially. (New York Times, 11.22.13).
U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said the “United States joins the European Union in its disappointment with the decision of the Government of Ukraine to delay preparations for signature of the agreement” with EU. (State Department, 11.21.13).
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has managed to obtain $20 billion from Russia through bargaining in exchange for not signing an association agreement with the EU, and part of this money will be spent on his reelection in 2015, says Arseny Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Batkivshchyna party's parliamentary faction. (Interfax, 11.22.13).
Giorgi Margvelashvili has been sworn in as the new president of Georgia during a ceremony in Tbilisi. Margvelashvili said he was ready to mend ties with Russia, but stood by the ex-Soviet state's pro-Western course at his inauguration on Sunday. Margvelashvili also confirmed the appointment of Interior Minister Irakli Garibashvili as the country's new prime minister. Garibashvili also said his government would stick to the ex-Soviet republic's pro-Western course but also try to mend relations with Russia. (Reuters, RFE/RL, 11.17.13, Reuters, 11.22.13).
Russia and Georgia wish to build mutually advantageous long-standing relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said after a meeting with the Georgian prime minister's special representative for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze . (Itar-Tass, 11.22.13).
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia met Tuesday in Vienna in an attempt to resolve a decades-old territorial conflict, an Armenian diplomat said. The negotiations marked the first time the presidents have met in two years. (RIA Novosti, 11.19.13).
A court in Kazakhstan's western city of Atyrau has sentenced Orynbasar Munatov to 20 years for creating and leading a terrorist group, financing a terrorist group, and organization of terrorist acts. Munatov was extradited from Pakistan in June. (RFE/RL, 11.19.13).
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is reshuffling the government after having been sworn in for his fourth seven-year term on November 16. Tajikistan's longtime defense minister, Sherali Hairulloev was replaced on November 20 "due to health issues." (RFE/RL, 11.20.13).
A court in Bishkek has ordered former speaker of the Kyrgyz parliament Akmatbek Keldibekov to be held in pretrial detention amid an investigation into alleged abuse of office and financial misdeeds. (RFE/RL, 11.22.13).
Belarusian television reports that chief executive of Russian potash producer Uralkali Vladislav Baumgertner has been extradited to Russia. (RFE/RL, 11.22.13).

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