Russia in Review

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for August 9-16, 2013

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

Nuclear security agenda:

Every commercial nuclear reactor in the United States is insufficiently protected against "credible" terrorist threats, according to a new report from the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the University of Texas at Austin. (CBS, 08.15.13.)

Iran nuclear issues:

Iran intends to sign an agreement with Russia soon on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday, citing Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. (RIA Novosti, 05.11.13).

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

A year after Russia opened a transit hub in Ulyanovsk to help in NATO's pullout from Afghanistan, not a single alliance member has used it. Rates for shipping via Ulyanovsk in Russia's Volga federal district stand at 50,000 euro ($66,500) per container, compared to 30,000 euro ($40,000) for an alternative route via Termez in Uzbekistan. (RIA Novosti, Kommersant, 08.15.13).
The intended pullout of the NATO-led forces from Afghanistan starting in 2014 is "too hasty," Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Wednesday adding that Russia will reinforce its military bases in Central Asia ahead of the withdrawal. (RIA Novosti, 08.14.13).

Missile defense:

Missile defense talks between Russian and NATO military officials in the past 10 days have reached another impasse, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Wednesday. (RIA Novosti, 05.14.13).

Nuclear arms control:

In April, Tom Donilon, then President Obama's national security adviser, presented a letter from Mr. Obama to Mr. Putin in Moscow that outlined the American ideas on arms control. ''We are still asking them for the full-up response to the proposal that we made,'' a senior U.S. administration official said after ''two-plus-two'' talks between U.S. and Russian foreign and defense chiefs on August 9th. (New York Times, 08.10.13).
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has called for withdrawal of U.S. tactical nuclear armaments from the territories of non-nuclear countries and dismantlement of the related infrastructure. (Interfax, 08.14.13).

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

A conference has taken place at the base of the 76th Guard Airborne Division in Pskov to discuss upcoming Russian-U.S. antiterrorism exercises, Airborne Forces spokeswoman Maj. Irina Kruglova. The U.S. delegates to the conference watched live-fire and airborne exercises of the Russian paratroopers, familiarized themselves with airborne training equipment and visited the division's shooting and training ranges, Kruglova said. (Interfax, 08.12.13).
The father of a Chechen man who was shot dead while being interrogated by U.S. agents investigating the Boston Marathon bombings says the killing of his son was unjustified. (RFE/RL, 08.14.13).

Cyber security:

One of the servers of U.S. global system of monitoring Internet users is located in Moscow, Vedomosti daily reported on Monday, quoting information shared by former CIA employee Edward Snowden with The Guardian. (Interfax, 08.12.13).
Muscovite Dmitry Smilyanets has pleaded not guilty in an American federal court to allegations of participating in one of the most lucrative cybercrime rings in history. Prosecutors say that Smilyanets together with a team of three Russians and one Ukrainian stole more than 160 million credit card numbers resulting in a total loss of more than $300 million from the victims. (Moscow Times, 08.13.13).
Fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has communicated with his father for the first time since he left the U.S. in late May after leaking highly classified documents detailing American surveillance programs. (Dow Jones, 08.15.13).

Energy exports from CIS:

No significant developments.

Bilateral economic ties:

Online US retail behemoth Amazon is embarking on a "massive" expansion in the Russian books market and has already begun signing contracts with Russia's largest publishing houses, a publishing industry website has reported. (RIA Novosti, 08.13.13).

Other bilateral issues:

U.S. President Barack Obama said on August 9^th: "It is probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia's going, what our core interests are, and calibrate the relationship so that we're doing things that are good for the United States and, hopefully, good for Russia as well." (DPA, 08.09.13).
US-Russian relations are so important that it is impossible to put them on hold, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said. "Whether Obama comes or not, the relationship is so important that it is impossible to drive it into an impasse," Ushakov said, responding to a reporter's request for comment about Obama's "pause." (RIA Novosti, 08.13.13).
U.S. President Barack Obama said on August 9^th: “I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin. When we have conversations, they're candid. They're blunt. Oftentimes they're constructive. I know the press likes to focus on body language, and he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we're in conversations together, oftentimes it's very productive.” (WP, 08.09.13).
The American secretaries of state and defense sought on August 9th to demonstrate that President Obama's decision to cancel a summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia had not disrupted bilateral discussions on nuclear weapons, missile defense and regional issues. The Friday meetings in DC, which included the first talks between the new defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, and the new Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, were described by both sides as workmanlike and productive. Mr. Shoigu said he had invited American troops to participate in a competition among tank units in Russia, as well as the Pentagon to watch a major Russian-Belarussian military exercise, called Zapad (West). Also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said both sides had agreed to press ahead with a second set of talks in Geneva, and senior Obama administration officials agreed that Geneva was the appropriate forum. "It's clear there is no Cold War that we should expect,” Lavrov said. (AFP, New York Times, 08.10.13).
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has not yet given up Cold War methods in its relations with Moscow, thus, it supports the anti-Russian rhetoric voiced by other U.S. authorities and mass media, Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said. (Interfax, 08.12.13).
The U.S. authorities have provided Russia with a list of children adopted by U.S. families in Russia in the past, Russian children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said. (Interfax, 08.12.13).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

Russia's economy is stagnating, but is not in recession, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Monday, adding that weak second-quarter numbers may force a cut in the official growth outlook. Second quarter gross domestic product grew by just 1.2 percent compared to a year earlier, data showed on Friday, falling short of consensus expectations among economists of a 1.6 percent gain. (Reuters, 08.12.13)
Despite increasing exports to Europe and rising domestic rates, state gas giant Gazprom's net profit fell by more than a third in the first half of the year. (Moscow Times, 08.16.13).
Migrant workers make some 7 to 8 percent of Russia’s GDP. (Itar-Tass, 08.15.13).
Russia will close more than 700 state schools this year, its top health official said, responding to a drop in birth rates and life expectancy in the decades since the Soviet Union collapsed. (Reuters, 08.15.13).
Thousands more people may have to be evacuated from their homes in the flood-hit Amur region as water levels continue to rise, threatening two major hydroelectric power stations, a news report said Friday. (Moscow Times, 08.16.13).
More parties have been banned from regional elections in Russia this year than in 2012, despite the Kremlin's attempted liberalization of political legislation, according to a report by the Civil Initiatives Committee think tank, founded by longtime Kremlin insider-turned-critic Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister. (RIA Novosti, 08.14.13).

Defense:

The construction of an advanced early missile warning radar will begin on Tuesday in central Russia to enhance the capabilities of the country’s missile defenses, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. (RIA Novosti, 05.13.13).
The Kalashnikov Corporation, set to absorb major Russian small-arms makers, has been officially established, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday. (RIA Novosti, 08.13.13).

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

Vladimir Putin may soon get a personal guard. The guard will comprise the commando units of the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, according to sources in Russia’s so-called power agencies. It will be commanded by Col-Gen Viktor Zolotov, who used to head the presidential security service before becoming deputy commander of the Interior Troops. (Ekho Moskvy, Argumenty.ru 08.15.13).
Of the 818 defendants put on trial by jury in 2012, 157 (19%) were acquitted in Russia. The share of those acquitted by professional judges is already under one percent. In the meantime, courts in the United States and the European Union acquit up to 30% of those standing trial. (Itar-Tass, 08.14.13).
Russia's courts and judges have yet to win the public's trust, or so suggests a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation released Tuesday. Just 27 percent of respondents said they think Russian courts and judges are doing a good job, 35 percent said they were doing a bad job, and 38 percent could not say either way. (RIA Novosti, 08.13.13).
A defendant in the ongoing trial over the murder of prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and wounded in Moscow Wednesday evening. (Moscow Times, 08.16.13).
Vladimir Volokh, head of the FMS (Russian Federal Migration Service) Public Council, has denied claims that a rise in crime in Russia is attributable to an influx of immigrants from abroad. (Interfax, 08.14.13).
The number of convicts who have walked free under the so-called economic amnesty has now exceeded seventy, the press service for the Federal Service on the Enforcement of Punishments has reported. (Interfax, 08.14.13).

Foreign affairs and trade:

President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg scheduled for Sept. 5 to 6. (Moscow Times, 08.15.13).
Russia has welcomed an agreement reached between the United Nations and Damascus on sending inspectors to investigate alleged chemical weapons use in Syria, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. (RIA Novosti, 08.16.13).
Russia wants a Syria peace conference to be held as soon as possible, but it is unlikely to go ahead before October because there is a busy diplomatic schedule before then, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Tuesday. (Interfax, 08.13.13).
The Indian Navy says divers have found the bodies of three of 18 sailors who were inside a Russian-built submarine that exploded and sank at its port in Mumbai.
Russian-made storage batteries were replaced with Indian products during the modernization of the diesel-electric submarine Sindhurakshak in Russia. (RFE/RL, 08.16.13, Interfax, 08.15.13).
Moscow is outraged by Lithuania's decision to extradite a Russian national to the United States. Lithuania on Wednesday fulfilled a U.S. request to extradite alleged arms dealer Dmitry Ustinov. Ustinov, 46, was detained at Vilnius Airport in Lithuania on April 15 after he arrived from the U.S. to purportedly negotiate a deal to sell night-vision equipment used by the U.S. military. (Moscow Times, 08.15.13).
Since January, some 20,000 asylum requests have been filed by Russian citizens -- almost all Chechen -- in Poland and Germany. Experts are mostly flummoxed by the influx, which already represents more than a twofold increase over all of 2012. Some point to a spreading rumor about German hospitality toward refugees as a potential cause. (RFE/RL, 08.14.13).

Russia's neighbors:

Russia denied on Friday that it was waging a trade war with Ukraine to discourage its ex-Soviet neighbour from establishing closer political and economic relations with the European Union. Ukraine has banned the import of wheat from Russia's major wheat-producing regions following reports that Russia's customs service has significantly tightened regulations for all Ukrainian imports. (AFP, RFE/RL, 08.16.13).
A real likelihood exists that more nuclear material remains buried beneath the soil of the Semipalatinsk steppe, unsecured and potentially vulnerable to theft, according to Sergey Lukashenko, director of the Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology at Kazakhstan’s National Nuclear Center. (GSN, 08.15.13).
A state-of-the-art medical research laboratory is under construction in a suburb of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s business capital, using U.S. funds aimed at helping reorient former biological weapons-related research under the Soviet Union to peaceful public health uses, according to officials involved with the project. (GSN, 08.09.13).
President Vladimir Putin met with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Tuesday in what proved to be a fruitful visit. Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s top crude producer, Rosneft, and Rovnag Abdullaev, head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan signed a broad cooperation agreement on join exploration, extraction and mutual deliveries of oil. After the talks, Aliev said Azeri’s imports of arms from Russia are worth $4 billion as the Caspian Sea nation boosted military spending in connection with its territorial dispute with neighboring Armenia. (Moscow Times, Bloomberg, 08.13.13).
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey have vowed to strengthen their ties during a summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States. (RFE/RL, 08.16.13).
Five years after the Russian-Georgian war, Georgian Premier Bidzina Ivanishvili has announced that Tbilisi is ready for direct talks with Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Open Democracy, 08.14.13).
Six people convicted of being members a terrorist group in Kazakhstan have been sentenced to prison terms between six and 10 years. (RFE/RL, 08.14.13).

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