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Russia in Review

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Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for April 5-12, 2013.

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for April 5-12, 2013

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow agrees with Washington's stance on North Korea but warned that any military moves could hamper chances to calm tensions in the Korean peninsula. (Reuters, 04.11.13).
  • Radioactive fallout from South Korean nuclear plants blown up by enemy saboteurs could be, for Russia, the worst consequence of a possible Korean war – should one happen, said Alexander Zhebin, who heads the Center for Korean Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Far Eastern Studies. (RIA Novosti, 04.09.13).
  • The White House budget plan rolled out this week would provide $2.14 billion in fiscal 2014 for nonproliferation activities at the National Nuclear Security Administration. That is down from $2.3 billion delivered in fiscal 2012. NNSA is also looking for $7.87 billion for its weapons activities account, a $654 million boost from two years ago for operations to maintain a safe, secure and reliable nuclear arsenal.(GSN, 04.11.13).
  • NNSA’s FY14 Budget Request said: “We’re looking toward the future with our partners in Russia.  An ongoing, productive conversation with the Russian government has strengthened our partnership and will become a force multiplier in the years to come.”(NNSA, 04.11.13).
  • Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frank A. Rose said: “Nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats facing the United States. The traditional concept of nuclear deterrence - the idea that a country would not initiate a nuclear war for fear of nuclear retaliation - does not apply to terrorists.” (State Department, 04.11.13).
  • By the end of this year, the U.S. government expects the 1993 U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement to be completed, under which 500 MT of highly enriched uranium or HEU from dismantled Russian weapons will have been converted into low-enriched uranium or LEU, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frank A. Rose said. Over 472 MT has been downblended and sent to the United States so far, he said. Rose said Russia has also been an essential partner in the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The GTR efforts have now converted or verified the shutdown of over 75 research and test reactors, and repatriated to the United States or to Russia over 3,000 kg of HEU for secure storage, downblending and disposition. (U.S. State Department, 04.08.13).
  • President Obama’s goal of locking away all vulnerable nuclear material from terrorists’ grasp by today remains incomplete, despite significant security advances over the past four years. (GSN, 04.05.13).
  • New Senate legislation is in the works to modernize the Cooperative Threat Reduction program that came out of the Cold War and make it more applicable to regions outside the former Soviet Union, Senator Jeanne Shaheen said on Thursday. (GSN, 04.11.13).
  • Former Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar has opened up a new policy organization in Washington, D.C., focused on non-proliferation, food security, and foreign-aid reform.  (Foreign Policy, 04.09.13).

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Iran and the six powers "took a step forward" at the Almaty talks last week, but failed to reach a compromise. "When the next round of negotiations takes place it should ensure the necessary breakthrough in the negotiations,” he said. (Philippines News Agency, 04.09.13, WPS, 04.10.13).

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

  • U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, President Barack Obama's nominee to become NATO's supreme allied commander, said on Thursday the so-called reset in U.S. ties with Russia was now on pause and predicted that Moscow would be the "primary actor of regional concern" through 2020. (Reuters, 04.11.13).
  • Russia will seek solutions to military aspects of European security acceptable for itself and NATO at the international conference due in Moscow on May 23-24, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said. (Interfax, 04.05.13).

Missile defense:

  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that recent changes to U.S. ballistic missile defense planning have not quelled his nation's concerns about the developing European missile shield's implications. (GSN, 04.12.13).
  • The U.S. Defense Department is requesting $9.2 billion for missile defense operations and $12 billion for nuclear weapons in fiscal 2014. (GSN, 10.11.13).

Nuclear arms control:

  • No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Cyber security:

  • No significant developments.

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Russia's oil exports could plunge in the coming decades as the U.S. ramps up output of shale oil, the Russian Academy of Sciences' Energy Research Institute said, in an unusually frank admission that the North American energy boom poses a threat to Russia's hydrocarbon-fueled economy. (Wall Street Journal, 04.10.13).
  • Gazprom will decide whether to expand the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Northern Europe after it completes a feasibility study into a separate pipeline extension to Central Europe via Poland. (04.09.13).
  • Royal Dutch Shell and Gazprom Neft are to sign a deal to jointly develop some of Russia's vast Arctic oil and gas resources, as well as its "tight" oil riches in western Siberia. (Financial Times, 04.06.13).

Bilateral economic ties:

  • Exxon Mobil Corp. and Russia's OAO Rosneft said Thursday they could spend $15 billion building a proposed gas-liquefaction plant on Russia's Pacific coast. (Wall Street Journal, 04.11.13).
  • Since 2012, Russia has been operating under both the WTO and the Customs Union. The U.S. is now seeking official clarification on how the two regimes work with each other. Russian officials hold that there is no conflict, but experts claim the U.S. could take the matter to the WTO dispute resolution body. (RBTH, 04.11.13).

Other bilateral issues:

  • The Kremlin was bracing for the release late Friday of a U.S. blacklist of more than 100 Russians that could include Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. (Moscow Times, 04.12.13).
  • The Russian response to the so-called Magnitsky List may include the names of 104 officials from the United States banned to enter Russia. (Kommersant/ Russica-Izvestia, 04.12.13).
  • State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov plans to meet with special assistant to the U.S. president for Russia Alice Wells next week to discuss problems surrounding adopted Russian children living in the United States. (Interfax, 04.12.13).
  • Moscow can see no obstacle to Russia and the United States abolishing the entry visa regime in travel between them, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (Interfax, 04.11.13).

II. Russia news.

 

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

  • Russia's Economy Ministry on Thursday cut its growth forecast to 2.4% from an earlier forecast of 3.6%, for this year, warning that what had been seen as short-term weakness is likely to persist, and this is likely to result the slowest growth of any year since the deep recession of 2009. (Wall Street Journal, 04.11.13).
  • Russia-oriented investment funds lost $393 million, equaling 3 percent of their total assets, according to data provided by the Emerging Portfolio Fund Research. (Moscow Times, 04.12.13).
  • More than half of Russians do not want to see President Vladimir Putin stay in office after 2018, according to a new survey. Fifty-five percent of Russians want a completely new president, while 22 percent said they would be satisfied if Putin were re-elected, and 8 percent said they would be happy to see Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev return to the Kremlin, according to the survey by the independent Levada Center. (Moscow Times, 04.11.13).
  • Human rights activists said prosecutors are inspecting more than 200 NGOs across Russia. The federal Justice Ministry opened a legal case on Tuesday against Russia's only independent election monitoring organization, charging that the group, Golos, and its executive director had violated a controversial new law by failing to register as a ''foreign agent.'' (Interfax, 04.10.13, New York Times, 04.10.13).

Defense:

  • Russia’s building a system to neutralize space weapons as it prepares to send a man to Mars and build a permanent moon base, President Vladimir Putin and members of his government said.  Russia will have the technical means by 2030 to counteract threats from space by other countries, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at a government meeting near the country’s new cosmodrome in the Far East. Putin said he may create a space ministry to help develop the industry.  (Bloomberg, 04.12.13).
  • Russia may extend the deadline for complete destruction of its chemical weapons arsenal until 2020 as it lacks industrial capacity to finish the task on schedule. (RIA Novosti. 04.05.13).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • Four suspected militants have been killed in a special operation in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia. (RFE/RL, 04.08.13).
  • Scores of citizens of Russia and other CIS countries are taking part in hostilities in the territory of Syria, head of the CIS Anti-Terrorist Center Andrei Novikov said. He said that there are natives of the North Caucasus among the Russian citizens involved in the hostilities in Syria."I think tens of people are in question," he said. He said that there are natives of the North Caucasus among the Russian citizens involved in the hostilities in Syria. (Interfax, 04.08.13).
  • Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was beaten nearly to death in 2008, has died in Moscow. (RFE/RL, 04.08.13).
  • The number of crimes committed by migrants in Moscow this year is up 40 percent from last year. (Moscow Times, 04.11.13).
  • Russian security services and immigration police raided a market in the center of St. Petersburg on Thursday and detained 378 people, many of them migrants from Central Asia and the mainly Muslim North Caucasus. (New York Times, 04.12.13).
  • Four migrant laborers from Central Asia have been arrested and charged with membership in a banned Islamic group in the Siberian city of Tyumen. (RFE/RL, 04.09.13).
  • The Interior Ministry has detained former Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexei Bazhanov in relation to the embezzlement of 1.1 billion rubles ($34.8 million) from state-owned company Rosagroleasing. (Moscow Times, 04.10.13).
  • A spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee said a criminal probe of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny became a federal case because of his fierce antigovernment activities.  (RFE/RL, 04.12.13).
  • Corruption levels in Russia are high, in the opinion of 80% of citizens. Some 43% argue corruption rates are growing, 40% say there is no change, and only 6% see a downward trend.  (Interfax, 04.05.13).
  • British police probing the death of former tycoon Boris Berezovsky are now also investigating an alleged plot to kill former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin. (Moscow Times, 04.08.13).

Foreign affairs and trade:

  • Foreign ministers from the G8 group of the world's wealthiest countries, which includes Russia, failed to patch up deep divisions over Syria or come up with a plan on North Korea during a meeting in London on Thursday. (Reuters, 04.11.13).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel traded barbs over civil rights but largely stuck to business during a visit to a trade fair Monday. Merkel scolded Putin over a Russian crackdown on nongovernmental organizations, saying Russia's economy needed civil society in addition to its natural resources to prosper. Putin  denied that the Kremlin was trying to muzzle the NGOs and said Moscow just wanted to monitor the amounts of foreign funding coming into Russia. Putin traveled to the Netherlands later in the day (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Moscow Times, 04.09.13).
  • Vladimir Putin has accused European leaders of undermining confidence in banks by scalping uninsured depositors in Cypriot lenders, including Russians. (Financial Times, 04.06.13).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has been placed on a list of wanted criminals in Finland for his ties to a motorcycle club. Putin reacted to the news in his trademark ironic manner, while Helsinki issued a number of apologies. (Russia Today, 04.11.13).
  • Russia granted Serbia a $500 million loan on Wednesday and promised to back Belgrade in its dispute with Kosovo but warned that it must broker a deal with its former province on its own.  (Reuters, 04.11.13).
  • The Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly will debate a proposal to grant observer status to Serbia's parliament. (Interfax, 04.11.13).
  • Iran and Russia on Wednesday urged other signatories to an international chemical arms ban to exercise restraint in singling out nonmember nations or criticism at a forum focused on the treaty's past and future. Their admonishments appeared to focus on civil war-torn Syria. (GSN, 04.10.13).
  • Nuclear consortium Fennovoima said it would choose Russia's Rosatom or Japan's Toshiba to supply a reactor for its planned nuclear power plant in northern Finland, dropping France's Areva. (Reuters, 04.07.13).
  • The Slovak government agreed on Wednesday to start negotiations with Russia's Rosatom on building a new nuclear power plant in Slovakia. (Moscow Times, 04.11.13).

Russia's neighbors:

  • European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called on Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to assure his country's November presidential election advances democracy. The Tajik president also met with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at NATO headquarters. (RFE/RL, 04.10.13).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed the pragmatism of Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's government and said Moscow is ready to expand ties with Tbilisi.  But Lavrov said Moscow will not revise its decision to recognize the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (RFE/RL, 04.11.13).
  • Russia and Georgia are taking part in joint multinational biannual drills in the Black Sea along with four other states. (Moscow Times, 04.11.13).
  • Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili met with Admiral James Stavridis, Commander of the U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in Tbilisi on Wednesday. (Interfax, 04.11.13).
  • Kazakhstan is hoping to reach agreement this year with the International Atomic Energy Agency on hosting the international nuclear fuel bank, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov said. (Eurasianet, 04.11.13)
  • Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has pardoned jailed former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, a close ally of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yanukovych said he cannot give a pardon to Tymoshenko while legal proceedings against her continue (RFE/RL, 04.07.13, 04.11.13).
  • Serzh Sarkisian has been sworn in for a second term as Armenia's president in the capital, Yerevan, amid an opposition challenge to the credibility of his reelection. (RFE/RL, 04.09.13).
  • Azerbaijan's foreign minister says he does not believe the recent call by a group of Iranian lawmakers for the annexation of part of Azerbaijan should be taken seriously. (RFE/RL, 04.11.13).
  • Sweden says it will soon send its first envoy to Belarus since the August expulsion of its ambassador to Minsk.  (RFE/RL, 04.09.13).

 

 

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