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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 December 21, 2012 - January 4, 2013.

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for December 21, 2012-January 4, 2013

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Thomas D’Agostino announced on December 21st that he will step down from his post.  Neile Miller, the Principal Deputy Administrator for NNSA, will serve as Acting Administrator of NNSA when D’Agostino steps down on January 18th. (NNSA, 12.21.12).
  • President Obama on Wednesday signed off on a 14-year deadline for completing a controversial nuclear arms laboratory and storage site, despite a previous push by his administration to postpone the project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. (GSN, 01.03.13).

Iran nuclear issues:

  • No significant developments.

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

  • No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • The Voronezh Project radar station built near Armavir is capable of accomplishing the mission of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan, RTI General Director, Missile Attack Warning System General designer Sergei Boyev said. (Interfax, 12.29.12).
  • The United States is still interested in missile defense cooperation with Russia, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. (PAN, 01.04.13).

Nuclear arms control:

  • Changes inside legislation to avert the federal budget “fiscal cliff” passed by the U.S. Senate and House on Tuesday,  require the president, in annual New START certification, to state “whether” Moscow is complying with its treaty obligations, rather than “that” the Kremlin is complying. The diction adjustment appears aimed at eliminating a presumption of Russian compliance in the certification process. Referring to the same sentence in the authorization bill, the executive branch also asked lawmakers to insert the word “strategic” before “arms control obligations.” This new construct would allow the White House to certify Russian adherence to New START strategic nuclear arms control treaty stipulations, even if Moscow is not complying with other treaties involving the United States. (GSN, 01.03.12).

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Cyber security:

  • No significant developments.

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Russia’s crude oil output edged up almost 1 percent to a new post-Soviet high of 10.37 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest in the world last year, ahead of Saudi Arabia, Energy Ministry data showed on Wednesday. But the increase could halt this year due to depleted oil fields in West Siberia. Gas production for 2012 declined to 1.79 bcm from 1.84 bcm in 2011 on a daily basis. (Reuters, 01.02.13).
  • A China-Russia oil pipeline has transported 30 million tons of crude oil two years since it began operating, the Chinese operator of the pipeline said Tuesday. (China Daily, 01.02.13).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • Russia's NPO Energomash in the next five years will deliver around 30 RD-180 rocket engines to the United States for Atlas-5 rockets. (Interfax, 12.30.12).

Other bilateral issues:

  • The Dima Yakovlev law - Russia's response to the US Magnitsky Act - came into force on Tuesday. Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed the law, which bans US citizens from adopting Russian children and introduces measures to persons involved in violation of basic human rights,  on December 28. In a judicial corollary to the dispute over the Magnitsky bill, a Moscow judge on Friday acquitted the only official to be tried on charges related to Mr. Magnitsky's death. The US Senate has unanimously approved a resolution condemning the law and calling on President Putin to reconsider the measure on humanitarian grounds. U.S. State Department said it “deeply regret(s)” the law. (RIA Novosti, Itar-Tass, 01.03.13, New York Timers, 12.29.12, U.S. State Department, 12.28.12).
  • Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), President Obama's choice to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, has begun preparing to testify before the committee he currently chairs. (Foreign Policy, 01.03.13).
  • On New Year's Eve, after weeks of growing controversy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President and Chief Executive Officer Steven Korn resigned, effective Jan. 25. Korn hired Masha Gessen, a Russian American journalist. But a firestorm erupted as journalists whom Korn and Ragona fired set up an alternative Web site criticizing the changes. (Washington Post, 01.04.12).

II. Russia news.

 

Domestic Politics, Economy and Energy:

  • President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered a major change in the rules for parliamentary elections. Half of the 450 seats in the State Duma would be filled using a proportional system based on votes for parties, with each party then filling its allotted seats. The other half would be filled by direct election of individual candidates, creating a potential opening for independent campaigns. (New York Times, 01.03.13).
  • On January 1, 2013, the Russian Federation became the 31st member country of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and its Data Bank. (Nuclear Engineering International, 01.03.12).
  • Enterprises in the nuclear weapons complex under Rosatom will not be converted to a corporate structure, according to Rosatom First Deputy General Yuriy Kamenskikh. (BBC, 01.04.13).
  • The Russian nuclear safety regulator has agreed to extend the operating license of Smolensk 1 by ten years, enabling nuclear generation to continue until a replacement plant is built. (World Nuclear News, 01.03.13).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new law on education that guarantees education in the state language, which is Russian. The legislation also prescribes norms for all levels of education and sets new rules for teachers' salaries and school fees (RFE/RL, Moscow Times, 12.31.12).
  • The number of fatalities from the Tu-204 plane crash at Vnukovo Airport has climbed to five after Red Wings flight attendant Tatyana Penkina died Sunday. (Moscow Times, 12.30.12).
  • Trickle-down oil wealth and the spread of easily accessible auto financing are lifting car sales in Russia, which rose by 40 percent in the first half of 2012 compared with the same period a year ago.  (New York Times, 12.29.12).
  • Russian Post said 70 percent of incoming international mail consists of packages from foreign online retailers. Russian Post had expected between 40 and 60 percent growth in the number of small packages from abroad, but the rate is now approaching 100 percent.  (Vedomosti, 12.28.12).

Defense:

  • The defense ministry in Moscow has announced Russia's largest naval maneuvers for several decades, to take place at the end of January in the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The announcement is likely to be interpreted as political cover for a naval build-up near Syria's coast; possibly as part of contingency plans to evacuate Russian nationals from Syria. Russian news agencies reported on December 30 that the navy is sending another ship to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base. (Financial Times, 01.04.13, AP, 12.30.12).
  • The Russian navy will receive more than 50 new warships by 2016, the Defense Ministry said. (Xinhua, 01.03.12)
  • The Strategic Missile Troops (RVSN) will more than double the number of launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2013 compared to 2012, RVSN said. (BBC, 01.03.13).
  • The second serial Project 955 Borei-class strategic nuclear submarine Vladimir Monomakh has been unstocked at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk. (Interfax, 12.30.12).
  • Aleksandr Golovko was appointed commander of the Russian Aerospace Defense Troops. (BBC, 12.24.12).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov showed up at the Investigative Committee on Friday morning for questioning in connection with the Oboronservis case. (Moscow Times, 12.28.12).
  • Ibragim Dudarov, a deputy mufti in the North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia, was murdered while driving home near Vladikavkaz.  (Moscow Times, 12.28.12).

Foreign affairs:

  • Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in New Delhi to discuss deepening bilateral trade links, and Russia's role as a supplier of some of the $30bn worth of weapons India is expected to acquire in the coming decades. India has agreed to buy new Russian military helicopters, and kits for the assembly of Sukhoi jets. (Financial Times, 12.24.12).
  • Russia’s foreign minister declared a deadlock Saturday in the latest efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, blaming the Syrian opposition for refusing to negotiate with the government and reiterating that Moscow will not force President Bashar al-Assad to leave. (Washington Post, 12.29.12).
  • Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship. (AP, 01.03.13).

Russia's neighbors:

  • The United States is still ready to help Belarus eliminate its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, U.S. Charge d'Affaires Ethan Goldrich said. (BelaPAN, 12.28.12).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Kiev on January 13-14 to discuss Ukraine's participation in the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Russian Foreign Ministry official Alexander Gorban said Ukraine could not both aspire to join the EU and join the Russian-led customs union under conditions advantageous to Kiev. "It does not happen that way. One cannot be just a little pregnant," he said. (RIA Novosti, 01.03.12).
  • Ukraine says it is ending the practice of compulsory military service in 2013 and will move to a system of recruiting contract personnel. (RFE/RL, 12.30.12).
  • Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has appointed a new cabinet following the dismissal of the previous government after October's parliamentary elections. (RFE/RL, 12.24.12).
  • Russia’s Federal Migration Service estimates that about 9.1 million foreigners arrived in Russia to work in 2011. More than a third came from three Central Asian countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. The Central Asian migration has been the driving force in boosting Russia’s Muslim population to more than 20 million, from some 14 million 10 years ago. (AP, 12.30.12).
  • Georgia’s Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has announced that the criminal proceedings into former officials will be wound up. (RIA Novosti, 01.03.13).
  • Georgian parliament passed a law on Friday to pardon 3,500 prisoners, including those jailed under President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose party was ousted in October, but  Saakashvili vetoed the bill. (New York Times, 12.22.12, RFE/RL, 12.30.12).
  • All 27 people on board were killed when a military transport plane belonging to Kazakhstan's border troops crashed in the country's south on December 25.  (RFE/RL, 12.25.12).
  • The Sarajevo-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has named Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev its person of the year -- an ignominious distinction gained by figuring most prominently in crime and corruption stories in the OCCRP's coverage region. (RFE/RL, 01.02.12).
  • Armenia's first president, the leader of the Armenian National Congress opposition union Levon Ter-Petrossian, says he will not run for president in February 2013. (RFE/RL, 12.25.12).

 

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