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Press Release

Russia in Review

Published: December 7, 2012

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 30 - December 7, 2012.

Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of November 30 – December 7, 2012

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • U.S. President Barack Obama said of the Cooperative Threat Reduction programs: “We have to sustain the partnerships we have, and that includes Russia.  …Russia has said that our current agreement hasn’t kept pace with the changing relationship between our countries.  To which we say, let’s update it.  Let’s work with Russia as an equal partner.  Let’s continue the work that’s so important to the security of both our countries.” (White House, 12.03.12).
  • The US Defense Department and NNSA spent nearly $650 million in 2012 on Russia-focused threat-reduction programs. Under the Obama administration's 2013 budget request, this figure is closer to $500 million. The NNSA's International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation program invested some $300 million in Russian activities in 2012 alone. For 2013, the administration requested a dramatic cutback of the program's global focus that would leave the initiative almost entirely -- 70 percent -- Russia-focused. (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 12.07.12.)
  • Russian nuclear experts are creating a unique tool which will help the IAEA to detect undeclared development of nuclear weapons. It is a reference sample of an isotope of plutonium 244. (Voice of Russia, 12.05.12).

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Iran’s nuclear chief says fuel was removed from the Bushehr nuclear reactor in October because debris had been left behind during its construction.(AP, 12.02.12).

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

  • Speaking to reporters after a session of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that while Moscow and Brussels still had "directly opposing" views on the missile defense issue, both sides agreed to start fresh consultations. "For us it is important to find out whether the invitation to a joint analysis means something new," he said. A NATO official said both sides had agreed to take a fresh look at the planned NATO missile defense system in Europe. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO was offering Russia a new cooperation program to destroy and recycle some of the country's vast ammunition heaps. (Moscow Times, 12.04.12).
  • Speaking to reporters after a session of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready to accept the alliance's plan to station Patriot surface-to-air missiles along the Turkish border with Syria.  (Moscow Times, 12.04.12).
  • Russia's new ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko accused NATO on Friday of moving towards involvement in the Syrian conflict, three days after the alliance decided to station Patriot missiles to protect Turkey from spillover from the violence.(Reuters, 12.07.12).
  • U.S. Secretary  of State Hillary Clinton said: At “the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, we reviewed our extensive cooperation with Russia in places like Afghanistan and also spoke frankly about the areas of disagreement that continue to exist between NATO and Russia, including Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the need for a political transition in Syria.” Lavrov told its NATO partners that it hopes there will be no attempts at military intervention in Syria. (State Department, Russia Today, 12.05.12).
  • Russian Mil Mi-17V-5 helicopters will be supplied for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan even if the ban on Pentagon deals with Rosoboronexport enters into force, Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Director Ruslan Pukhov  because “they are dual-use products, which may be exported as civilian goods.” (Interfax, 12.03.12.)

Missile defense:

  • Russia's new missile defense radar station at Armavir could monitor an area presently handled by a system based in Azerbaijan, a Russian defense sector insider said. Certain earlier reports asserted Moscow and Baku had reached a stalemate in negotiations to extend Russia's permit to operate from the Gabala radar site. (GSN, 12.30,12).

Nuclear arms control:

  • No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Cyber security:

  • Although Russian proposals on Internet regulation ahead of Monday's opening of the International Telecommunication Union conference in Dubai have worried anti-censorship watchdogs around the globe, some local experts aren't expecting any significant changes to the U.S.-centric system that administers the technical aspects of the World Wide Web. (Liveinternet.ru, 12.02.12).

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Russian gas company Gazprom has formally started construction of the South Stream pipeline that will deliver Russian gas to a large part of Europe. (AP, 12.07.12).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • Congress overturned long-standing trade restrictions with Russia on Thursday, achieving a top priority for U.S. businesses, but slapped Moscow over human-rights abuses as a rift between the two governments widened. The Senate voted 92-4 to grant Russia permanent normal trade relations, following widespread House support for the measure. President Barack Obama plans to sign the bill. The legislation includes a measure that has angered Moscow: banning Russians accused of human-rights violations from obtaining U.S. visas and constraining their access to the U.S. financial system. Moscow has strongly criticized the measure and warned that it will respond in kind. "We will bar entry to Americans who are in fact guilty of human rights violations," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already drafted a blacklist of U.S. citizens that Moscow suspects of violations of human rights, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said. (Wall Street Journal, AP, BBC, 12.07.12).
  • Russia wants U.S. pork and beef exported to that country to be tested and certified free of the feed additive ractopamine, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said on Friday. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urged Russia to keep its market open to U.S. meat products.  (Reuters, 12.07.12, 12.02.12).

Other bilateral issues:

  • The US is trying to prevent Russia from recreating a new version of the Soviet Union under the ruse of economic integration, Hillary Clinton warned on Thursday. "There is a move to re-Sovietise the region," she said before going into a meeting with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.  Russian NATO envoy Alexander Grushko refuted Clinton’s claims. “Sovietization is a cliché which, in my opinion, is absolutely incongruous with the actual processes that are taking place throughout the former USSR,” Grushko said. (Financial Times, RIA Novosti, 12.07.12).
  • The U.S. and Russia have agreed to support mediation among all sides in Syria's civil war in a renewed bid to end the violence, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after holding a private discussion Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the U.N. envoy for Syria. (Bloomberg, 12.07.12).
  • The United States has spent in excess of $25 billion to destroy close to 90 percent of its chemical arsenal. Russia as of Sunday had destroyed 70 percent of its 44,000-ton declared arsenal. (GSN, 12.30.12).

II. Russia news.

Domestic Politics, Economy and Energy:

  • President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed into law legislation ordering state officials to prove the legality of their spending and that of their spouses and underage children over a three-year period. (Moscow Times, 12.04.12).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin will read his address to the Federal Assembly in the Moscow Kremlin on December 12. (Voice of Russia, 12.05.12).
  • Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismissed suggestions on Friday that a host of controversial new laws were part of a “repressive trend” aimed at stifling political opposition Medvedev also said he was “satisfied” with a package of political reforms and lent his support to ex-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. (RIA Novosti, 12.07.12).
  • By the middle of the 21st century, Russia may lose its sovereignty unless it today clearly identifies its national interests in the Arctic region, Russian Federation Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. (RIA Novosti, 12.04.12).
  • Russia is on target to register its first natural population growth since the fall of the Soviet Union, with a slightly higher number of births than deaths being recorded so far this year, the labor minister said. (Wall Street Journal, 12.06.12).
  • The number of wealthy emigrants entering the UK on specialist visas designed to attract millionaire investors jumped by more than three-quarters last year, led by people from China and Russia seeking to put down roots in London. Russian millionaires represented 24 per cent of successful applicants in the year to the end of June. (Financial Times, 12.01.12).
  • German car giant Volkswagen said Monday that it plans to spend a total of 840 million euros ($1 billion) to boost manufacturing in Russia over the next three years. (Moscow Times, 12.05.12).
  • On a 100-point scale inversely proportionate to the level of corruption, Russia scored 28 this year, tying it for 133rd-most corrupt of 174 nations ranked in Transparency International’s corruption index this year. Last year, it came in 143rd of 182. (Moscow Times, 12.05.12).

Defense:

  • Reform of Russia's army designed to end conscription and create a professional military will continue despite the purge of its main proponent. Valery Gerasimov, the new chief of Russia's general staff, said there would be "no U-turns" in defence policy and that the goal of modernising Russia's military, announced by then president Dmitry Medvedev in 2008, remained in force. (Financial Times, 12.05.12

Security and law-enforcement:

  • A journalist with Russian state television was killed and a government official was injured in separate attacks in the North Caucasus. (LA Times, 12.07.12).

Foreign affairs:

  • President Vladimir Putin used his first known trip in almost two months to boost economic ties with Turkey and slam a NATO plan to place surface-to-air missiles on the Turkish-Syrian border. A senior Turkish official said that Russia had agreed on Monday to a new diplomatic approach that would seek ways to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power. (New York Times, Moscow Times, 12.04.12).
  • Russia urged North Korea on Monday not to go ahead with a plan for its second rocket launch of 2012, with Moscow saying the launch would violate restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council. (Moscow Times, 12.04.12).
  • The European Union's top trade official Karel De Gucht on Wednesday warned that the bloc could bring complaints against Russia at the World Trade Organization if Moscow doesn't end policies that discriminate against foreign companies trying to do business with Russia. (Wall Street Journal, 12.06.12).
  • Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has wrapped up a two-day trip to Russia, which secured a slew of agreements on energy, finance, hi-technology and innovation, and trade. Russia will build two new reactors at China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant under an inter-governmental agreement signed on Thursday. (Xinhua, 12.07.12, RIA Novosti, 12.06.12).
  • "We are seeing a certain deterioration in regard to safeguards on human rights in the EU member states," Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry's special representative for human rights, said at a news conference. He made his comments before leaving for Brussels to meet his EU counterpart, Stavros Lambrinidis. (Reuters, 12.05.12).

Russia's neighbors:

  • Leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have concluded their summit meeting in Turkmenistan’s capital.  The gathered presidents agreed on joint antiterrorism training efforts and on cooperation to counter illegal drug trafficking, terrorism, separatism, and organized crime. (RFE/RL, 12.05.12).
  • The Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military alliance of six former Soviet republics, plans to build an integrated air and missile defense system, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff said on Tuesday. (RIA Novosti, 12.04.12).
  • Ukraine's president accepted the resignation of his prime minister, setting the stage for a new government to renew negotiations on a multi-billion-dollar loan programme with the International Monetary Fund amid signs that the economy is sliding into recession. (Financial Times, 12.03.12).
  • Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has stated that the country's Armed Forces will be reduced further and a professional army will be formed in Ukraine. (Interfax, 12.05.12).
  • Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko has rejected criticism from the United States of Ukraine's recent parliamentary elections and the prosecution of political opponents.  (AP, 12.01.12).
  • Two months after an opposition party swept elections in Georgia, NATO on Tuesday reconfirmed its 2008 decision to treat the nation as a future member but expressed concern about its democratic development. (Moscow Times, 12.05.12).
  • The parliament of Georgia has approved the list of 25 political refugees and 190 political prisoners who will be dismissed of all charges and will be released by the end of the year. (Kommersant, 12.06.12). The former officials being targeted for prosecution in Georgia following that country's recent transfer of power are "criminals and guilty" and have perpetrated crimes worse than Watergate, Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said Friday. (Foreign Policy, 12.30.12).
  • Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, has called on the prime minister to end a stand-off that he warned could cause western allies to abandon the country and leave it vulnerable to pressure from Russia. (Financial Times, 12.05.12).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow was prepared to allow the import of Georgian food products — banned by Moscow back in 2006 — "if they comply with Russian [quality] standards." But he warned that there would be no compromises about the two Georgian separatist territories that Moscow recognized as independent in 2008. (Moscow Times, 12.05.12).