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Press Release

Russia in Review

Published: January 6, 2012

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism   for December 23, 2011 – January 6, 2012

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for December 23, 2011 – January 6, 2012

  1. I. U.S. and Russia priorities for the bilateral agenda.

Nuclear security agenda:

  • No significant developments.

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev during a telephone conversation on Thursday that Tehran backed Moscow's diplomatic efforts to settle the dispute over Iranian nuclear program, the Kremlin said. Medvedev noted with satisfaction the Iranian president's positive assessment of the Russian initiative, a plan of gradual restoration of trust to the Iranian nuclear program,” the Kremlin said. (RIA Novosti, 01.05.12).
  • Iran lacks the required technology to develop ICBMs, Russia asserted. Tehran's equipment is "not even (sufficient) for prototypes," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vadim Koval said. Any potential Iranian long- or medium-range missiles would not be ready for deployment in the near future, the spokesman asserted. (GSN, 01.04.12).

NATO-Russia cooperation, including transit to Afghanistan:

  • No significant developments.

 

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • U.S. President Barack Obama signed on December 31 into law defense authorization bill, but indicated that he might not strictly follow certain requirements spelled out in the law. Obama wrote that he wanted to keep Congress "fully informed" of efforts to "cooperate" with Russia on a ballistic missile defense system. But he said that the measure intruded on his "constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs."  Obama wrote that he would treat that and certain other provisions in the law as "nonbinding" should he determine that they "conflict with my constitutional authorities." Obama also listed sections of the document calling for arms sales to Georgia among those, which he may treat as "non-binding." (Los Angeles Times, 12.31.11, Civil Georgia, 01.03.12).
  • Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said: “We do not accept or believe that our missile defense system will undermine the strategic nuclear offensive deterrent of the Russian Federation. … Through the real work together on this program that we will begin to understand what the benefits are for Russia and what our mutual benefit will be in cooperating in this way. And Russia’s technical concerns will be satisfied. It’s very pragmatic.” (RIA Novosti, 12.23.11).

Nuclear arms control:

  • Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said: “At the moment we are engaged in what I would say is a "homework period." We are preparing a way for new negotiations but we are not yet ready to embark on new negotiations.” (RIA Novosti, 12.23.11).
  • The United States has conducted 16 inspections in Russia and the Russians have conducted 17 inspections in the U.S under the New START, according to Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller.  (The Hill, 12.22.11).

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Oil output in Russia edged up 1.2 percent to reach a new post-Soviet high of 10.27 million barrels per day last year, as the world's top crude producer eased tax burden and launched pipeline flows to China, the Energy Ministry said on Monday. (Reuters, 01.02.11).
  • Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday instructed gas giant Gazprom to speed up the construction of a gas pipeline under the Black Sea in an apparent attempt to put pressure on Ukraine, the current chief export route for Russia. Turkey has given Russia the go-ahead for the construction of a gas pipeline under the Black Sea, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said. South Stream will transport up to 63bn cubic metres a year of Russian gas to south and central Europe from 2015.  (AP, 12.30.11, Financial Times, 12.29.11).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to intensify efforts to strengthen positive dynamics in Russian-U.S. relations. Medvedev also thanked Obama for his position on Russia's accession to the WTO. (Interfax, 12.30.11).
  • Aleksei Pushkov, a senior foreign affairs commentator recently named chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, said the reset had been “cancelled.” He said Mr. Putin was the “embodiment of the idea of Russia as a global power centre and the centre of the Eurasian Union”. The U.S. finds this unacceptable, Mr Pushkov said. (Financial Times, 01.02.12).
  • Russia’s Foreign Ministry has attacked America’s human rights record in its first report on injustice elsewhere in the world, offering examples such as the Guantanamo Bay prison and wrongful death row convictions to paint the U.S. as hypocritical for lecturing other nations on the subject of rights. (AP, 12.28.11).

 

  1. II. Russia news.

 

Domestic Politics, Economy and Energy:

  • The Kremlin on Tuesday announced the reassignment of Vladislav Y. Surkov. Surkov will now oversee modernization and innovation as a deputy prime minister, but will take no role in domestic politics. His position, deputy head of the presidential administration, will be filled by his rival Vyacheslav Volodin, a top United Russia official and longtime Putin loyalist who is vacating a spot as deputy prime minister.  (New York Times, 12.27.11).
  • President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday appointed Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin as deputy prime minister in charge of military procurement from state-controlled defense plants. (AP, 12.23.11).
  • The activists who organized Russia's largest anti-government protests in more than 20 years in December said they would march in Moscow on February 4, a month before Prime Minister Vladimir Putin faces presidential elections. Most estimates of the December 24 protest in Moscow settled at around 80,000, roughly double the number that attended a warmer protest a fortnight earlier. Responding to protesters’ demands, Putin said there will be no rerun of the country’s parliamentary elections .(Los Angeles Times, 12.27.11, Wall Street Journal, Th Economist, 12.31.11).
  • The electoral rating of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has dipped by 16 percent since 2008, the Public Opinion Foundation reports.  Sixty percent of voters preferred Putin for president in 2008, the number is down to 44 percent now. Fifty-two percent said they would vote for Putin in March 2012. (Interfax, 12.29.11).
  • The majority of Russians have not encountered attempts to influence their choice at the December 4 State Duma election, according to a public survey carried out by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre. Only 11 percent of Russians report about such attempts. (RIA Novosti, 12.29.11).
  • Fifty percent of respondents in a nation-wide poll conducted by the Levada Center said more protests were likely to take place after the elections. Forty-nine percent of respondents said the political situation was likely to deteriorate after the elections. However, 45 percent said the protests were unlikely to reach the point of a coup against 17 percent who said they might. (RIA Novosti, 01.03.12).
  • The majority of Russians have not encountered attempts to influence their choice at the December 4 State Duma election, according to a public survey carried out by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center. Only 11 percent of Russians report about such attempts. (RIA Novosti, 12.29.11).
  • Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin – who is close to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—called Friday for a rerun of the country’s parliamentary elections. (AP, 01.06.12).
  • The number of Internet users in Russia increased by 5.4 percent in 2011 to reach 70 million people of which 55 million are active users. The figure may reach 90 million users in 2013. (Itar-Tass, 01.05.12).
  • Russia's car market has become attractive to car makers since car sales continue to increase with 41percent growth in the first 10 months of 2011. (Russia Today, 01.05.11).

Defense:

  • Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces plan 11 intercontinental ballistic missile launches for 2012. A second regiment from the Teikovo missile force division in the Ivanovo region will be rearmed with the newest Yars RS-24 ICBM systems in 2012.  Rearmament will also start at the Novosibirsk and Kozelsk missile divisions this year.  (Itar-Tass, 01.04.12).
  • The Bulava ballistic missile that is to be a cornerstone of Russia’s nuclear arsenal has completed its test program and will be commissioned by the military, President Dmitry Medvedev announced in December. Earlier that month Russia successfully tested two Bulavas. (AP, 12.29.11).
  • Firefighters extinguished a massive fire aboard a docked Delta-IV-class nuclear-powered submarine. (AP, 12.30.11).
  • Russia’s Nerpa nuclear submarine has finished sea trials and is now ready to be leased to the Indian navy in the next few days. (RIA Novosti, 12.28.11).
  • Col. Gen. Alexander Shlyakhturov has retired as chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency and handed over his duties to Maj. Gen. Igor Sergun. (RIA Novosti, 12.26.11).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • No significant developments.

Foreign affairs:

  • No significant developments.

 

Russia's neighbors:

  • The party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev is expected to win the Jan. 15 parliamentary elections easily. (Washington Post, 01.06.12).
  • Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has been registered as a candidate for a second term in Turkmenistan's February 12 presidential election (RFE/RL, 01.04.12).
  • Yevgeny Shevchuk, a 43-year-old businessman and politician, has been elected the new president of the breakaway Moldovan region of Trans-Dniester. (AP, 12.26.11).
  • Moldova's government is again demanding that Russia agree to transform its peacekeeping mission in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester into a civil one with an international mandate after an 18-year-old Moldovan was shot dead by a Russian officer at the Vadul lui Voda checkpoint. (RFE/RL, 01.04.12).
  • Matthew Bryza, U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan is heading back to Washington in the wake of the U.S. Senate's decision to go into recess without voting on his appointment. (RFE/RL, 12.29.11).
  • U.S. President Barack Obama has signed into law a strengthened sanctions regime for Belarus in response to the government's crackdown on protesters following the controversial reelection of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 2010. (RFE/RL, 01.04.12).
  • The Ukrainian authorities transferred the jailed opposition leader Yulia V. Tymoshenko to a prison camp about 300 miles east of the capital. (New York Times, 12.30.11).
  • The husband of Ukraine's jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, is seeking asylum in the Czech Republic. (RFE/RL, 01.06.12).
  • Turkey and Azerbaijan on Monday signed an agreement to establish a consortium that would build a pipeline to transport 16 billion cubic meters per year of Azeri gas to Turkey and Europe. (AP, 12.26.11).