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Press Release

Russia in Review

Published: November 10, 2011

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 4-10, 2011

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 4-10, 2011

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • Representatives of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA),   the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom” met this week in Copenhagen, Denmark, for their Sixth Annual Nuclear Security Best Practices Exchange.   (NNSA, 11.03.11).

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Russia on Wednesday sharply dismissed calls for further sanctions against Iran in the aftermath of a new IAEA report on suspect Iranian nuclear activities. “The world community will see all additional sanctions against Iran as an instrument of regime change in Tehran,” Gennadi M. Gatilov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said. (New York Times, 11.09.11).
  • Iran is ready for a negotiated deal to allay concerns about its nuclear program, Alexander Lukashevich, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said a day after deputy head of Iran’s National Security Council, Ali Baqeri held talks in Moscow. (Bloomberg, 11.10.11).
  • Any military strike against Iran would be a serious mistake, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday. (Xinhua, 11.07.11).
  • Russian scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko, accused of helping Iran develop technology necessary to build a nuclear weapon, has denied assisting its nuclear program. An IAEA report released this week by the U.N. nuclear agency said a “foreign expert” had assisted Iran with developing an advanced detonator essential for triggering a nuclear chain reaction. (AP, 11.10.11).
  • Rosatom denied that employees have been involved in developing Iranian nuclear weapons.  "Neither Rosatom nor its enterprises have anything to do with Iran's nuclear power use projects, with the exception of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and deliveries of medical isotopes," a Rosatom spokesman said. (Moscow Times, 11.09.11).
  • Russia is ready to build more nuclear reactors in Iran, its nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said Thursday. Tehran is proposing that Moscow build two nuclear laboratories in Iran and also conduct negotiations for the construction of five nuclear power plants for $40 billion.  (AFP, 11.10.11, Interfax, 11.08.11).

NATO-Russia cooperation, including transit to Afghanistan:

  • No significant developments.

 

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • Russia on Wednesday indicated it was still reviewing an October offer by the United States to view testing of the U.S. Standard Missile 3 interceptor. “To be more specific, we need to understand how complete the information to be received by our observers will [be] and what technical means they will be allowed to use,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Such measures do not eliminate the need to receive clear, legally binding guarantees that the European segment of the U.S. global missile defense is not directed against Russia’s strategic potential,” the statement said. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov did not categorically reject the U.S. offer, but Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the invitation “is no more than a propagandistic step.” (RIA Novosti, 11.09.11, GSN, 11.10.11, 11.09.11).
  • Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said: "We are hoping to achieve progress on the matter within the coming months. There won't be a rollback in this case.” (Russia Today, 11.09.11).

Nuclear arms control:

  • Pentagon’s pending Nuclear Posture Review Implementation Study could influence the extent of additional atomic weapons cuts following the U.S.-Russian New START agreement, which entered into force earlier this year. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Pentagon strategists were looking at additional cuts in the nuclear arsenal, with an eye toward determining how many warheads the military needed to deter attacks. (New York Times, 11.06.11, GSN, 11.09.11).

Energy exports from CIS:

  • European leaders and Russia’s president on Tuesday opened a $10.2 billion natural gas pipeline that links Western Europe directly with Siberia’s vast gas reserves in a bid to make the region’s energy supply more secure. (AP, 11.08.11).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • Russia on Thursday won approval from a key committee to join the World Trade Organization. For Russia, joining the WTO is likely to hurt less-competitive domestic manufacturing industries. The average maximum Russian import tariff is set to fall to 7.8% from 10%, the WTO said Thursday. Russia and Georgia on Wednesday signed a Swiss-brokered agreement that clears the way to Moscow’s accession to WTO. (Wall Street Journal, 11.10.11, RIA Novosti, 11.09.11).

Other bilateral issues:

  • Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, wrote: “In his ‘reset’ of relations with Russia, President Obama caved in to Moscow's demands by reneging on a missile-defense agreement with Eastern European allies and agreeing to a New Start Treaty to reduce strategic nuclear weapons while getting virtually nothing in return. If there ever was a possibility of gaining the Kremlin's support for tougher action against Tehran, that unilateral giveaway was the moment.” (Wall Street Journal, 11.10.11).

 

  1. II. Russia news.

 

Domestic Politics, Economy and Energy:

  • With 61 percent of respondents expressing approval for Vladimir Putin's actions as prime minister, Levada Center’s October 28-November 1 poll suggests Putin will have little trouble carrying out his plan to return to the Kremlin. But his approval rating was the lowest since August 2000. His United Russia party's support level dropped more drastically, with 51 percent of respondents who plan to vote in the Duma election saying they would vote for this party  down from 60 percent the previous week. President Dmitry Medvedev's approval rating also fell sharply, to 57 percent from 62 percent the previous week.   (Reuters, 11.07.11).
  • Rising nationalist sentiment may pose the biggest challenge to Vladimir Putin's hold on power as the Kremlin persists in avoiding a glaring social fracture, experts warn. Thousands of far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through Moscow on Friday calling on ethnic Russians to "take back" their country. (Guardian, 11.10.11, AP, 11.05.11).
  • Gazprom said Wednesday that its net profit surged 78 percent to $10 billion in the second quarter of the year. (AP, 11.09.11).
  • At the end of 2010, there were 60 million Internet users in Russia, with the number growing by 15 percent a year. Industry watchers forecast that Russia will be Europe's largest Internet market within the next 2 years. (State Department Background Notes: Russia, 11.08.11).
  • Russia’s Roskosmos and the European Space Agency will team up to restore contact with Russia's Fobos-Grunt interplanetary spacecraft.  Fobos-Grunt failed to set on its path to Mars after being successfully launched from Baikonur on Wednesday. (Voice of Russia, 11.10.11).

Defense:

  • Russia announced plans to build five Yasen-class nuclear submarines and made $9 billion worth of orders for the navy on Wednesday as part of an ambitious program to modernize its army and fleet. (Reuters, 11.09.11).
  • As of January 1, 2012 the military's cash allowances will be increased 2.5 - 3 times, and military pensions, 1.5–1.7 times, as follows from a bill President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law on Monday. (Itar-Tass, 11.08.11).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • No significant developments.

Foreign affairs:

  • Russia delivered a vote of no confidence on Monday in Europe's approach to resolving its sovereign debt crisis as the head of the International Monetary Fund visited Moscow to seek support. Without directly referring to the euro zone’s bail-out fund, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Russia would help only through contributions to the IMF. Reports said Moscow may increase its €10bn contribution to the IMF. (Reuters, 11.07.11).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed Moscow’s support for the Arab League's plan to resolve the political crisis in Syria, where the authorities are attempting to contain violent anti-government uprisings that first began in March as peaceful protests. (Russia Today, 11.08.11).

Russia's neighbors:

  • The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization pledged Monday to boost their financial and energy cooperation, despite the global economic slowdown. (AP, 11.07.11).
  • France's Areva and KazAtomProm of Kazakhstan have signed an agreement for the construction of a nuclear fuel plant.  (World Nuclear News, 11.07.11).
  • Standard & Poor's has upgraded Kazakhstan’s sovereign to BBB+, one notch above Russia. (Financial Times, 11.09.11).
  • NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Tbilisi that Georgia needs further reforms to get a full-time membership in the military alliance. (RFE/RL, 11.09.11).
  • David Bakradze, speaker of the Georgia Parliament, vowed that his country will not drag NATO into a war with Russia if accepted into the Western alliance, saying that the chance of another confrontation with Moscow is far lower than it was before their 2008 conflict. (Washington Times, 11.06.11).