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Press Release

Russia in Review

Published: September 16, 2011

An update from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of September 9 - 16, 2011

 

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of September 9 - 16, 2011

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • No significant developments.

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Iran’s Russian-built nuclear power plant stepped up operations Monday after more than a decade of delays, pumping out electricity at up to 40 percent capacity. (AP, 09.12.11).
  • Grigory Berdennikov, the Russian envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran for letting agency inspectors examine  its nuclear facilities and for providing information on nuclear research.  Berdennikov  expressed hope Iran will continue to embark on the transparency course. (Itar-Tass, 09.16.11).

NATO-Russia cooperation, including transit to Afghanistan:

  • No significant developments.

 

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • Congressional Republicans are pushing legislation that would codify into law the administration's written assurances that helped secure ratification of the New START treaty.  The legislation, tucked into the annual defense policy bill that passed the House in May, would bar any reduction in U.S. missile defense capabilities unless authorized by Congress or as part of a treaty ratified by the Senate. (Politico, 09.15.11).
  • An early warning radar will be stationed in Turkey's southeast, 700 kilometers west of the Iranian border, as part of NATO's missile defense system, the foreign ministry announced Wednesday. (AP, 09.14.11).
  • Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Washington where they signed an agreement for the deployment of U.S. land-based SM-3 ballistic missile defense system at the Deveselu air base in southern Romania. (RT, 09.14.11).
  • Moscow said the announcement last week that Turkey would host a long-range radar system and the inking of an agreement that authorizes the deployment of U.S. missile interceptors in Romania have increased the urgency of its demand of a legally enforceable pledge that a planned NATO antimissile system would not be aimed against the nation's nuclear weapons. (GSN, 09.14.11).
  • Poland and the U.S. say their deal that calls for deployment of SM-3 land-based ballistic missiles in Redzikowo, on the Baltic Sea coast, by the year 2018 has begun.  (AP, 09.15.11).
  • Iran denied media reports claiming that the upcoming visit to Tehran by Russia's Envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, will be aimed at a discussion of Iran and NATO's missile programs. (Thai News Service, 09.09.11).
  • Russia's permanent representative at NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "The question in which the Russian side is interested above all is not the position of the Americans but that of European member states of NATO with regard to the possibility of establishing cooperation between Russia and NATO on the missile defence project.” (BBC, 09.13.11).

Nuclear arms control:

  • No significant developments.

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Total has made a "major" natural gas discovery in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan that may boost supplies of the fuel pumped to the European Union. The Absheron well's first results show a potential of several trillion cubic feet of gas and associated condensates. (Moscow Times, 09.12.11).
  • Energy companies EdF SA, Eni SpA, and Wintershall AG on Friday signed a shareholder deal with Russian gas exporting monopoly Gazprom to take 50 percent in the South Stream gas pipeline project.  (AP, 09.16.11).
  • Russia lashed out Tuesday at an offer by the European Union to broker talks between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan aimed at creating a natural gas pipeline that would carry Turkmen fuel to the West. (AP, 09.13.11).
  • Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich will visit Moscow on September 24 for talks with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev in a new attempt to solve a dispute over the price Ukraine pays for supplies of Russian gas. Yanukovych traveled on Monday to Turkmenistan in search of a new source of natural gas supplies.  (AP, Reuters, 09.14.11).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • Chief U.S. Agriculture Negotiator Isi Siddiqui told the panel that talks on Russia's longtime bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) were at a "very sensitive stage." The U.S. is pushing in those talks for better market access for its meat products like beef, pork, and poultry. It also is pressing Russia on its domestic agriculture support programs and wants Moscow to pledge to abide by WTO food, animal, and plant safety rules when deciding whether to block imports of a particular product, Siddiqui said. (Reuters, 09.12.11).

Other bilateral issues:

  • President Barack Obama has nominated his top Russia adviser Michael McFaul as the next U.S. ambassador to that country. (AP, 09.14.11).
  • General Electric Co. said Friday it has secured two separate deals in Russia that could generate between $10 billion and $15 billion in sales. (AP, 09.16.11).
  • Rostelecom and Intel have signed a partnership agreement on development of customer terminals for broadband Internet access. (Interfax, 09.15.11).
  • The United States trails Russia in the share of adults age 25 to 34 holding degrees, according to the report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  (WP, 09.13.11).

  1. II. Russia news.

Domestic Politics, Economy and Energy:

  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are still deciding which of them will run in the 2012 presidential election, Alexander Voloshin, an influential former Kremlin chief of staff, said on Friday. (Reuters, 09.09.11).
  • The government is seeking to raise $40 billion from selling state assets in the next three years, with Rosneft expected to be the biggest contributor. (Moscow Times, 09.12.11).
  • Russia's next government will have to raise taxes and reform the pension system to make its public finances strong enough to absorb the shock of a possible oil price collapse, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday. (Reuters, 09.14.11).
  • The domestic economy could shrink 1.5 percent next year if global oil demand falls sharply following a recession in Europe or the United States, the World Bank said Thursday. Under the worst-case scenario, contraction in global demand is likely to result in oil prices sliding to $60 a barrel next year and Russia entering a recession, with unemployment rising to 7.5 percent and the budget deficit reaching about 5.3 percent of gross domestic product. (Moscow Times, 09.16.11).
  • The ruble is overvalued by at least 10 percent, pushing Russia toward a current account deficit in the medium term, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said Thursday. (Reuters, 09.16.11).
  • Russia will lose at least 10 million able-bodied workers by 2025 and must attract more foreign specialists to survive, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday, Interfax reported. (Moscow Times, 09.14.11).
  • Russian tourists took a record 60 million trips abroad in the first half of this year, spending a record amount of money via their credit cards. Citibank experts predict Russians will spend $40 billion, 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, abroad by year-end. (Moscow Times. 09.15.11).
  • Russia objected to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s proposal to send 260 observers for parliamentary elections in December. (Wall Street Journal, 09.15.11).
  • The sudden exit of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov from the Right Cause party in a feud with the Kremlin has sent a warning that politics and business still do not mix well in Russia. "His main mistake was that he went into politics. Oligarchs should not do this," Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, told Kommersant newspaper. (Reuters, 09.16.11).
  • Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev launched a lawsuit claiming damages of $11.6 million to his business reputation after a raid by masked special forces on his National Reserve Bank in November. (Financial Times, 09.14.11).
  • Russia's space agency has postponed its launch of the next manned Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station until Nov. 12. A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three returning astronauts from the station touched down safely Friday in the central steppes of Kazakhstan. (AP, 09.16.11).

Defense:

  • The Kremlin plans to spend $640 million re-equipping the Russian military by 2020. The armed forces are to receive eight Borei-class nuclear missile-carrying submarines, 10 divisions of Iskander cruise-missile systems, 600 aircraft, 1,200 helicopters, 100 naval vessels, and 28 divisions of the most advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles. (Financial Times, 09.13.11).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • The European Union is to look more closely into a possible link between the North Caucasus diaspora living in EU member states and the recruitment of jihadist fighters and the financing of terrorist activities. (RFE/RL, 09.13.11).
  • A Moscow court has ordered access be blocked to the Kavkaz Center website associated with Chechen separatists and those seeking to create an Islamist state in southern Russia's North Caucasus region. (Reuters, 09.12.11).
  • The Collective Security Treaty Organization has announced that it will start controlling social networks to avoid the unrest seen in the Arab world. (RFE/RL, 09.15.11).

Foreign affairs:

  • North Korea and Russia are set to hold their first joint defense drill this year. Members of the two neighbors' navies and air forces will take part in a joint rescue exercise at sea. (Reuters, 09.14.11).
  • Russian energy company Gazprom said it signed a memorandum of understanding with North Korea to build a natural gas transmission system to the Korean Peninsula. (UPI, 09.16.11).
  • Russia will send its first train along a newly repaired railway line to North Korea next month. (Reuters, 09.15.11).
  • Russia will write off North Korea's $11 billion debt, a source close to the Finance Ministry said.  (Interfax, 09.15.11).
  • The contract on selling Iran S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems still continues to exist, Mikhail Dmitriev, the head of the Federal Service for Military-Technological Cooperation, told journalists.  "Russia is looking for ways to find a positive solution to this contract's fate," he said. (Interfax, 09.16.11.)
  • Cyprus is close to agreeing to a €2.5bn ($3.4bn) emergency loan from Russia to help cover the island's budget deficit and re-finance maturing debt. (Financial Times, 09.14.11).
  • Russia’s envoy to the United Nations says Moscow will back the Palestinian bid to secure statehood at the U.N. (AP, 09.12.11).
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that a United Nations resolution on Syria should send a signal both to its government and the opposition and must not contain sanctions. (AP, 09.12.11).
  • In the first visit by a British leader to Moscow in six years, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron led a delegation of British business leaders who announced deals valued at about $343 million. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made it clear to Cameron that the Kremlin isn't softening its rejection of British calls to extradite Andrei Lugovoi. The Russian government is to become the largest shareholder in a new British medical company poised to launch what it claims is the world's first molecularscale nanotechnology-treatment.  A Russian court Tuesday canceled an order to search BP PLC's office in Moscow for documents related to a failed deal with Russian state oil company OAO Rosneft.  (Wall Street Journal, 09.13.11, Financial Times, 09.12.11).
  • A 35-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday adopted a post-Fukushima nuclear safety plan — despite gripes by influential member nations that it is too timid for making compliance voluntary. Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and Argentina were chief opponents of giving the IAEA more authority to police nuclear safety. (AP, 09.12.11).

Russia's neighbors:

  • Belarus is the latest country that Western powers suspect of helping Iran to skirt U.N. sanctions aimed at preventing Tehran from expanding its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, Western diplomats said. (Reuters, 09.15.11).
  • Plans are in place for the United States and Ukraine next year to jointly open a disposal plant for the solid fuel used in Soviet-era SS-24 ICBMs. (GSN, 09.14.11).
  • Harmony Center, a pro-Russia party, could emerge as one of the big winners in Latvia’s snap election on Saturday. (AP, 09.16.11).
  • Russian officials have increased pressure on Dushanbe to allow Russian border guards to return to the Tajik-Afghan frontier. (EurasiaNet, 09.06.11).
  • The Strasbourg session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, which brought together 60 members of the European Parliament and 10 deputies each from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, ended in disharmony, with the 110 members failing to agree on their first resolution. (RFE/RL, 09.16.11).
  • The U.S. State Department's "Report on International Religious Freedom" identifies Iran, Uzbekistan, China, and Burma among "countries of particular concern" and says Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan also face significant challenges in securing religious freedom.  (RFE/RL, 09.13.11).
  • The trial of Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was abruptly put on hold for two weeks on Monday after the United States and European Union expressed fresh concern to President Viktor Yanukovich over Tymoshenko’s  prosecution. (Reuters, 09.12.11).