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Press Release

Russia in Review

Published:

An update from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of February 4-11, 2011.

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of February 4-11, 2011

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • No significant developments.

 

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Russia urged world powers to offer Iran incentives for individual steps in resolving long-standing international concerns over its nuclear activities.  "Over two years ago, the [P-5+1] group devised a plan for cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A phased 'actions for actions' plan should be developed on this basis," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. (GSN, 02.07.11).

 

NATO-Russia cooperation, including transit to Afghanistan:

  • No significant developments.

 

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state, said on Friday she had reassured Poland and the Baltic republics that plans to involve Russia in developing European missile defense would not compromise their security. "The signals (from Russia) are very good," she added, citing discussions between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich. (Reuters, 02.11.11).
  • NATO and Russia on Thursday launched talks in Brussels to address differences over the establishment of a joint European missile shield. Russian representatives are led by General Staff Deputy Chief Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov. "These talks are very important and should lay the groundwork for determining the scope of possible cooperation in the European missile defense project," Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. (GSN, 02.10.11).
  • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the U.S. is in talks with Russia about how to address issues that affect their common security, while maintaining strategic stability. Suggestions include joint analysis, joint exercises, and sharing of early warning data that could form the basis for a cooperative missile defense system. (AP, 02.05.11).
  • Senator John McCain said: "Russia's objections are unacceptable and absurd. We need a system to defend ourselves and our European allies.” (AP, 02.05.11).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was unacceptable that NATO decides on configuration in internal talks and then presents Russia with fait accompli. Development of the anti-ballistic missile system without Moscow would force the latter to take asymmetric measures.”  (Kommersant, 02.07.11).
  • Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: "This must be a joint system with shared responsibilities, information exchange and decision-making in order to make us an equal and responsible member. If two separate networks are built, things won't change for us.  If the U.S. increases the qualitative and quantitative potential of its missile defense ... a question will arise whether Russia should further abide by the (New START) treaty or would have to take other measures to respond to the situation, including military-technical measures." (Reuters, 02.07.11).
  • Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov argued that U.S. missile defense could only be aimed against Russian missiles. "This system could undermine Russian nuclear deterrent forces.” (Reuters, 02.07.11).
  • Rogozin said: "Let us talk missile threat from the south. What’s the point in naming anyone specific?  When fully deployed and developed, the American ballistic missile defense system will be  able to intercept ICBMs and that will weaken our nuclear potential.” (Kommersant, 02.07.11).
  • Members of the Russian delegation to the Munich conference said that the Russian presidential Security Council will convene in February to launch planning of a response to possibility that no deal on ABM system will be reached with NATO. (Kommersant, 02.07.11).

Nuclear arms control:

  • The New START treaty went into effect Saturday.  "The treaty marks significant progress toward President Obama's vision of a world without nuclear weapons," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after exchanging ratification papers with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich. (AP, 02.05.11).
  • Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Moscow is willing to talk about tactical nuclear weapons reductions. "We are ready to discuss this very complex topic in the framework of a comprehensive approach to strategic stability,” he said. Any "hypothetical" negotiations on tactical nuclear weapons "must take into consideration not only Russia's or the U.S. nuclear arsenal but weapons systems of all nuclear and threshold" states. (AP, 02.05.11).
  • Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov said: "It would be better to start from withdrawal of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from Europe and from dismantling related infrastructure so as to ensure greater predictability and transparency here.  A whole host of capabilities the U.S. has in the field of tactical nuclear weapons are, by their nature, by the results of these capabilities being projected onto the territory of the Russian Federation, of a strategic nature for us.” (AP, 02.07.11).
  • Russia denied it had reached an arrangement to receive details on the British nuclear arsenal from the United States. Referring to leaked U.S. diplomatic communications, the London Telegraph last week said Washington had agreed in 2010 to supply Moscow with the data to secure agreement on a new strategic nuclear arms control treaty.  "We would welcome certain transparency in that area but we have no such agreement, especially that was confirmed in the New START. So, we refute the Daily Telegraph report," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. The Obama administration also rejected the report. (GSN, 02.08.11).
  • Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country was ready to pursue further strategic nuclear-weapons cuts with the United States as well as other nations. Antonov also called for the revival of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. "Europe needs this regime," the official said. (GSN, 02.08.11).
  • Lithuania accused Russia of fielding tactical nuclear weapons in the Kaliningrad region near the border dividing the two nations. "We want major nations to start negotiations on reducing the number of such weapons. It's no secret that such weapons are deployed near us, in Kaliningrad. And to our east as well," Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene asserted on public radio. (GSN, 02.09.11).

 

Energy exports from CIS:

  • No significant developments.

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • No significant developments.

II. Russia news.

Domestic Politics, Economy, and Energy:

  • President Dmitry Medvedev decreed on Tuesday that Russia will remain on Daylight Savings Time in perpetuity.  (Reuters, 02.08.11).
  • Foreign experts could be invited by the Kremlin to look into the case of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky but his verdict will not be overturned, President Dmitry Medvedev's human rights council said Monday.  (Reuters, 02.08.11).
  • BP has offered its Russian venture TNK-BP a chance to join its partnership with Rosneft, TNK-BP's deputy CEO told reporters on Friday, signaling a possible resolution to a row.  (Reuters, 02.11.11).
  • Toyota Motor will join forces with Sollers automobile company to boost auto production close to the locations where demand for cars is growing. Toyota will use the existing Sollers factory in Vladivostok to produce cars, possibly sport utility vehicles.  (AP, 02.10.10).
  • The number of the country's billionaires reached 114 last year, eclipsing the record 101 total reached three years ago, Finans magazine said. The wealth of the country’s 10 richest people increased 30 percent to $139 billion, the Moscow-based weekly said in a statement before its annual rich list edition is published Feb. 14. That compares with the record $221 billion estimated wealth for the top 10 in 2008. (Bloomberg, 02.10.11).
  • Russia's OAO Gazprom, the world's largest producer of natural gas, posted on Thursday a 9 percent fall in net profits for the third quarter, hampered by a foreign-exchange loss, rising costs, and weak European demand. (Wall Street Journal, 02.10.11).

Defense:

  • On Wednesday, a Russian Defense Ministry source said that the two Mistral class amphibious assault ships built in France for the Russian Navy will be put in service with the Pacific Fleet. (Reuters, 02.11.11, RIA Novosti, 02.09.11).
  • A German company will build a combat training center for the Russian army in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Defense Ministry announced Thursday. The Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall signed the deal to build the $131 million center at the Mulino firing range on Wednesday.  (Moscow Times, 02.11.11).
  • The scope of corruption in the military has not been decreasing, while bribe-taking has been on the rise, said Col. Konstantin Belyayev of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office. Last year, more than 2,400 corrupt deals were uncovered. The incidence of fraud increased almost 1.5 times, and bribe-taking and abuse of office became more common, Belyayev said.  (Interfax, 02.10.11).
  • Thirty-four percent of respondents polled by the Levada Center in January pointed at Chechen militants, 28 percent at the United States, and 23 percent at NATO as Russia's chief enemies. The percentage of those who are concerned about the animosity of Chechen militants has gone down from 47 percent to 34 percent since August 2009, of the U.S. from 51 percent down to 28 percent, NATO from 34 percent to 23 percent, China from 13 percent to 9 percent, and Baltic states, Ukraine and Georgia from 38 percent to 13 percent.  (Interfax, 02.04.11).

Security and law-enforcement:

  • Russian authorities have named the suspected suicide bomber of Moscow's airport and arrested his teenage brother and sister. The Jan. 24 bombing of Domodedovo airport was conducted by 20-year-old Magomed Yevloyev, said an official working with Russia's top investigative agency in the province of Ingushetia. The official said that Yevloyev's 15-year-old brother and 16-year old sister, suspected of involvement in the attack, had been arrested, along with another resident of Yevloyev's home village of Ali-Yurt on the same charges. Chechen rebel warlord Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the attack.  (AP, 02.09.11).
  • On Monday President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law an overhaul of Russia's biggest law-enforcement agency, restoring even its czarist name—"police."  Mr. Medvedev visited a Moscow police precinct Monday to announce that he'd signed the law, which he has called "historic." The plan, which takes effect March 1, calls for many of Russia's 1.4 million officers to undergo recertification, to winnow out poor performers, and reward those who pass with higher salaries. (Wall Street Journal, 02.07.11).
  • President Dmitry Medvedev slammed security failings at Moscow’s Kievsky railway station and threatened on Thursday to sack those responsible, weeks after a suicide bomber killed 36 people at the capital's main airport. "Just have a look, I haven't seen a single police officer," Medvedev told officials who escorted him during a surprise inspection of Kievsky Station in central Moscow.  (Moscow Times, 02.11.11).
  • Airports nationwide will be fitted with entry checkpoints with metal detectors and luggage screening systems, and a passport or driver's license will be required to enter the premises, news reports said Monday, citing a governmental decree. (Moscow Times. 02.07.11).
  • The crime rate in Moscow decreased year on year in 2010, but figures for both rapes and hate crimes grew, and the average size of a bribe extorted by officials in the capital was 20 times larger than nationwide, the Investigative Committee said Tuesday. (Moscow Times, 02.09.11).
  • Over half of the respondents (58 percent) surveyed in Russia on January 28-31 characterized the performance of the police and the special services as "bad" and "unprofessional" and believe it contributed to the creation of the situation in which terrorists were able to carry out the Domodedovo terrorist attack, the Levada Center said. (Interfax, 02.04.11).

Foreign affairs:

  • Russia and Japan crossed swords publicly on Friday over Moscow's invitation for China and South Korea to invest in an island chain at the centre of a dispute that has poisoned ties for half a century. The disagreement came during a visit to Moscow by Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.  During the visit Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tokyo's recent behavior in the dispute was "unacceptable" and insisted that Russia will only discuss a peace treaty without any preconditions or "unilateral historical links," a reference to Japan's claim the islands are rightfully its own.  Japan's anger flared when Russia's defense chief visited military units on the islands last week, and Medvedev said on Wednesday that Moscow will deploy new weapons to step up defenses there. (Reuters, 02.11.11).
  • Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov met former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Vice President Omar Suleiman, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. He told reporters in Cairo that “processes in Egypt shall develop according to the will of the people without outside interference and imposed recipes.” Russia “is not going to interfere into the internal affairs of Egypt and hopes the country will overcome the crisis by itself.”  It would not be advisable at the moment for Egypt to impose a Western model of democracy, said Mikhail Margelov, head of the Federation Council's international affairs committee. (Itar-Tass, Interfax, 02.11.11).
  • The Russian Foreign Ministry, in its first statement about an expelled British newspaper correspondent, said Tuesday evening that he could return to Russia if he complies with accreditation rules.  The Guardian correspondent, Luke Harding, who had written a number of articles about sensitive issues, was put in an airport cell and then on a plane back to London after returning Saturday from a two-month absence with a valid visa.  (Washington Post, 02.08.11).

Russia's neighbors:

 

  • Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev has formally agreed to run for re-election in snap polls. He made the announcement at a meeting of the ruling party, Nur Otan, where he was invited to run in the April 3 poll. (RFE/RL, 02.11.11).
  • Georgia, which is already contributing a 950-strong combat unit in Afghanistan, is ready to send more soldiers to ISAF mission, President Mikhail Saakashvili told the Munich Security Conference.  (Civil Georgia, 02.08.11).