Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Press Release

Russia in Review

Published: November 24, 2010

An update from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 19-24, 2010.

A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for November 19-24, 2010

 

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

Nuclear security agenda:

  • Georgia arrested four people on Friday and seized radioactive material it said could be used to make a dirty bomb. Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry, said police had seized Cesium-137 in a residential district of Tbilisi and arrested four people suspected of trying to sell the material. (Financial Times, 11.19.10).
  • A new U.S. Energy Department report says that drivers of trucks used to carry nuclear weapons and parts were occasionally intoxicated while carrying out their duties. (GSN, 11.22.10).
  • Russian Foreign Ministry will hold negotiations with IAEA on Russia's contribution to the agency's Nuclear Security Fund. Russia plans to contribute $1 million to this fund annually from 2011-2015. (Rosatom, 11.24.10).

 

Iran nuclear issues:

  • Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, top adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iran now buys from Russia and Turkey the medical isotopes that the reactor normally produces. (Washington Post, 11.24.10).

 

 

11.19.10 NATO-Russia Summit:

  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed that Russia and NATO jointly develop "sector missile defense," but didn't elaborate on configuration. A high-ranking Russian diplomat said: "Medvedev's proposal boils down to the following: Moscow is ready to shoot down any billet that flies towards Europe across Russia. That is to literally protect those countries located west of us. But NATO should assume identical responsibilities for its sector or sectors: if anyone decides to carry out a strike against us over Europe, then whatever flies must be shot down by Americans or NATO."
  • Medvedev and his NATO counterparts also signed NATO-Russia Council (NRC) Joint Statement, which includes the following:
    • "Agreed on a joint ballistic missile threat assessment and to continue dialogue in this area."
    • "Determined to make full use of the NRC mechanism for joint decision and joint action on a wide spectrum of security issues."
    • "Look(s) forward to the early ratification" of the New START.
    • Said Russia will resume support to NATO's "Active Endeavour" in the Mediterranean Sea.
    • Will expand cooperation to combat piracy.
  • The Russian and NATO delegations also signed:
    • The agreement to expand transit of NATO cargoes to Afghanistan and allow reverse transit to Europe that will come into force on December 1.
    • The agreement to expand joint training of the drug enforcement personnel from Afghanistan, Central Asia and Pakistan.
  • At its 11.19.10 summit NATO adopted a new strategic concept that says the alliance doesn't pose a threat to Russia; agreed to jointly develop Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) and invited Russia to take part.

(Kommersant, 11.22.10, Kremlin.ru, 11.20.10).

  • U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev had a meeting on sidelines of the NATO-Russia summit. A U.S. official said the meeting was "very cordial" though Obama raised their differences over Georgia. Medvedev said: "One of the biggest differences is in our respective positions regarding the events of 2008, the events of August 2008, and the geopolitical changes that resulted -- in particular, the emergence of two new independent countries, South Ossetia and Abkhazia." As for New Start's ratification, Mr. Medvedev expressed confidence "in the president getting it done," the official said. Publicly, Medvedev said that a failure by the Senate to ratify the New Start treaty "would be very unpleasant." (New York Times, 11.21.10, 11.20.10, Kremlin.ru, 11.20.10).
  • NATO will extend the contract to lease Ukrainian and Russian Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan heavy-duty transport planes with a 120-tonne lifting capacity in the interests of 18 members of NATO and the European Union. (Interfax, 11.22.10).

Counter-terrorism cooperation:

  • No significant developments.

Missile defense:

  • See NATO-Russia Summit section.

Ratification of the New START treaty:

  • Now that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl has made it clear he will not agree to support the New START treaty this year, despite President Barack Obama's pledge to hold the vote during the lame duck session, the White House has redoubled efforts to find nine Republican "yes" votes that don't include Kyl. (Foreign Policy, 11.19.10).
  • Vice President Joseph Biden wrote "European leaders understand that New Start advances their security as well as America's, and that is an important foundation for future negotiations on conventional forces and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. That is why all 27 of our NATO allies expressed their desire to see the treaty's early ratification." (Wall Street Journal, 11.24.10).
  • Ex-Eastern Bloc nations used the opportunity presented by the NATO summit to tell the U.S. Senate to ratify the New START treaty. Six European foreign ministers, including top diplomats from Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria, took the stage with a message for Congress. "Don't stop START before it's started," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov said. (Washington Post, 11.20.10).
  • U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said without the New START treaty, money that Republicans want for a modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons is "very much at risk." The Pentagon chief also says that if the treaty fails, it's a "slam-dunk cinch," that the U.S. will know less and less about Russian nuclear programs. (AP, 11.21.10).
  • U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned up the heat Sunday on Republicans over a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, saying the pact was "beyond politics" and must be ratified this year. "We'll find the time in the lame duck," she said. (AFP, 11.21.10).
  • Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called quick Senate ratification of the START nuclear arms treaty "urgent," but would not categorize it as "fatal." "I'm extremely concerned...because we haven't had what we had before, which is a level of transparency, a level of predictability, a level of certainty with the Russians and between the two countries," he said. (Politico, CNN, 11.21.10).
  • Christopher S. Bond, second leading Republican, is opposing Senate ratification of the New START treaty based on classified intelligence that the arms pact cannot be verified and that Moscow is manipulating the treaty to prevent the U.S. from expanding missile defenses. (Washington Times, 11.22.10).
  • Former American ambassadors to Moscow and Russian or Soviet ambassadors to Washington, including James Collins, Artur Hartman, Jack Matlock, Thomas Pickering, Alexander Bessmertnykh and Vladimir Lukin, contributed an op-ed to the New York Times to urge Obama and Medvedev to continue reset and called for ratification of the New START treaty among other things. (Belfer Center, 11.24.10).

Energy exports from CIS:

  • Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said the European Union is pursuing "too much" a policy of energy-source diversification, and assured his country can provide "good and economically viable" supplies. (Bloomberg, 11.22.10).

Access to major markets for exports and imports:

  • If Congress returns shortly after Thanksgiving and does business for three full weeks, that's enough to allow U.S.-Russia nuclear cooperation, known as 123 agreement, to go into effect. But if the lame duck session is short, the administration will have to resubmit it next year. (Foreign Policy, 11.22.10).
  • Russia has entered the final stage of its 17-year-bid to join the World Trade Organization and outstanding issues should be resolved in the coming months, Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina said on Tuesday. (Reuters, 11.23.10).

Other bilateral issues:

  • A reporter for a Russian TV news network says she and her cameraman were wrongfully arrested and jailed by Columbus police as the journalists were covering the arrests of demonstrators outside Fort Benning in western Georgia. (AP, 11.22.10).
  • The US Department of State cannot say if some other Russian citizens detained in third countries and extradited to the United States, aside from Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, are now in the hands of the American authorities, US Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley said. (Itar-Tass, 11.19.10).

II. Russia news.

Domestic Political, Social and Demographic News

  • Russia's population may stand at 143 million, a 1 million-person uptick from 2002, according to preliminary results of last month's nationwide census, State Statistics Service head Alexander Surinov said. The agency collected about 141 million forms, with only 300,000 coming from migrants who spent less than a year in Russia, Surinov told the Federation Council. Census takers failed to contact about 2.6 million citizens. (Moscow Times, 11.24.10).

Economy, and Energy:

  • Russia has invited India to participate in uranium production projects in Russia and other countries. World Nuclear News, 11.22.10).
  • Russia's budget deficit will be 4.5% of GDP in 2010, Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina said. (Bloomberg, 11.23.10).
  • Russia's government may hold initial public offerings of shares in state companies on foreign as well as domestic exchanges during its privatization program, Economy Minister Nabiullina said. (Bloomberg, 11.23.10).
  • China and Russia have signed agreements to expand energy cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said. Russia will also start exporting crude oil to China through a pipeline on Jan. 1. (Bloomberg, 11.23.10).

Defense policy:

  • Alexander Burutin, first deputy chief of the General Staff, and several other senior Ground Forces and Navy officers were fired by President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, the Kremlin said on its web site. Burutin oversaw issues related to implementation of the START treaty and was responsible for making the case for ratification of the New START in the Russian parliament. Burutin also oversaw arms procurement. General Staff Deputy Chief Anatoly Gulyayev and Yevgeny Safonov, deputy commander of the Railway Forces, were also sacked and discharged from the military, as were three major generals, an admiral and two rear admirals. (Gazeta.ru, 11.23.10, Moscow Times, 11.24.10).
  • The Bulava strategic missile system may be put in service by the end of next year if the remaining tests are successful. (Interfax-AVN, 11.22.10).

Security policy:

  • Federal prosecutors said Tuesday 11 suspects have been detained in an anti-terror sweep in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Those targeted in the sweeps were suspected of planning a possible attack in Belgium or of involvement in recruiting for an alleged Chechen terror organization, Belgian officials said. The police also targeted "the recruiters, candidate jihadists and financing" for the Caucasus Emirate, which groups insurgents who seek to establish an Islamic emirate in Russia's North Caucasus. On Saturday, it was reported that Russian detectives are in Belgium on a manhunt that could lead to the killer of celebrated Moscow journalist Anna Politkovskaya. (AP, 11.23.10, AFP, 11.21.10).
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday described the country's law enforcement agencies including the Interior Ministry as "crap" and "hypocritical" for the way statistics are recorded and kept. Touching on statistics regarding the North Caucasus Federal District, Medvedev said, "In the first ten months of this year, 64,000 crimes were registered in the district; that is, while the number of premeditated murders declined in the country, their number in the district grew by 5%." A total of 332 armed group members have been killed in North Caucasus since the start of this year. (Interfax, Xinhua, 11.19.10).
  • New evidence linking Russia with the death of Alexander Litvinenko has been produced by his widow - but experts promptly pointed out "inconsistencies" in the data. Marina Litvinenko, his widow, has got hold of documents showing that the FSB seized a container with 3.4 kg of Polonium-210 in the weeks before her husband's death. Few in Russia are convinced by the new evidence, however. An unnamed security expert analyzed the claims for state media agency RIA Novosti and concluded that they must be fakes. (Moscow News, 11.22.10).

Foreign policy:

  • Russia sees a "colossal danger" of an escalation in fighting on the Korean peninsula after North Korea's artillery attacked a South Korean island on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "It is necessary to immediately end all strikes. There is a colossal danger that must be avoided. Tensions in the region are growing," Lavrov said. (Reuters, 11.23.10).
  • A former Israeli military officer wanted in Colombia for training illegal right-wing militias employed by drug lords responsible for hundreds of killings was released from Russian custody Friday. (AP, 11.19.10).

Russia's neighbors:

  • Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in a speech at the European Parliament on November 23, proposed direct talks with the Kremlin. Saakashvili said he recognized past mistakes and failures on the Georgian side, which he did not name, and gave reassurances that Georgia would not resort to force, except "in the case of new attacks and invasion of the 80% of Georgian territory that remains under the control of the Georgian government." Saakashvili's vow to forswear the use of force must be "put on paper and acquire legal force" before it can be taken seriously, Russia's Foreign Ministry said. (Bloomberg, 11.24.10, RFE/RL, 11.23.10).
  • After the meeting of U.S. President Obama and Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgians emphasized Obama's praise for Georgia's military contributions to the Afghanistan coalition and support for Georgia's aspirations for eventual NATO membership. (New York Times, 11.21.10).
  • Ukraine and the European Union, at a summit in Brussels, agreed on an "action plan" that Kyiv hopes will lead to visa-free travel for Ukrainians within the 27-nation bloc. After his first meeting with the European Union, Ukraine's president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, said Monday that his policy had bolstered Europe's security, improved all-round cooperation with Russia and consigned to history the recent disruption of gas supplies to Europe (New York Times, 11.22.10, RFE/RL, 11.22.10).