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Russia in Review

Published:

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

Nuclear security:

  • It will take hundreds of millions more dollars to successfully operate a program in South Carolina to convert weapons-grade nuclear material into reactor fuel, while some say an alternative method could do it differently and more cheaply, according to a report commissioned by U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. The report concludes that the program that includes the mixed-oxide fuel facility at the Savannah River Site needs up to $800 million annually over the next two to three years to be viable. That's contrasted to the roughly $400 million currently allocated to the effort. The issue affects an agreement with Russia to convert both nations' spent nuclear materials.  (AP, 08.20.15).c

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in Moscow on August 17 that both sides hope the agreement on Iran's nuclear program will enter into force "in the nearest weeks." Lavrov said on August 17 that a contract between Moscow and Tehran for the construction of eight nuclear units will strengthen Iran's power industry. Russian media reports say that among items Lavrov and Zarif discussed was the possible delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles from Russia to Iran. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15).
  • According to Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan Iran is interested in up to four battalions of S-300 launchers. RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday that the S-300 systems would be delivered to Iran by the end of this year, citing an unidentified senior Russian Foreign Ministry official. (Moscow Times, 08.19.15).
  • The advanced S-300 air defense system would mean that U.S. or Israeli warplanes likely couldn't sneak into Iranian airspace if they wanted to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. "We've been making very clearly our objections to any sale of this missile system to Iran, as I said, for quite some time, and we'll continue to monitor it closely," State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. “We have long expressed our concerns over reports of the possible sale of this missile system to the Iranians,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told Fox News.  (CNN, 08.19.15, Fox News, 08.19.15).

NATO-Russia relations:

  • U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he agreed with assessment of top military officials that Russia is an existential threat to the U.S. "by virtue simply of the size of the nuclear arsenal that it's had.” He also laid out the Pentagon's strategy in countering Russia — an approach he called "strong and balanced." "The strong part means we are adjusting our capabilities qualitative and in terms of their deployments, to take account of this behavior of Russia," he said. “The balanced part is we continue to work with Russia, because you can't paint all their behavior with one brush. There are places where they are working with us: in counterterrorism in many important respects, in some respects, with respect to North Korea, in some respects with respect to Iran and elsewhere," he said. (The Hill, 08.20.15).
  • Nations on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's eastern flank will hold a summit in November to urge allies for bigger security guarantees for the region, said an aide to Poland's new president who has called for more NATO military presence in the country to deter Russian aggression. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, sworn-in earlier in August, has repeatedly called for a permanent presence of NATO equipment and troops in Poland, out of concern Russia could deploy forces quickly from its European exclave of Kaliningrad.  (Wall Street Journal, 08.17.15).
  • Russian lawmakers are calling the largest NATO airborne drills in Europe since the Cold War a threat and provocation rather than a defensive exercise. The war games, dubbed Swift Response 15, involve nearly 5,000 soldiers from 11 NATO countries flying across Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and Romania, and will continue from August 15 to September 13. (RFE/RL, 08.20.15).

Missile defense:

  • No significant developments.

Arms control:

  • Moscow has officially informed the United Nations that it is ready to discuss with partners the ways of developing a new regime for conventional arms control in Europe. The new regime should take into consideration current realities and address the concerns of Russia and those of other European states, says the letter that Moscow has sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. (Tass, 08.17.15).

Counter-terrorism:

  • Security forces in Dagestan have killed a militant who studied, trained and fought in Syria, according to pro-Caucasus Emirate social media posts and the Russian media, citing security sources. Magomed Abdullaev, a.k.a. Abu Dudjana, the recently appointed Emir (commander) of the Caucasus Emirate’s Mountainous Sector, was killed in a counter terrorism operation in Gimry. (From Chechnya to Syria, 08.17.15).
  • A 25-year-old Uzbek resident of New York has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support for the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, U.S. prosecutors said. (RFE/RL, 08.15.15).
  • The Boston Marathon bomber is seeking a new trial, telling a federal court that "unrelenting" bad publicity made it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Boston. (RFE/RL, 08.18.15).

Cyber security:

  • A UN special report released by experts from 20 countries to spell out norms of state cyber behavior recommends the exclusively peaceful use of the internet, Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cooperation in Cyber Security, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Large Andrei Krutskikh has said. (Interfax, 08.17.15).
  • The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said Monday that more than twice as many taxpayer accounts were hit by identity thieves than the agency first reported, with hackers gaining access to as many as 330,000 accounts and attempting to break into an additional 280,000.Government investigators previously said they believe many of the attacks came from criminals operating in Russia as well as other countries. They didn't elaborate Monday on who they think was behind the attacks. (Wall Street Journal, 08.18.15).
  • Beginning more than a decade ago, one of the largest security companies in the world, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, tried to damage rivals in the marketplace by tricking their antivirus software programs into classifying benign files as malicious, according to two former employees. Eugene Kaspersky has taken to his blog to make another stinging rebuttal of a Reuters report that alleged the company that bears his name deliberately sabotaged rival antivirus packages. (Reuters, 08.15.15, Theregister.co.uk, 08.17.15).

Energy exports from CIS:

  • No significant developments.

Bilateral economic ties:

  • No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

  • Russia says President Vladimir Putin will attend next month's UN General Assembly in New York and would consider meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the UN. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on August 19 that Putin would "positively" consider a request from Washington to meet.  (RFE/RL, 08.19.15).
  • Former Russian nuclear official Vadim Mikerin has agreed to plead guilty in the U.S. to charges that he conspired to launder bribe payments, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Mikerin had previously maintained his innocence and is being held in jail in Washington, D.C. (Wall Street Journal, 08.19.15).
  • The United States' securities watchdog is helping German prosecutors to investigate the alleged payment of bribes by Ford to speed the passage of containers through Russian customs, a source at the U.S. carmaker said on Tuesday. (Reuters, 08.19.15).
  • Russia's consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has banned three types of wine from the United States in the latest incident involving food quality from nations that have criticized the country's role in the Ukraine conflict.  (Moscow Times, 08.17.15).

II. Russia news.

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

  • On Friday the ruble was 0.5 percent weaker against the dollar at 68.12 and had lost 0.8 percent to 77.00 versus the euro. The ruble is now at its lowest level against the dollar since Feb. 5 and approaching its 2015 low of 71.85, reached on Jan. 30. (Reuters, 08.21.15).
  • As of August 20, 595 tons of contraband fruit and vegetables have been seized in Russia and 555 tons of that amount have been destroyed, Rosselkhoznadzor said on August 21 In addition, 51 out of 307 tons of seized contraband animal products have been destroyed. (Interfax, 08.21.15).
  • Russian customs officials have drafted a bill that calls for prison sentences for those who violate the country's retaliatory sanctions on Western food imports. (RFE/RL, 08.20.15).
  • The production of passenger cars in Russia has declined by more than 25 percent in the first six months of 2015 compared to the same period last year. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15).
  • Throughout the first six months of 2015, the overall mortality rate in Russia has increased by about 2.3 percent.  The actual levels of mortality are still much better than at any other point in recent history, and vastly better than the 1990s, but for the first time since Putin came to power, the overall demographic trend is not of improvement but of decline. (Moscow Times, 08.16.15).
  • Russia's Mining and Chemical Combine said today that its mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility has completed tests on putting together the first nuclear fuel assemblies for the BN-800 fast neutron reactor, using uranium pellets. The BN-800 is unit 4 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk district. (World Nuclear News, 08.20.15).
  • Vladimir Yakunin, the powerful chief of Russian Railways and a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, says he is stepping down as head of the state railway company. Yakunin's announcement follows his nomination for a seat in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, by the acting governor of the western exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. First Deputy Transport Minister Oleg Belozerov was named to succeed Yakunin. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15, Business Insider, 08.20.15).
  • Forty-one percent of the respondents in Russia  are sure that officials always or practically always conceal the truth, and a third (34 percent) argues that officials can be honest sometimes and tell lies in other cases, Levada Center told Interfax, quoting an opinion poll. (Interfax, 08.19.15).

Defense and Aerospace:

  • While there are currently no satellites in orbit, Russia’s early warning system is still functional, Sergei Boev, the chief designer of Russia's early warning system, told Kommersant. According to Boev, false alarms are not a common occurrence although they are a danger, he said. Boev – who heads Mints Radio-Technical Institute - also said foreign parts are represented in 70% of “our equipment one way or another.”(Kommersant, 08.19.15, Sputnik, 08.19.15).
  • Russia's Defense Ministry broadcasting channel, Zvezda-TV, reports that Moscow has plans to start building new early warning radar stations in Azerbijan and near the Arctic Circle. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15).
  • Russia is nearing deployment of a new missile capable of targeting all of Europe with nuclear or conventional warheads, according to defense officials. Regarding the SSN-30A, designated as the “Kalibr” missile, Pentagon officials said the new naval weapon can be equipped with both nuclear and conventional warheads and can reach most of Europe when fired from ships in the Black Sea. (Washington Free Beacon, 08.20.15).
  • Russia’s Defense Ministry says the first phase of joint air-defense exercises by the Commonwealth of Independent States began on August 18.The ministry says troops from 20 air-defense and missile-defense units in the Moscow region have been put on high alert for the CIS Combat Commonwealth 2015 exercises, which are schedule to continue until September 11.(RFE/RL, 08.18.15).
  • Russia’s 20th Combined Arms Army is redeploying from Nizhegorod to Voronezh on Ukraine’s border, according to a TASS news agency source in the General Staff. (Russian Defense Policy, 08.17.15).
  • Russia is moving air defense systems modified for the harsh Arctic environment to key areas near its borders with Norway and the US, the US Army's Foreign Military Studies Office notes in its August 2015 report.  (Business Insider, 08.18.15).
  • The Russian Navy plans a squadron of what would effectively be nuclear powered battlecruisers. Dubbed the Lider class, these warships would feature the nuclear power and armament capacity of the massive Soviet-era Kirov battlecruisers. (National Interest, 08.20.15).
  • Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a presidential decree to classify military casualties during wartime and during special operations in peacetime. (RBTH, 08.17.15).

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

  • Russia on Thursday dismissed Western criticism over the sentencing of an Estonian police officer to 15 years in prison for espionage, a case that adds to tensions in Moscow's strained ties with the West. A Russian court sentenced the Estonian police officer, Eston Kohver, on Wednesday, triggering an angry reaction from Tallinn and criticism from the European Union and the United States. (Reuters, 08.21.15).
  • A German intelligence officer accused of acting as a double agent for the United States and Russia has been charged with treason, breach of official secrecy and taking bribes. (New York Times, 08.21.15).
  • Russian prosecutors have asked a court to send Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov to prison for 23 years on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorist attacks. (AP, 08.19.15).
  • Outside threats to destabilize the situation in Crimea persist, personnel are being trained to carry out subversive activities and other sabotage, these risks should be taken into account, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on security in Crimea on Aug. 19. (Interfax, 08.19.15).
  • The Leningrad Regional Military Court found Russian citizen Gapur Magomedov guilty of participation in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir organization on August 17 and sentenced him to five years in jail. The same court sentenced a Kyrgyz citizen, Makhamadimin Saliev, to five years in jail on the same charges on August 14. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15).
  • The Spiritual Directorate of the North Caucasus Muslims in the city of Pyatigorsk said on August 20 that Zamirbek Makhmutov, deputy imam in a local village, was shot dead by unknown assailants. (RFE/RL, 08.20.15).

Foreign affairs and trade:

  • Russia and China launched their “Joint Sea-2015 II” naval exercises in Vladivostok on August 21, the Staff of the Russian Eastern Military District has reported. “All in all, both sides have contributed 22 ships and support vessels, up to 200 airplanes and helicopters, more than 5,000 marines and 40 units of hardware to the drills," the military district said. This is the largest ever joint exercise of Russian and Chinese Navies. It will run through Aug. 28 in the Sea of Japan and off the coast of Vladivostok. (Interfax, 08.21.15, Washington Times, 08.18.15).
  • King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Jordan are expected to attend the opening day of the MAKS-2015 air show in Russia on August 25. (UPI, 08.18.15)
  • One of the biggest expected contracts at MAKS-2015 will be a domestic purchase of 48 Sukhoi Su-35 fighters. There is also a lot of speculation that Saudi Arabia is getting ready to buy Russian weapons systems. And Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said Iran was in negotiations with Russia in negotiations for a purchase of Russian-made fighter jets.  (Moscow Times, 08.19.15).
  • Russia and Egypt have signed an intergovernmental contract for the delivery of Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters. (Interfax, 08.21.15).
  • Russian Helicopters Holding's Rostvertol JSC is implementing two contracts for the delivery of modernized heavy-haul helicopters Mil Mi-26T2 to Algeria. (Interfax, 08.19.15).
  • The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed a new push for peace talks in Syria adopted by Russia and the other 14 member states, despite reservations from Venezuela. The peace initiative, set to begin in September, would set up four working groups to address safety and protection, counterterrorism, political and legal issues and reconstruction. (AFP, 08.18.15).
  • Russia and Iran said on Monday that Syrian groups must decide the future of Bashar Assad, with Moscow opposing any pre-negotiated exit of the Syrian president as part of a peace deal. Speaking at a joint news conference, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, reiterated their countries' backing for Assad. (Reuters, 08.17.15).
  • Russian soldiers involved in peacekeeping operations in Africa surpass those of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States combined. (CFR, 08.13.15).

Russia's neighbors:

  • As Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces took over Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in early 2014, the interim Ukrainian government was debating whether or not to fight back against the "little green men" Russia had deployed. But the message from the Barack Obama administration was clear: avoid military confrontation with Moscow. As U.S. officials told us recently, the White House feared that if the Ukrainian military fought in Crimea, it would give Putin justification to launch greater military intervention in Ukraine, using similar logic to what Moscow employed in 2008. (Bloomberg, 08.21.15).
  • Fighting flared between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels near the port of Mariupol in the southeast and at rebel-held Horlivka, killing at least two Ukrainian soldiers and several civilians, Kiev's military and separatist sources said on Monday. Kiev accused the separatists of shelling civilians on the outskirts of Mariupol. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed Kiev for the violence.  Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that four soldiers have been killed and 14 wounded in recent fighting in eastern Ukraine (Reuters, 08.17.15, RFE/RL, 08.20.15).
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is pushing for European powers to get Ukraine to comply with a truce in eastern Ukraine. Lavrov said Wednesday that he hopes Germany and France, as signatories of the February truce, "will do everything to make sure" Kiev complies with the deal. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will meet with the leaders of France and Germany on Monday. Germany's foreign minister says the situation in eastern Ukraine is "explosive" and that urgent talks must be held to prevent "a new military escalation spiral." (RFE/RL, 08.16.15, AP, Reuters, 08.19.15).
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday slammed alleged "external control" over Ukraine's government as he made his third visit to the Crimean peninsula since Moscow seized the region from Kiev last year. "Ukraine will rise to its feet and will develop positively, and build its future together with Russia," he said in Crimea. (AFP, Unian, 08.17.15).
  • NATO has warned Moscow that any attempt by Russian-backed separatists to take more territory in eastern Ukraine would be "unacceptable. “NATO said in a statement on August 19 that its 28 member states had discussed the recent escalation in violence in Ukraine and added that "Russia has a special responsibility to find a political solution" to the crisis.  (RFE/RL, 08.19.15).
  • Ukraine will have to resume the import of Russian gas to last through the winter season, the country's energy minister warned on Friday. In August, Ukraine had 13 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storages, six billion short of the 19 billion it needs for the winter season, Coal and Energy Minister Vladimir Demchyshyn said. (Sputnik, 08.15.15).
  • U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has responded with blunt indifference to Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO. “I wouldn’t care. If [Ukraine] goes in, great. If it doesn’t go in, great,” Trump said in an interview with NBC on August 16. Trump also said that Europe should bear the brunt of the responsibility for standing up to Russia in the Ukraine conflict. (RFE/RL, 08.16.15).
  • The council of ministers of the self-declared Lugansk People's Republic (LNR) has decreed that the Russian ruble will become the main monetary unit on the territory of the LNR starting on September 1. (Interfax, 08.19.15).
  • In January 2015, Ukraine shipped 470,047 tons of corn to China, overtaking the United States, according to official customs data. (RFE/RL, 08.16.15).
  • The Kazakh currency lost more than a quarter of its value against the dollar on Thursday, after the central bank of Kazakhstan let the tenge float freely The tenge quickly slid to 255.26 against the U.S. dollar from about 188 overnight. A year ago, the tenge traded at 182 versus the dollar. The Asian Development Bank has provided a $1 billion loan for Kazakhstan. (Wall Street Journal, 09.20.15, RFE/RL, 08.21.15).
  • Russia's largest private oil firm Lukoil has sold some of its Kazakh stakes to China's energy giant Sinopec for $1.09 billion, the company said on August 20. (RFE/RL, 08.21.15).
  • Thousands of members of Uzbekistan's security forces have been mobilized in the country's Fergana region to search for two women they allege are potential suicide bombers. (RFE/RL, 08.17.15).
  • U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter hosted Georgian Defense Minister Tinatin Khidasheli today at the Pentagon to discuss regional security issues and the U.S.-Georgia defense relationship. The leaders reviewed ongoing U.S. security assistance to Georgia's armed forces, including plans for the $20 million in additional funding in 2015 through the European Reassurance Initiative. (DoD, 08.18.15).
  • Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has condemned Russia’s military exercises in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (RFE/RL, 08.19.15).
  • Azerbaijan’s state budget relies on hydrocarbons for 70 percent of its revenue and 95 percent of exports. (Washington Post, 08.20.15).

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