This Week’s Highlights

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a June 16 summit meeting with President Biden, objected to any role for American forces in Central Asian countries, senior U.S. and Russian officials said, undercutting the U.S. military’s efforts to act against new terrorist dangers after its Afghanistan withdrawal. The exchange indicates that Moscow is more determined to try to maintain Central Asia as a sphere of influence than to expand cooperation with a new American president over the turmoil in Afghanistan, former and current U.S. officials said. (The Wall Street Journal, 08.20.21)
• On the anniversary of Alexei Navalny’s poisoning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the jailed opposition politician, while Britain imposed targeted sanctions on Russian intelligence operatives amid blistering international criticism aimed at Moscow's treatment of the Kremlin critic. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)
• Russia’s top diplomat assured his Libyan counterpart that Moscow supports the withdrawal of all foreign fighters from the North African country and is prepared to help work out the details with other countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the talks in Moscow with Najla Mangoush that the Libyan leadership “is forming a consultative mechanism ... to formulate the concrete parameters” under which the foreign forces will leave. Russia was among the foreign powers backing the warring sides in Libya’s conflict, with some officials and media reports alleging that Russian private military contractors took part in the fighting. (The Wall Street Journal, 08.19.21)
• Russia, with its array of hard-to-detect cruise missiles and advanced submarines, poses the primary military threat to the American homeland today, the commander of U.S. Northern Command said August 17. “They’ve developed capabilities that didn’t exist 20 years ago …very low radar cross-section cruise missiles [and] submarines on par with our submarines,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck said. (USNI News, 08.18.21)
• Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday told his Russian and Chinese counterparts that Tehran is ready to cooperate with the two countries to establish "stability and peace" in Afghanistan. The Taliban have capped a staggeringly fast rout of Afghanistan's major cities in just 10 days, achieved with relatively little bloodshed, following two decades of war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.18.21) 
• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has lamented that the crisis in Crimea has fallen from global attention, and he pledged to "raise from the knees" the fate of the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia seven years ago. In an interview with Ukrainian media, including RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Zelenskiy said he also wants to raise awareness of residents, including Crimean Tatars and others, who have been detained or prosecuted by the region's Russian-backed administration. (RFE/RL, 08.19.21)
• The Biden administration has put Russia’s “market economy” status under review in a move that revives a weapon not used since the 1990s to punish Russian trade. The “market economy” designation is important as without it the US can impose special duties on exports from Russia to the rest of the world that could be more painful than the blunt weapon of sanction bans as the duties cost money and can make exports uncompetitive. By reviving the market economy status weapon, Washington is partly admitting that the sanctions regime, imposed in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, has been largely ineffective.  (bne IntelliNews, 08.17.21)
• New satellite images obtained by CNN show Russia may be preparing another test of its nuclear-powered cruise missile, known as "Skyfall"-- a controversial weapon that is designed to defeat US defense systems. (CNN, 08.20.21)

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• Technicians at the original Leningrad nuclear power plant near St Petersburg have taken a major step in the decommissioning one of their oldest Soviet-built reactors by completely removing the uranium fuel from its core. (Bellona, 08.16.21)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• No significant developments.

Iran and its nuclear program:

• Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday told his Russian and Chinese counterparts that Tehran is ready to cooperate with the two countries to establish "stability and peace" in Afghanistan. The Taliban have capped a staggeringly fast rout of Afghanistan's major cities in just 10 days, achieved with relatively little bloodshed, following two decades of war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.18.21) 

Great Power rivalry/New Cold War/NATO-Russia relations:

• Russia, with its array of hard-to-detect cruise missiles and advanced submarines, poses the primary military threat to the American homeland today, the commander of U.S. Northern Command said August 17. “They’ve developed capabilities that didn’t exist 20 years ago …very low radar cross-section cruise missiles [and] submarines on par with our submarines,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck said. (USNI News, 08.18.21)

China-Russia: Allied or Aligned?

• The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has deployed J-10B and J-16 fighter jets to Russia for the Aviadarts military aviation competition. Chinese media on Aug. 14, reported that PLA’s military aircraft, including fighter jets and transport aircraft, will make their debuts at the upcoming Aviadarts competition as part of the International Army Games 2021 in Russia. (Defence Blog, 08.11.21)
• The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan redraws Asia’s geopolitical map and hands China and Russia—two of America’s staunchest strategic rivals—an opportunity to project their power in the wake of Washington’s chaotic withdrawal, analysts in several countries said. “China has benefited from the irresponsible behaviour of [the US], which has deeply … Arkady Dubnov, a political analyst and central Asia expert in Moscow, had a similar take. “We can align our interests [with China] in opposing the US,” he said. “What is good for us is bad for Americans, what’s bad for us is good for Americans. Today the situation is bad for Americans and so it is good for us.” (Financial Times, 08.20.21)
• A Russian-Chinese company has been charged with violating environmental safety regulations in Russia's Republic of Chuvashia, where expanding Chinese investment has sparked protests over alleged corruption. Officials at the directorate of the agricultural regulator, Rosselkhoznadzor, in Chuvashia told RFE/RL on August 20 that the Sichuan-Chuvashia Chinese-Russian agricultural joint venture was officially charged with neglecting agricultural lands leased to it that now are covered by weeds, creating the threat of wildfires. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)
• A new bridge that will link Russia and China's railway systems was completed on August 17, 2021, seven years after its much-heralded groundbreaking. The structure's full name is the China-Russia Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge. It connects Tongjiang, a city in China's far northeastern Heilongjiang province, with Nizhneleninskoye, a town across the border with Russia along the banks of the Amur River. (CNN, 08.20.21)

Missile defense:

• During an eight-hour long press conference earlier this month, Belarusian President Lukashenko revealed that Minsk is in an advanced stage of negotiations with the Kremlin to purchase an unspecified number of S-400 “Triumf” missile defense systems. (National Interest, 08.16.21)

Nuclear arms control:

• New satellite images obtained by CNN show Russia may be preparing another test of its nuclear-powered cruise missile, known as "Skyfall"-- a controversial weapon that is designed to defeat US defense systems. (CNN, 08.20.21)

Counter-terrorism:

• No significant developments.

Conflict in Syria:

• Russia’s military police continue to conduct patrol missions in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, military police spokesman Maxim Bulatov told reporters. (TASS, 08.10.21)

Cyber security:

• No significant developments.

Energy exports from CIS:

• No significant developments.

U.S.-Russian economic ties:

• The Biden administration has put Russia’s “market economy” status under review in a move that revives a weapon not used since the 1990s to punish Russian trade. The “market economy” designation is important as without it the US can impose special duties on exports from Russia to the rest of the world that could be more painful than the blunt weapon of sanction bans as the duties cost money and can make exports uncompetitive. By reviving the market economy status weapon, Washington is partly admitting that the sanctions regime, imposed in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, has been largely ineffective.  (bne IntelliNews, 08.17.21)

U.S.-Russian relations in general:

• A Russian space agency official has claimed that in 2018, NASA austraunat Serena Auñón-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space and then damaged a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that was docked at the station so that she could return to Earth early. ASA's human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders told reporters that the personal attacks against NASA astronaut and Expedition 56 flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor were baseless.  (Space, 08.13.21)
• Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was convicted in Russia on espionage charges that he denies, will ask a court to transfer him home to serve the remainder of his sentence there. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
• Two US officials working in Germany have sought medical treatment after complaining of symptoms similar to those related to the so-called Havana syndrome, according to a person familiar with the matter. The syndrome is named after the Cuban capital, where employees of the CIA and US state department first complained of unusual sound and pressure sensations in their heads in 2016 and 2017. The symptoms have since been observed among government workers in China, Russia and more recently, Austria. The US has not said publicly who it believed was behind the incidents, which appeared to involve “directed” attacks using radiofrequency energy such as microwave radiation. But privately, officials suspected Russia was responsible. (Financial Times, 08.19.21)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a June 16 summit meeting with President Biden, objected to any role for American forces in Central Asian countries, senior U.S. and Russian officials said, undercutting the U.S. military’s efforts to act against new terrorist dangers after its Afghanistan withdrawal. The previously unreported exchange between the U.S. and Russian leaders has complicated the U.S. military’s options for basing drones and other counterterrorism forces in countries bordering landlocked Afghanistan. That challenge has deepened with the collapse over the weekend of the Afghan government and armed forces. The exchange indicates that Moscow is more determined to try to maintain Central Asia as a sphere of influence than to expand cooperation with a new American president over the turmoil in Afghanistan, former and current U.S. officials said.  (The Wall Street Journal, 08.20.21)

II. Russia’s domestic policies

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• Here’s a link to RFE/RL’s interactive map of the virus’ spread around the world, including in Russia and the rest of post-Soviet Eurasia.
• Russia’s economy grew at the fastest quarterly pace since 2000 as it bounced back from coronavirus lockdowns last year. Growth in the second quarter reached 10.3% compared to the same period of 2020, according to official data, faster than expected, taking the economy to above its pre-coronavirus level. (Bloomberg, 08.13.21)
• The number of political prisoners in Russia has increased to at least 410, the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center said. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
• A Moscow court sentenced Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, to 18 months of so-called "restricted freedom," a parole-like sentence, for allegedly calling for the violation of anti-pandemic restrictions. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
•  Russian authorities have added a prominent independent election monitoring group to its registry of “foreign agents,” a move that is part of a relentless government crackdown on independent media and activists ahead of the September parliamentary election. It is the second time that Golos, Russia’s leading election watchdog founded in 2000, was slapped with the “foreign agent” designation, which implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit the recipient. (The Washington Post/AP, 08.18.21)
• Russia's Justice Ministry on August 20 declared the Dozhd television channel (TV Rain) a "foreign agent," part of what Kremlin opponents say is a crackdown on critical media before parliamentary elections next month. Adopted in 2012 and amended repeatedly, Russia’s controversial "foreign agent" legislation requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits. Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)
• A Moscow court has sentenced Oleg Stepanov, an associate of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny to one year of so-called "restricted freedom," a parole-like sentence, for allegedly violating restrictive measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)
• Jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has urged Russian voters to use a Smart Voting strategy, a project designed by his team to promote candidates to defeat Kremlin-linked figures, in the September elections. In a statement on Instagram on August 19, exactly one month before the elections, the outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin again called the Kremlin-backed ruling United Russia party "a party of scoundrels and thieves" who "are scared of our Smart Voting." (RFE/RL, 08.19.21)

Defense and Aerospace:

• The International Army Games in Russia have so many categories that it’s hard to keep up with them. But one that stands out is called “Masters of Armored Vehicles”, where various types of four-wheelers and six-wheelers go against each other on obstacle-filled routes. This year, the competition is set to take place between August 23 and August 29, in Ostrogozhsk city, Voronezh region. (Auto Evolution, 08.18.21)  

Emergencies, security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the wildfires ravaging parts of northern Siberia "absolutely unprecedented" and called for a better response by firefighters. Putin's comments, in an August 14 video call with government officials, came as the total area burnt reached nearly 1.3 million hectares in Yakutia alone. (RFE/RL, 08.14.21)
• Russia’s 2021 wildfires are already its largest in the history of satellite observations, burning across 17.08 million hectares of land, the Greenpeace Russia environmental group has said. The new record beats the previous record set in 2012, when fires burned 17 million hectares of land across Russia, and comes with weeks left to go in a devastating wildfire season. (The Moscow Times, 08.17.21)
• Russian news agencies say eight people were killed when a Russian firefighting plane crashed while battling blazes in southern Turkey. Interfax and TASS, citing the Defense Ministry, reported the Be-200 plane went down near the city of Adana on August 14. (RFE/RL, 08.14.21)
• Three crew members have died after a military plane crashed during a test flight near Moscow on August 17. Russia's United Aircraft-Building Corporation (OAK) said the only operational prototype of the IL-112V military cargo plane crashed near the town of Nikolskoye, killing three crew members aboard. (RFE/RL, 08.17.21)

III. Russia’s relations with other countries

Russia’s general foreign policy and relations with “far abroad” countries:

• On the anniversary of Alexei Navalny’s poisoning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the jailed opposition politician, while Britain imposed targeted sanctions on Russian intelligence operatives amid blistering international criticism aimed at Moscow's treatment of the Kremlin critic. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)
• "I consider it a positive signal that the Taliban in Kabul are declaring and in practice showing their readiness to respect the opinion of others," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "In particular, they said that they are ready to discuss a government in which not only they but other Afghan representatives will also participate." On August 16, Lavrov held a phone call with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken to discuss Afghanistan.  (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.16.21, The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.16.21)
• The leadership of the Taliban movement, which is banned in Russia, has long shown themselves to be more capable of negotiating outcomes than the previous puppet government of Afghanistan, according to Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov. (TASS, 08.16.21)  Contrast that with 2008, when, according to Sergei Ivanov, the-then Russian Defense Minister told Taliban to "f..k off" after that movement had allegedly offered Moscow to team up with them against U.S. 
• Russia does not plan to evacuate its embassy in Kabul as Taliban fighters reached the outskirts of the Afghan capital in their blistering military takeover of the country, foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov told Russian agencies Sunday. Kabulov also said that Russia was among a number of countries to receive assurances from the Taliban that their embassies would be safe.   (AFP, 08.14.21)
• “You can’t blame Russia for feeling a little smug about what is happening in Kabul,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs journal and an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin on foreign policy. “This is a PR disaster of enormous proportions for America. The desperate images from Kabul airport will go into the history books.” (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.16.21)
• Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who ended the U.S.S.R.'s decade-long war in Afghanistan in 1989, on August 17 warned against repeating the mistakes of the U.S. invasion of the country. "From the very start (the U.S. invasion) was a bad idea, although Russia initially supported it," Gorbachev told the RIA Novosti news agency. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.17.21)
• The U.S.-supplied Afghan Air Force took to the skies for a final flight overnight Sunday to August 16 to save some of its planes and pilots from capture as the insurgents took control of Afghanistan. At least six military aircraft left the country in a flight for safety in former Soviet states to the north. Five landed in Tajikistan, the Tajik authorities said. One plane was shot down in Uzbekistan, although its two pilots were reported to have parachuted and survived. (The New York Times, 08.17.21)
• Uzbekistan has detained 84 Afghan soldiers who crossed the border, the government said on August 15, adding that another group of soldiers had amassed near a border checkpoint on the Afghan side. (RFE/RL, 08.14.21)
• Asked on August 16 if Nato should move away from “nation-building”, Merkel agreed: “The goals [of such deployments] should be made much narrower.” (Financial Times, 08.17.21.)
• Armin Laschet, Germany’s conservative candidate to succeed chancellor Angela Merkel, on August 17 called the allied troop withdrawal “the greatest debacle that Nato has experienced since its foundation”. (Financial Times, 08.17.21.)
• Ben Wallace, UK defence secretary, who appeared on the verge of tears on August 16 as he reckoned “some would not get back” from Afghanistan. “It’s sad. Twenty years of sacrifice is what it is,” he said. (Financial Times, 08.17.21.)
• Lord George Robertson, who was Nato secretary-general on the day of the twin towers attack in New York, and who triggered the article five a few hours later, suggested the US decision to withdraw even as other allies were mounting objections was damaging. “It weakens Nato because the principle of ‘in together, out together’ seems to have been abandoned both by Donald Trump and by Joe Biden,” he told the Financial Times. (Financial Times, 08.17.21.)
• “Afghanistan today is the umpteenth expression of Nato’s failed, supine policy,” Ione Belarra, Podemos leader and Spain’s social policy minister, wrote on Twitter. Lilith Verstrynge, another leading Podemos official, argued that Nato’s failures provided all the more reason for Europe to move towards a more independent stance of its own, a stance pushed by French president Emmanuel Macron. (Financial Times, 08.17.21.)
• Retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, a former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the decision to leave was overdue The Soviet Union, which occupied Afghanistan for a decade until it abruptly withdrew in 1989, "did it the same way," Powell said. "They got tired, and they marched out and back home. How long did anybody remember that?" (The Washington Post, 08.17.21)
• Russia could renew a visa for BBC journalist t Sarah Rainsford o let her resume work in Moscow if British authorities give a visa to a Russian journalist, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. (AP, 08.13.21)
• Luxembourg has refused to grant a license for Russian state-backed network RT to broadcast a German-language channel from the country, the authorities said. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.15.21)
• Argentina’s health minister and presidential adviser are visiting Russia to discuss delays in the supplies of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the state-run TASS news agency reported August 16. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 08.17.21)
• Libya’s UN-backed government has issued an arrest warrant for toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son on charges of war crimes allegedly committed by shadowy Russian mercenaries, the BBC reported. (The Moscow Times, 08.16.21)
• As the Afghan government collapsed this week in Kabul and the United States scrambled to speed up its evacuation effort, hundreds of Russian armored vehicles and artillery pieces were clearly visible hundreds of miles away, on the border with Tajikistan. They were part of a high-profile military exercise taking place just 12 miles from a Taliban position, and they were there, a Russian general said, to make a point. “They are all visible,” said Gen. Anatoly Sidorov, commander of the forces involved in the exercise. “They are not hiding.” (The New York Times, 08.19.21)
• Russia’s top diplomat assured his Libyan counterpart that Moscow supports the withdrawal of all foreign fighters from the North African country and is prepared to help work out the details with other countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the talks in Moscow with Najla Mangoush that the Libyan leadership “is forming a consultative mechanism ... to formulate the concrete parameters” under which the foreign forces will leave. Russia was among the foreign powers backing the warring sides in Libya’s conflict, with some officials and media reports alleging that Russian private military contractors took part in the fighting. (The Wall Street Journal, 08.19.21)
• In the wake of the Taliban's lightning takeover of Afghanistan, Russian officials moved quickly into a two-pronged approach: cautiously reaching out to the Taliban even as Russia expanded military exercises with Tajikistan along the Afghan border. In Russia, with its bitter memories of a failed Soviet occupation in the 1980s and humiliating withdrawal after more than nine years, there was inevitable schadenfreude to see its rival, the United States, facing its own botched departure. Now Russia sees potential for a more influential role with the Taliban, while weighing risks of regional instability or extremism if Afghanistan slides back into civil war. (The Washington Post, 08.19.21)
• A Moscow court has ordered Google to pay more fines for violating Russia's rules on banned content as the government continues to push foreign firms to open offices in Russia and store Russians' personal data on its territory. The magistrate court of Moscow's Taganka district ruled on August 19 that Google must pay a total of 6 million rubles ($81,500) for "committing three administrative offenses." Two days earlier, the same court ordered Google to pay 14 million rubles ($190,000) on similar charges regarding five cases concerning the failure to delete banned content. (RFE/RL, 08.19.21)
• Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan has praised the conduct of the Taliban in the days since its takeover, saying there was no alternative to the hardline group and resistance to it would fail. The comments on August 19 by Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov reflect efforts by Russia to deepen already well-established ties with the Taliban while stopping short, for now, of recognising them as the legitimate rulers of a country Moscow tried and failed to control before the Soviet Union withdrew its last forces in 1989. (Al Jazeera, 08.20.21)
• The Nord Stream 2 link to Germany is almost done, with just 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) of pipes still to be laid, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a conference in Moscow. Depending on how many vessels are used, the build could take about 10 to 30 days, according to Bloomberg calculation. (Bloomberg, 08.20.21)

Ukraine:

• Second-quarter gross domestic product shrank in Ukraine a seasonally adjusted 0.8% after falling 1.2% in the previous three months, preliminary data showed. On an annual basis, it ended more than a year of contraction, advancing by 5.4%, though that was some way off analyst estimates for a 7.3% increase. (Bloomberg, 08.16.21)
• Ukraine’s trade in goods with China surged during the first half of this year, nearly hitting $9 billion, reports the State Statistics Service. Exports to China jumped by 43% yoy, to $4.3 billion. Imports from China increased by 25%, to $4.6 billion. This is more than the combined total of trade with Poland -- $5.6 billion – and with Germany -- $3 billion. Trade with Russia totaled $4 billion. (Ukraine Business News, 08.16.21)
• A group of Ukrainian officers visited the Ramstein Air Base and Kapaun Air Station in Germany from August 2 to 6. Lt. Col. Ryan Roper, 435th Contingency Response Support Squadron commander said that the visit is a positive step to determine how US and Ukrainian forces “can cooperate and interoperate in the future.” (Defense Post, 08.13.21)
• Slovak Air Force military aircraft will for the first time to take part in a lavish parade in Kyiv on Aug 24 marking the 30th anniversary of independence following the Soviet Union’s breakup. (Defence Blog, 08.13.21)
• Andriy Vlasenko, head of the State Food and Grain Corporation, was arrested at Kyiv Zhuliany as he attempted to board a plane out of the country. The National Police announced that officials at the company organized a scheme that defrauded the state of $57 million. (Ukraine Business News, 08.16.21)
• Ukrainian police say the body of 48-year-old Kostyantyn Pavlov, a leading member of the Russian-friendly Opposition Bloc -- For Life party and the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih was found on August 15 after he apparently died from a gunshot wound at his house in the village of Vilne. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has lamented that the crisis in Crimea has fallen from global attention, and he pledged to "raise from the knees" the fate of the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia seven years ago. In an interview with Ukrainian media, including RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Zelenskiy said he also wants to raise awareness of residents, including Crimean Tatars and others, who have been detained or prosecuted by the region's Russian-backed administration. (RFE/RL, 08.19.21)

Russia's other post-Soviet neighbors:

• As Belarus's campaign of weaponized migration spreads across the Baltics and into Poland, the European Union must treat it as an attempt to destabilize the entire bloc and react swiftly, even if that means helping to construct a fence along its external border, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in an interview with The Washington Post. (The Washington Post, 08.13.21)
• Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko "is using refugees, for example from Iraq, in a hybrid way to undermine security," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on August 17 at a news conference with the Estonian prime minister in Berlin amid growing concerns within the EU that thousands more migrants will seek to enter the bloc following the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan. (RFE/RL, 08.17.21)
•  A top U.S. diplomat has called on Belarus to stop allowing migrants to illegally cross into Lithuania and other neighboring countries. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman raised the migrant situation along Lithuania's border with Belarus in a call on August 13 with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. (RFE/RL, 08.13.21)
• Now under house arrest, dissident blogger Roman Protasevich says he is turning away from the opposition movement he helped propel through his grass-roots media network, criticizing Western sanctions introduced to pressure Mr. Lukashenko to step down after a disputed election and over 27 years in power. "They're not the best way to solve political problems and the political situation in the country," Mr. Protasevich said from detention over the Telegram messaging app, using its video option when internet speeds allowed it. "Mostly they affect just people. They make Lukashenko more angry and push Belarus much more toward Russia."  (The Wall Street Journal, 08.14.21)
• A court in Belarus has designated leading independent news outlet Tut.by and its new media site, Zerkalo.io, as "extremist." (RFE/RL, 08.13.21)
• Armenia has reiterated its support for India over its decades-long territorial dispute with Pakistan and expressed gratitude to New Delhi for its "targeted statements" regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, acting Foreign Minister Armen Grigorian said in remarks on August 15 during an event in Yerevan dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the independence of India. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
• The Armenian authorities say a shoot-out along the border with Azerbaijan has left one Armenian military officer dead as tensions continue to simmer between the two countries after last year's war over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. (RFE/RL, 08.16.21)
• Tajik men will be able to legally avoid serving their mandatory two-year stint in the country's armed forces by paying a fee to the Defense Ministry. A government resolution enforcing legislation allowing Tajik men between the ages of 18 and 27 to pay the equivalent of $2,200 in order to avoid conscription was made public on August 16. The new regulations were approved by lawmakers earlier this year. (RFE/RL, 08.17.21)
• A court in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, has sentenced well-known pro-Russian blogger Ermek Taichibekov to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of inciting ethnic discord. Taichibekov's lawyer, Ghalym Nurpeisov, and his brother Marlen Taichibekov said the Auezov district court handed down the decision on August 19. Taichibekov was arrested in September and charged with using media to incite ethnic hatred. (RFE/RL, 08.20.21)

IV. Quoteworthy:

• Russia has been struck by the speed of the unraveling of the U.S.-installed government in Kabul, said Fyodor Lukyanov, the chairman of Russia's Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and editor in chief of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs. The decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which ended in 1989, is widely remembered as a failure, one that leaves Russia in no mood to reengage too closely with Afghanistan, he said. But at least, Lukyanov noted, the government left behind by the Soviets survived for three years after the withdrawal of Red Army forces. "We believe our failure was big, but it seems the Americans achieved an even bigger failure," he said. (The Washington Post, 08,.14.21)
• President Biden said a little more than five weeks ago: “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.” Then, he added, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” (The New York Times, 08.14.21)