This Week’s Highlights

• Russia’s armed forces are hosting a series of large-scale international exercises in Southern Russia and parts of the Caucasus. Around 150,000 military personnel are expected to participate in the “Kavkaz”-2020 military drills, according to The National Interest. Troops from China, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, Belarus, Abkhazia, Turkey, South Ossetia, Mongolia and all five of the Central Asian states are expected to take part; however, the Indian military has said it will not participate as clashes between Indian and Chinese troops continue, RFE/RL reports. 
• A database of several million American voters’ personal information has appeared on the Russian dark web two months ahead of presidential elections clouded by claims of Russian meddling, Russia’s Kommersant reports.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with the chemical nerve agent novichok in an attempt to murder him, and demanded an explanation from the Kremlin, the Financial Times reports. German medics have found traces of the toxic substance used to poison Navalny in his blood, skin, urine and a water bottle he drank from, according to The Moscow Times. Asked whether Germany should pull out of the Nord Stream 2 project in light of the Navalny incident, Merkel said the two issues should be “decoupled,” the Financial Times reports.
• Belarus has no need for Russia’s troops for the time being, the Kremlin said Aug. 31 after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of a Russian “reserve” ready for deployment in case of mass unrest in Belarus, The Moscow Times reports. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sept. 3 replaced his security chiefs during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s visit, AFP reports, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sept. 1 denounced sanctions against Belarus as "unacceptable" and voiced support for  Lukashenko's proposal of constitutional reforms, according to The Moscow Times.
• Lukashenko is poised to escape personal sanctions the EU is drafting in response to his post-election crackdown, the German daily Die Welt reported. Lukashenko will not appear on the EU sanctions list because Germany, France and Italy “made a strong case” that lines of communications with him must stay open, according to Die Welt.
• Russia’s government believes that the population will decrease by 158,000 people this year, RBC reported, totaling 146.6 million by the end of 2020, according to The Moscow Times. The COVID-19 outbreak will also push Russia’s poverty rate up from 12.3 percent in 2019 to 13.3 percent this year, according to the same preliminary forecasts. 
• Early-stage trials of Russia’s new coronavirus injection generated strong immune responses in 100 percent of the participants without any “serious adverse affects,” showed a study published in the peer-reviewed U.K. medical journal The Lancet on Sept. 4, the Financial Times reports. Additionally, elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, according to The Moscow Times, and Russia plans to begin the first mass deliveries of its vaccine in September, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

 

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

Nuclear security:

• No significant developments.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, said on Sept. 3 in response to a media report that it does not ship petroleum products to North Korea and does not do any business in the country. On Sept. 2, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea boosted its imports of refined oil products from Russia by 16 percent last year, despite the wide-ranging sanctions on Kim Jong-un’s regime. (Oil Price, 09.03.20)

Iran and its nuclear program:

• Speaking on Sept. 4, the Iranian President's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi dismissed any plans for direct talks with the U.S. after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed to mediate between Iran and the U.S. In a speech on Sept. 1, Lavrov said Moscow is ready to facilitate direct dialogue between the two countries. (Radio Liberty, 09.04.20)
• On Sept. 1, after a meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA, EU representative Helga Schmid tweeted that all participants were "united in resolve to preserve the Iran deal" and "find a way to ensure full implementation of the agreement despite current challenges." (Radio Liberty, 09.04.20)

New Cold War/saber rattling:

• While Russia occasionally flies military aircraft into the zone of the North American Aerospace Defense Command beyond U.S. and Canadian air space, and those incursions are routinely met by U.S. or Canadian jets to check out the Russian planes. “This year, we’ve conducted more than a dozen intercepts, the most in recent years,” Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of Norad, said in a statement. (New York Times, 09.01.20)
• Russia will hold two naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean beginning next week, according to Turkey’s navy, a move that could fuel escalating frictions in the energy-rich region. Russian warships will conduct firing exercises between Sept. 8-22 and Sept. 17-25, a Turkish navy website said Sept. 2. (Bloomberg, 09.03.20)
• Russian pilots harassed a U.S. B-52 bomber flying over the Black Sea and in international waters, crossing within 100 feet of the bomber's path, a maneuver the U.S. military called "unsafe and unprofessional." (Wall Street Journal, 08.31.20)
• Denmark said Sept. 1 it had summoned the Russian ambassador for talks after a Russian jet fighter violated the Scandinavian country's airspace during a NATO exercise last week. "I take very seriously Russia's unacceptable violation of Danish airspace. It is absolutely essential that everybody—including Russia—respects the ground rules and international principles," Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said. (The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)
• A Russian MiG-31 fighter was scrambled for the second time within 24 hours to intercept foreign aircraft over the Barents Sea, Russia's National Defense Control Center said. "The Russian fighter crew identified the aerial targets as an RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the U.S. Air Force and a Sentinel R.1 surveillance aircraft of the British Royal Air Force," the center said Sept. 3. (Interfax, 09.04.20)
• A French military officer, reported to be a lieutenant-colonel seconded to NATO accused of passing top secret documents to a Russian agent, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for a foreign power, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said. Europe 1 radio reported that the officer had been stationed at a NATO base in Italy and arrested for passing material to an agent of the GRU. He was detained in Paris on Aug. 21 just before returning to work from holiday in France. (Financial Times, 08.30.20)
• Russia says it will expel three Slovak diplomats after three staff at the Russian Embassy in Bratislava were told to leave earlier this month, a move that media in Slovakia have linked to last year’s killing in Berlin of a former Chechen rebel from Georgia. (RFE/RL, 08.31.20)

NATO-Russia relations:

• No significant developments.

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• With regards to extending New START, the ball is now in Russia’s court, a Pentagon official said Sept. 2. U.S. representatives, in recent talks with Russia in Vienna, said Washington would consider an extension if there were a new framework to include Russia’s range of unconstrained nonstrategic nuclear weapons and the implementation of stronger verification measures, as well as the inclusion of China in future talks. The U.S. team offered Moscow proposals to that effect. “Now we’re waiting to see if Russia has the political will now to come and talk to us about it,” Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy for nuclear and missile defense, said Sept. 2. (Defense News, 09.02.20)

Counter-terrorism:

• No significant developments.

Conflict in Syria:

• Videos of the encounter in Syria that emerged Aug. 26 appeared to show Russian and Americans vehicles speeding in an open field, with a Russian vehicle ramming an American vehicle, and a Russian helicopter flying low over U.S. forces. (New York Times, 09.01.20)
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he took the issue seriously enough that he and a senior Pentagon leader had warned their Russian counterparts about the matter. (New York Times, 09.01.20)
  • Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Aug. 31 rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump for failing to publicly address the altercation in Syria. “Did you hear the president say a single word? Did he lift one finger?” he asked. (New York Times, 09.01.20)
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia’s Sapsan-Convoy anti-drone system could be sent to Syria, noting that this depends on its success in Operation Caucasus 2020. (Daily Sabah, 08.31.20)
• The results achieved by joint Russian and Turkish military patrols in Syria’s Idlib province are not bad, Lavrov said Sept. 1. (TASS, 09.01.20)
• Russian and Turkish servicemen held a joint training session in Syria to drill the skills of neutralizing militants, evacuating damaged vehicles and offering first aid to the injured. (TASS, 09.01.20)

Cyber security:

• Russia’s Military Academy of the General Staff has set up a communication and IT department, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press office said. The new department will deal with actual research. It has a research laboratory and teaches disciplines such as information technologies, electronic educational and information resources, military strategy, the art of strategy and military construction. (TASS, 09.04.20)

Elections interference:

• The Chinese Communist Party, not Russia, poses the biggest threat to election security leading up to November, said U.S. Attorney General William Barr. In an interview on Sept. 2, Barr was asked about election security and who is the most assertive or aggressive nation. “I believe it’s China,” Barr said. “China more than Russia right now.” (NTD, 09.03.20)
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned federal and state law enforcement agencies on Sept. 3 that individuals and groups allied with Russia have amplified allegations that mail-in voting could lead to “vast opportunities for voter fraud,” echoing a baseless claim that Trump has made repeatedly. (New York Times, 09.03.20)
• The Internet Research Agency, the Russian group that interfered in the 2016 presidential election, is at it again, using a network of fake accounts and a website set up to look like a left-wing news site, Facebook and Twitter said on Sept. 1. Facebook and Twitter said they were warned by the FBI about the Russian effort. The fake network and site did not reach as big an audience as the group’s efforts in 2016, but the campaign came with a new wrinkle: The Russians hired real Americans to write for the website. (New York Times, 09.02.20)
• A database of several million American voters’ personal information has appeared on the Russian dark web two months ahead of presidential elections clouded by claims of Russian meddling, Russia’s Kommersant reported Sept. 1. A user nicknamed Gorka9 advertised free access to the personal information of 7.6 million voters in Michigan in an unnamed discussion forum, according to Kommersant. The paper said it has also found databases of between 2 million and 6 million voters in Connecticut, Arkansas, Florida and North Carolina. (The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)
• Democratic senators asked the Trump administration Sept. 3 to immediately impose sanctions on individuals and agencies acting on behalf of Russia and other countries that seek to interfere with this year's U.S. election. In making the formal request to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 11 senators cited a recent intelligence finding that Russia is using several measures "to denigrate former Vice President [Joe] Biden" and other Democrats in advance of the election. (The Washington Post, 09.03.20)
• As Trump's new director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, tries to limit briefings of Congress about election interference by Russia and other nations in the final two months before election day, Congress is fighting back, but it seems unlikely that the chokehold will be eased significantly. (The Washington Post,  08.31.20)
• The Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia. Law enforcement officials never fully investigated Trump’s own relationship with Russia, even though some career FBI counterintelligence investigators thought his ties posed such a national security threat that they took the extraordinary step of opening an inquiry into them. Within days, the former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere. (New York Times, 09.01.20)

Energy exports from CIS:

• No significant developments.

U.S.-Russian economic ties:

• A Russian lawmaker has submitted a bill that would slash the commissions paid to U.S. tech companies Apple and Google for the purchase of apps on their platforms. Fedot Tumusov, a member of the A Just Russia party representing the Siberian region of Yakutsk, submitted legislation on Sept. 1 that would cap the tech giants' commission at 20 percent. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)

U.S.-Russian relations in general:

• At a small campaign rally in Latrobe, Pa., Trump on Sept. 3 praised himself for wanting to “get along” with Russia and said that when he hears people talking about Russia in the news he “turns it off.” “If I get along with Russia, is that a good thing or bad thing? I think it’s a good thing.” (New York Times, 09.04.20)
• In an 8-2 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier order directing a lower court to grant the U.S. Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s then ambassador to the U.S. (Financial Times, 08.31.20)
• Interpol has removed catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin from its international alert list after U.S. prosecutors dropped a criminal case into election meddling against his company. (The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)

 

II. Russia’s domestic policies

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• On Sept. 4, for the first time since Aug. 15, more than 5,000 people were infected with COVID-19 in one day in Russia (5,100) bringing the country’s official number of cases to 1,015,105. Overnight, 121 people died. The total death toll since the start of the pandemic is 17,649. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.20) 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. For a comparison of the number and rate of change in new cases in the U.S. and Russia, visit this Russia Matters resource.
• Early-stage trials of Russia’s new coronavirus injection generated strong immune responses in 100 percent of the participants without any “serious adverse affects,” showed a study published in U.K. medical journal The Lancet on Sept. 4. (Financial Times, 09.04.20)
• Elderly scientists who helped develop Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have not reported adverse effects after being injected, the head of the research institute behind the inoculation said. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• Russia plans to begin the first mass deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine in September, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Aug. 31. (The Moscow Times, 08.31.20)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry has held a presentation of a Russian coronavirus vaccine for military leaders of CIS, CSTO and SCO countries and Serbia at Patriot Park near Moscow. (TASS, 09.04.20)
• Russia’s government believes the population will decrease by 158,000 people this year, RBC reported, totaling 146.6 million by the end of 2020. The COVID-19 outbreak will also push Russia’s poverty rate up from 12.3 percent in 2019 to 13.3 percent this year, according to the same preliminary forecasts. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• Weekly consumer price inflation in Russia for the week of Aug. 31 remained at zero, according to the latest data by the Rosstat statistics bureau. (bne Intellinews, 09.04.20)
• Russia’s manufacturing PMI was back in the black, rising to 51.1 in August from the mild contraction of 48.4 in July and completing the recovery from the index’s total collapse in the second quarter due to the corona-crisis. (bne Intellinews, 09.01.20)
• The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Russia Services Business Activity Index continued at its high bounce-back level, posting 58.2 in August, only slightly down from 58.5 at the start of the third quarter. (bne Intellinews, 09.03.20)
• Rosatom has approved a project to upgrade an experimental shop-floor for nuclear fuel fabrication at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine. The move will enable SCC to manufacture fuel assemblies with uranium-plutonium REMIX fuel matrix for VVER-1000 reactors. (World Nuclear News, 08.27.20)
• One of the largest glaciers in Russia’s Urals region has completely melted, according to members of a research group that carried out an expedition. The glacier known as MGU, which was 2.2 kilometers long when it was discovered in 1953, has vanished, the researchers from the Scientific Center for Arctic Studies said in an Aug. 31 statement. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)
• A court in Moscow has extended the pretrial arrests for three former police officers suspected in the illegal apprehension of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov last year, a case that sparked a public outcry over wrongdoing by police. (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)
• A court in Moscow has extended the pretrial detention of former journalist Ivan Safronov, who is charged with high treason. The Lefortovo district court on Sept. 2 ruled that Safronov must be held at least until Dec. 7. (RFE/RL, 09.02.20)
• A court in Russia's Siberian city of Kemerovo has sentenced two Jehovah's Witnesses to four years in prison each. (RFE/RL, 09.02.20)
• A prominent Russia blogger and activist known for his open criticism of the government, Yegor Zhukov, has been hospitalized after two unknown attackers beat him near his Moscow home. (RFE/RL, 08.31.20)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced those citizens who do not share the Kremlin's interpretation of the history of World War II, calling them "collaborators." (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russia’s armed forces are hosting a series of large-scale international exercises in Southern Russia and parts of the Caucasus. Kavkaz—Russian for “Caucasus”—2020 is the last in a cycle of four rotating regional exercises. Around 150,000 military personnel are expected to participate in military drills. (The National Interest, 09.03.20)
  • Troops from as diverse a cast of Eurasian actors as China, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, Belarus, Abkhazia, Turkey, South Ossetia, Mongolia and all five of the Central Asian states are expected to take part. (The National Interest, 09.03.20)
  • The Indian military has said it will not participate in Russia’s multinational exercises. India has informed Russia that it will not be sending a contingent for the Kavkaz-2020 exercises as clashes continue between Indian and Chinese troops along the contested Himalayan border zone. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20, The National Interest, 09.03.20)
  • Shoigu and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh discussed military and military-technical cooperation at a meeting in Moscow on Sept. 3, the Russian Defense Ministry said. (Interfax, 09.03.20)
• Even as Russia continues to overcome production issues with its Su-57 stealth fighter, Moscow reportedly has its eyes set on a sixth-generation fighter jet. “Possibly, this will be so: the fighter produced by the MiG-Sukhoi,” Rostec Aviation Cluster Industrial Director Anatoly Serdyukov said Sept. 1. (The National Interest, 09.03.20)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Sept. 4 it had detained 13 Russian citizens in the country on suspicion of planning mass killings with improvised explosive devices, Molotov cocktails and bladed weapons. (Xinhua, 09.04.20)
• The Altai Regional Directorate of the FSB submitted to court a criminal case against a Central Asian native who was detained in June at the Barnaul airport attempting to fly out to the Middle East in order to engage in warfare with the Islamic State. (TASS, 09.04.20)

 

III. Russia’s relations with other countries

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

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition activist, had been poisoned with the chemical nerve agent novichok in an attempt to murder him, and demanded an explanation from the Kremlin. Merkel said she was “appalled” at the attack, and condemned it “in the strongest terms.” The German government said a toxicology test by a specialist military laboratory on samples taken from Navalny had proved “beyond all doubt” that he had been poisoned with a “chemical nerve agent of the novichok group.” (Financial Times, 09.02.20) 
  • German medics have found traces of the toxic substance used to poison Navalny in his blood, skin, urine and a water bottle he drank from, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sept. 4. “Navalny had probably drunk from the bottle after he had already been poisoned, and so he left the traces of the poison there,” Der Spiegel reported. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.20)
  • Merkel is facing intense pressure to scrap the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which will transport gas from Russia to Germany, to punish Moscow over the poisoning of Navalny. Politicians from both the opposition and Merkel’s own party insist that the pipeline project has no future following the attack on Navalny. Asked last week whether Germany should pull out of the project in light of the Navalny incident, Merkel said the two issues should be “decoupled.” (Financial Times, 09.03.20, The Washington Post, 09.03.20)
  • German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Russia’s ambassador to Germany was summoned to the foreign ministry on Sept. 2 and told that the German government insisted the Russian authorities “fully and transparently investigate” Navalny’s poisoning. (Financial Times, 09.02.20)
  • There is no reason to accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny, the Kremlin said Sept. 3. "A whole number of theories including poisoning were considered from the very first days," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "According to our doctors, this theory has not been proved." Peskov said Moscow was “ready and interested in total cooperation and exchange of information on the subject” with Berlin. (Financial Times, 09.02.20, AFP, 09.04.20, The Moscow Times, 09.03.20)
  • Russia's Investigative Committee has asked one of its regional branches in Siberia to probe the possibility that someone tried to murder Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, the RIA news agency reported on Sept. 4. (Al Jazeera, 09.04.20)
  • The head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin said the Navalny situation could be a provocation by Western intelligence agencies. "This cannot be ruled out," Naryshkin told Interfax. (The Washington Post, 09.03.20)
  • The White House said it was “deeply troubled” by the news about the poisoning, which was “completely reprehensible.” (Financial Times, 09.02.20)
  • French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the use of novichok against Navalny as "shocking and irresponsible" and said France was in touch with Germany and other partners to coordinate a response, particularly through the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. (Financial Times, 09.02.20)
  • On Sept. 2, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was “deeply concerned” by the German finding and threatened “consequences” for using chemical weapons prohibited by international treaties. (Financial Times, 09.02.20)
  • NATO has called on a defiant Russia to "fully cooperate" with an "impartial international" probe to be led by the global Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into the poisoning of Navalny. (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)
  • "Only the state (FSB, GRU) can use Novichok. This is beyond any reasonable doubt," Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• A meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s defense ministers is scheduled to take place in Moscow on Sept. 5. (Hindustan Times, 09.03.20)
• The investigative website Bellingcat said it has identified an alleged member of FSB as an accomplice to the murder of a Georgian man in Berlin last summer. Bellingcat said that German indictment documents list Roman Demyanchenko, who is believed to be a member of the FSB’s special-purpose unit partly tasked with “deniable overseas assassinations,” as a possible accomplice to the Aug. 23, 2019, murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. (The Moscow Times, 08.31.20)
• Montenegro’s opposition coalition, which claimed a tiny majority in the Aug. 30 election on a platform of seeking closer links with Serbia and Russia, has called Western sanctions against Moscow a mistake. Zdravko Krivokapić, leader of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, said that the Montenegrin economy has suffered major losses due to anti-Russia sanctions. (The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)
• As war raged in Libya last winter, a dozen world leaders gathered in Berlin to talk peace. As leaders posed for a group photo with Merkel on Jan. 19, having signed a pledge to respect the arms embargo on Libya, at least five cargo airplanes filled with weapons from the United Arab Emirates and Russia were cruising across the skies of North Africa, bound for the battlefields of Libya. (New York Times, 09.04.20)
• Russia’s controversial constitutional reforms will make discussions with Japan on the dispute over a set of Pacific islands easier for Moscow, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• Greece and Poland have updated their coronavirus travel restrictions to allow Russian citizens to cross their borders for two-week periods as Russia’s virus caseload topped the one million milestone. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)

China-Russia: Allied or Aligned?

• Russia has begun work on one of the world’s largest polymer plants, an $11 billion project that has its sights set on the Chinese market as economic ties between Beijing and Moscow grow. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)
• The Pentagon has just released its long-awaited 2020 version of its annual report on China’s military developments. The report for the first time provides the Defense Department’s estimate of the number of nuclear warheads in the Chinese nuclear weapons stockpile: low-200s. (Federation of American Scientists, 09.01.20)

Ukraine:

• Pompeo has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about U.S. concerns over China’s attempt to purchase a Ukrainian engine manufacturer, the State Department said on Aug. 29. Pompeo raised concerns over “malign” Chinese investment in Ukraine, including Beijing’s efforts to acquire the Motor Sich engine manufacturer, in a telephone call on Aug. 26 with Zelenskiy, spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. (RFE/RL, 08.30.20)
• The trial of three defendants suspected of being involved in the high-profile killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet has started in Kyiv with the selection of jurors. The Shevchenko district court on Sept. 4 selected jurors with the participation of defendants Andriy Antonenko, Yana Duhar and Yulia Kuzmenko, and their legal teams. (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)
• Ukraine has displaced Russia to become the world’s third largest potato producer. Agronews.ua reports that last year’s crop levels were: China with 93 million tons; India with 51 million tons; and Ukraine with 23 million. The next two countries were Russia and the U.S. (Ukraine Business News. 09.01.20)
• Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional an order of former President Petro Poroshenko from April 2015 that appointed Artem Sytnyk to the position of director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. (bne Intellinews, 09.01.20)
• Ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk will join the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center as a distinguished fellow. (UNIAN, 08.31.20)

Belarus:

• Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko on Sept. 3 replaced his security chiefs and said progress was being made on plans to bring Moscow and Minsk closer. The reshuffle was announced during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who became the most senior Moscow official to make a public visit to Belarus since the political crisis broke out over the disputed election on Aug. 9. (AFP, 09.03.20)
• Russia and Belarus are preparing to reopen borders that were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic and are discussing rerouting Belarusian oil exports through Russia, news outlets reported after Mishustin and his delegation met Lukashenko. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.20)
• Russia on Sept. 1 denounced sanctions against Belarus as "unacceptable" and voiced support for Lukashenko's proposal of constitutional reforms. Lavrov said Western countries were "delivering verdicts" on events in Belarus, following weeks of protests against Lukashenko's claim to have won a sixth presidential term. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• Belarus has no need for Russia’s troops for the time being, the Kremlin said Aug. 31 after Putin announced the creation of a Russian “reserve” ready for deployment in case of mass unrest in the neighboring state. “The use of this reserve is out of the question at the moment,” Peskov told reporters, according to Kommersant. (The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)
• Lukashenko has thanked Russian television channel RT for providing "support" after some staff and presenters at Belarus's state broadcaster quit in protest over his disputed re-election. (The Moscow Times, 09.02.20)
• Lukashenko is poised to escape personal sanctions the EU is drafting in response to his post-election crackdown, the German daily Die Welt reported Sept. 4. Lukashenko will not appear on the EU sanctions list because Germany, France and Italy “made a strong case” that lines of communications with him must stay open, according to Die Welt. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.20)
• The White House on Aug. 31 urged Russia to "respect" sovereignty and democracy in neighboring Belarus.(The Moscow Times, 09.01.20)
• Pompeo says the U.S. is demanding an immediate end to the violent crackdown by Belarus's government on opposition supporters. Pompeo also said on Sept. 2 that the U.S. was reviewing significant targeted sanctions on anyone involved in human rights abuses in Belarus in consultation with Washington's transatlantic partners. (RFE/RL, 09.02.20)
• U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun says Washington and its European partners will continue to press Belarusian authorities to free political prisoners, end violence against protesters and allow citizens to choose their government through a free and fair election. (RFE/RL, 09.02.20)
• The U.N.'s special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer told Belarus on Sept. 1 that it must "stop torturing protesters" and bring to justice any police officers who have beaten them with impunity. (AFP, 09.01.20)
• The energy ministries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have reached an agreement to cease electricity trading with Belarus when it commissions its nuclear power plant and to introduce a system of certificates stating the origin of electricity. (World Nuclear News, 09.03.20)
• Throngs of women peacefully protested in central Minsk late on Sept. 1 after earlier in the day security forces detained dozens of university students rallying in response to a call from Belarus’s opposition for a nationwide strike to coincide with the first day of the school year. Several hundred women gathered near Independence Avenue in the capital, some singing and dancing as police looked on without intervening. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)
• Six Belarusian journalists detained earlier this week while covering an anti-government protest in Minsk were sentenced to three days in jail. (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)
• The jailed ex-banker Viktor Babariko and Maria Kolesnikova, one of the trio of women who campaigned against Lukashenko, have founded a new political party called “Together” to fight in new elections the opposition hope to bring about. (bne Intellinews, 09.01.20)
• ATMs in Minsk are empty as the population scrambles to convert their Belarusian rubles to dollars in the expectation of yet another economic crisis. (bne Intellinews, 08.27.20)

Russia's other post-Soviet neighbors:

• U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has warned for the second time since early July that Russia will likely try to interfere in the upcoming parliamentary elections in the South Caucasus country. Parliamentary elections in Georgia are scheduled for October. (RFE/RL, 09.01.20)
• The former leader of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, has called on the region's current leader, Anatoly Bibilov, to resign amid a political crisis sparked by the death of a man in custody. In a video statement on Facebook on Aug. 31, Kokoity said he is currently in Russia's North Caucasus region of North Ossetia and accused Bibilov of "launching a war against his own people." (RFE/RL, 08.31.20)
• Emboldened by its growing support from Turkey, Azerbaijan has been taking an increasingly harder line against Russia as a diplomatic spat between Baku and Moscow continues to escalate. The object of the current dispute is a series of flights that Russian military cargo planes took to Armenia. (bne Intellinews, 09.03.20)
• Hospitals are being inundated with patients showing acute COVID-19 symptoms in Turkmenistan, the only country in Central Asia where no coronavirus cases have been officially registered. (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)
• Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary election campaign has officially begun, with 15 political parties contesting 120 seats in the Jogorku Kenesh (Supreme Council). (RFE/RL, 09.04.20)

 

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.