This Week’s Highlights:

• Trump has agreed to a new Syria strategy that indefinitely extends the military effort there in part due to growing doubts about Russia’s ability and willingness to help eject Iran from Syria, according to The Washington Post.
• The Pentagon’s long-awaited Missile Defense Review, which will have an increased focus on China and Russia, is coming out very soon, according to Defense News and Inside Defense.
• Special counsel Robert Mueller wants U.S. President Donald Trump to commit to a follow-up interview to written answers to questions in his probe, but “I don’t see how we can do it," Rudy Giuliani said, according to Reuters.
• Russia doesn’t care about collateral damage, says Robert Hannigan, a former director of the U.K.’s communications intelligence agency in reference to the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the Financial Times reports.
• In a heated argument with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently became so angry “that he started threatening to decisively crush his counterpart's forces," an excerpt from former French President Francois Hollande's new book says, according to Business Insider.
• Ukrainian Lt. Gen. Serhiy Nayev claims separatists in Eastern Ukraine have over 400 tanks—more than the U.K., the Financial Times reports.
• Over half of the Russian population is willing to protest government plans to raise the retirement age, The Moscow Times reports.

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• After years of progress on nuclear security, the fourth edition of the NTI Nuclear Security Index finds that the steps countries have taken to reduce the threat of catastrophic nuclear terrorism are jeopardized by a deterioration of political stability and governance, an increase in corruption and the expanding presence of terrorist groups around the world. Russia ranked 17^th on theft-ranking out of 22 countries with weapons-useable materials and 24^th on sabotage ranking out of 45 countries ranked on that score. (NTI, 09.05.18, Russia Matters, 09.05.18)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Moscow and Pyongyang are discussing the possibility of a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Russia. (Reuters, 09.05.18)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• Russia hopes the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal will be discussed at a U.N. Security Council high-level meeting on Iran, which U.S. President Donald Trump will chair this month. (TASS, 09.04.18, Reuters, 09.04.18)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Within the next several weeks, both Russia and NATO will kick off some of the largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War. Russian officials are openly advertising their Vostok war game, which is to kick off in eastern Russia on Sept. 11, as the country’s largest since 1981. NATO’s Trident Juncture 2018 is slated to take place in Norway in October and November, with the added twist of thousands of non-NATO troops from Finland and Sweden participating, along with air bases and ground training areas in those two countries. (Breaking Defense, 09.04.18, Russia Matters,  09.04.18)
• On Sept. 1, two Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers involved in “scheduled flights over the waters of the Arctic Ocean, the Bering and Okhotsk seas” and supported by at least one Il-78 Midas tanker were, at some stages, accompanied by U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. (Aviationist, 09.07.18)

Missile defense:

• The Pentagon’s long-awaited Missile Defense Review has been delayed more than just a few times, but John Rood, the under secretary of defense for policy, said he’s hopeful it’s coming out very soon. The MDR will have an increased focus on China and Russia. (Defense News, 09.05.18, Inside Defense, 09.07.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump was unhappy that Washington gave South Korea a missile defense system to protect the country against an attack by North Korea and suggested that the system should be stationed in Portland, Oregon, instead, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear.” (Newsweek, 09.06.18)

Nuclear arms control:

• No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism:

• Lawyers for Uzbek-born Sayfullo Saipov, who is accused of killing eight people by driving a truck down a New York City bike path, have asked a U.S. judge to rule out the death penalty, contending that U.S. President Donald Trump's statements against him have made a fair legal process impossible. (RFE/RL, 09.07.18)

Conflict in Syria:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Teheran on Sept. 7 to discuss the Syrian conflict:
  • Putin said Moscow opposed a truce in Idlib and that the main task was to get rid of militants from this rebel-held enclave. Putin said that he hoped militants in Idlib would have the common sense to lay down their weapons and surrender. He said Russia is worried about civilians in Idlib, but said Russia finds it “unacceptable” when civilians are used a pretext to “shield terrorists” and target Syrian government positions. (AP, 09.07.18, Reuters, 09.07.18, Reuters, 09.07.18, Reuters, 09.07.18)
  • Erdogan called for a ceasefire and warned Russia and Iran that an attack by Syrian government forces and their allies on the rebel-held region of Idlib in northwest Syria could result in a massacre. Erdogan also said Turkey does not have the “strength or capability” to host millions of more refugees from Idlib. (Reuters, 09.07.18, RFE/RL, 09.07.18, AP, 09.07.18)
  • Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory. He said the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are “uprooted,” especially in Idlib. Rouhani also said “we have to force the United States to leave” Syria. (Reuters, 09.07.18, AP, 09.07.18)
  • Idlib has now become a crowded holding pen for up to 70,000 opposition fighters, along with about 2 million Syrian civilians displaced from other battle zones, and activists and aid workers trying to assist them. Russia says its operations in Idlib are aimed at up to 14,000 fighters linked to al-Qaeda. Idlib is also home to about 3 million civilians—nearly half of them displaced from other parts of Syria. Turkish military forces are also in Idlib, where they have pushed back Syrian Kurds from the Syria-Turkey border. (The Washington Post, 09.06.18, RFE/RL, 09.07.18)
• Russia has bombarded Idlib over the course of the war, but the Sept. 4 strikes—about 30 targeting an area 25 miles west of Idlib city—were the first large-scale raids in three weeks. At least 17 civilians were killed in the attacks, including five children. (Wall Street Journal, 09.05.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump warned Syria's Bashar al-Assad against launching a "reckless attack" on Idlib. "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump tweeted. (Wall Street Journal, 09.04.18, BBC, 09.04.18)
  • Trump, who just five months ago said he wanted "to get out" of Syria and bring U.S. troops home soon, has agreed to a new strategy that indefinitely extends the military effort there and launches a major diplomatic push to achieve American objectives. Much of the motivation for the change, officials said, stems from growing doubts about whether Russia, which Trump has said could be a partner, is able and willing to help eject Iran. (The Washington Post, 09.07.18)
  • According to Bob Woodward’s new book, Trump’s first instinct in response to the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in 2017 was unsurprisingly excessive and unhinged: After Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate Assad. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward. (American Conservative, 09.04.18)
• U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sept. 4 that a precise counterterrorism campaign—not a full-scale military offensive—was the appropriate way to tackle extremist elements in northwest Syria, as an assault by the Syrian regime and its backers appeared imminent. (Wall Street Journal, 09.04.18)
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Damascus and Moscow that it views any military assault on Syria's last rebel-held province in coming days as an escalation of the seven-year Syrian civil war. (RFE/RL, 09.01.18)
• There is "lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib in northwest Syria, the new U.S. adviser for Syria said on Sept. 6, as he warned of the risks of an offensive on the rebel enclave. Jim Jeffrey was named on Aug. 17 as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's special adviser on Syria overseeing talks on a political transition in that country. (Reuters, 09.06.18)
• Russia has reportedly warned the U.S. military twice in the last week that its forces, along with Syrian regime units, are prepared to attack in an area where dozens of U.S. troops are located, according to several U.S. defense officials. (CNN, 09.07.18)
• France's top military official said on Sept. 6 his forces were prepared to carry out strikes on Syrian targets if chemical weapons were used in an expected government offensive to retake Idlib. (Reuters, 09.06.18)
• The Kremlin dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to Syria not to launch an offensive in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, saying on Sept. 4 that the area was a "nest of terrorism." Moscow has also dismissed U.S. concerns that Syria again will use chemical weapons during the offensive. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 5 that it was Russia's duty to fight terrorists in Syria's Idlib province until their "complete and final liquidation," and called on other countries to support that effort, not obstruct it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the Syrian government has every right to push rebels out of Idlib. (Reuters, 09.04.18, Wall Street Journal, 09.05.18, RFE/RL, 09.01.18, Reuters, 09.05.18)
  • Lavrov got backing from an unexpected source on Aug. 31 for the government's avowed plans to "liquidate" al-Qaeda group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, previously known as al-Nusra Front, which includes many recruits from foreign countries. The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters in Geneva that "no one doubts that al-Nusra and al-Qaeda are terrorists ... and terrorists identified by the U.N. need to be defeated.” (RFE/RL, 09.01.18)
• Russia and Syria and have denied planning a chemical weapons attack, but U.S. special adviser for Syria Jim Jeffrey told reporters on Sept. 6 that "there is lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by government forces in Idlib. He said that "any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation" of the war. (RFE/RL, 09.07.18)
• The top Iranian diplomat for Syria policy told Iranian media that Idlib posed a dilemma because it had to be liberated from "terrorists," but the security of millions of civilians had to be protected. (RFE/RL, 09.07.18)
• Abkhazia and Syria on Sept. 4 signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. (TASS, 09.04.18)
• Over 100 personnel from a separate special medical unit deployed to Russia’s Central Military District have returned to the city of Novosibirsk after completing their mission in Syria. (TASS, 09.04.18)
• Armenia is willing to take part in the reconstruction of Syria, Armenian parliament speaker Ara Babloyan has said during a meeting with the Syrian ambassador to Yerevan, Muhammad Haj Ibrahim. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)

Cyber security:

• A Greek Supreme Court ruling on Sept. 4 in a computer crime case may return to Russia, rather than extradite to the U.S., a potential witness in the investigation into Russian election interference. The Greek police detained Aleksandr Vinnik last year on an American warrant that accuses him of running a Moscow-based Bitcoin exchange that laundered as much as $4 billion in illegal funds. (New York Times, 09.04.18)
• Russian plans to offer new U.N. cyber-regulation pacts were floated last month by Anatoly Smirnov, a top computer scientist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta. He said Russia would soon introduce a cyber "code of conduct" and a pathway to a new cybercrime convention to replace one signed in Budapest in 2001. (The Washington Post, 09.04.18)
• The U.S. was hit by 11 million cyber attacks in the first half of 2018, more than any other country, a report from Helsinki-based F-Secure says. Russia led the list of countries attacking the U.S., with 8 million attacks coming from there, according to according to the cybersecurity firm. (Fox News, 09.07.18)

Elections interference:

• Special counsel Robert Mueller told U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers in a letter last week that he will accept written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to tilt the 2016 election in his favor. However, Trump won't consider how to respond to Mueller's obstruction-related questions until after the Russian collusion aspect of the probe is finished, Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Sept. 6. Mueller also wants Trump to commit to a follow-up interview to written answers to questions in his probe, but “I don’t see how we can do it," Giuliani said. (Wall Street Journal, 09.06.18, Reuters, 09.06.18, The Washington Post, 09.04.18)
• In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump sat down with John Dowd, then an outside lawyer advising the president on the White House’s interactions with Robert Mueller. The idea was to stage a mock interview between Trump and Mueller, who was angling to question Trump. During the session, Trump repeatedly lied and contradicted himself, according to a new book by Bob Woodward. Dowd then advised Trump: “Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit." Trump insisted he would be “a real good witness." “You are not a good witness," Dowd said. Dowd resigned the next morning, according to Woodward’s book. (New York Times, 09.04.18, The Boston Globe, 09.04.18)
• “I think almost everybody, even in your business, is saying there just is no collusion. There were no Russians. If there were, you would have known about it. There was collusion between the Democrats and the DNC and Russia,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. (Bloomberg, 08.31.18)
• Conservative House Republicans are calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to declassify and release documents they say will show the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is politically biased against him. (Wall Street Journal, 09.06.18)
• Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to lying about his Russia contacts, is expected to be sentenced in federal court on Sept. 7. (Newsweek, 09.07.18)
• Facebook has admitted to U.S. senators that the company was “too slow” to spot Russia’s attempts to use its platform to interfere in election campaigns. In written testimony published before a congressional hearing on Sept. 5, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey said Twitter “do[es] not shadowban anyone based on political ideology.” Facebook struck a different tone when COO Sheryl Sandberg was grilled by the U.S. Senate intelligence committee. In Sandberg's first congressional hearing since it emerged that foreign agents have also tried to influence voters ahead of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, she said: “We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act. That’s on us. This interference was completely unacceptable.” (Financial Times, 09.06.18)
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is eyeing a Fox News correspondent and former U.S. Navy pilot to head the State Department’s struggling anti-propaganda office as Washington grapples with how to push back against Russian disinformation and election interference in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections in November. Lea Gabrielle is the leading contender to become the new chief of the Global Engagement Center. (Foreign Policy, 09.06.18)
• The U.S. State Department’s top Europe diplomat, Wess Mitchell, has announced that he was creating a new role that would support the Global Engagement Center’s mission of countering misinformation and election meddling, with a focus on Russia. Two sources said that Mitchell has tapped Eugene Fishel, a Russia expert and veteran intelligence analyst, to be the new senior advisor for Russian malign activities and trends, or SARMAT. (Foreign Policy, 09.06.18)
• The Kremlin said on Sept. 3 the U.S. was "crudely" trying to recruit Russian nationals to act as its agents, adding that this showed Washington was meddling in Russian affairs. Between 2014 and 2016, the FBI and the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to turn Oleg Deripaska into an informant. They signaled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the U.S. or even explore other steps to address his legal problems. In exchange, they were hoping for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to the 2016 Trump campaign, according to current and former officials and associates of Deripaska. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18, New York Times, 09.01.18)
• Russian authorities have accused Google of interference in upcoming regional and municipal elections by allowing opposition leader Alexei Navalny to buy advertising space on YouTube for his videos urging supporters not to vote for officials who are in favor of controversial pension reform. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18)

Energy exports:

• “I have a very good relationship with Angela Merkel. An excellent relationship. I just disagree. I don’t think she should be buying oil for Russia—from Russia. I don’t think that, you know, she should be paying 1 percent and we’re paying 4.3 percent for NATO. You know, I have a lot of disagreements with her,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. (Bloomberg, 08.31.18)

Bilateral economic ties:

• VTB Group, a state-owned Russian bank sanctioned by Washington, agreed to a management buyout of its U.S. unit, citing the “current geopolitical landscape” as a reason for its retreat. (Bloomberg, 09.03.18)

Other bilateral issues:

• Pushing back against explosive reports that his own administration is conspiring against him, U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out against the anonymous senior official who wrote a New York Times opinion piece claiming to be part of a “resistance” working “from within” to thwart his most dangerous impulses. The author of the op-ed accused Trump of showing “a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader.” (AP, 09.06.18, Russia Matters, 09.06.18)
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sept. 6 the U.S. was not seeking to punish India for its proposed purchase of a missile defense system from Russia. (Reuters, 09.06.18)
• The White House has released a “historic moments” coin commemorating the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki earlier this summer. (The Moscow Times, 09.03.18)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Over half of the Russian population is willing to protest government plans to raise the retirement age, according to a new survey published by the independent Levada Center pollster. Thousands of people across Russia have protested against a deeply unpopular pension reform, despite concessions offered recently by President Vladimir Putin. "Today, we are holding an all-Russia protest against this cannibalistic reform," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told a crowd of several thousand protesters in Moscow on Sept. 2. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18, RFE/RL, 09.02.18)
• Rising prices were the most pressing issue for 72 percent of respondents in the most recent Levada poll, compared to 61 percent of respondents in 2017. Poverty came in second as the most concerning issue (for 52 percent of people surveyed), followed by unemployment (which concerned 48 percent of respondents). (The Moscow Times, 09.06.18)
• One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies is set to stroll to re-election as mayor of Moscow on Sept. 9, in a vote that will underline the strength of Russia’s ruling political machine despite rising public discontent over reforms to the country’s pension system. Sergei Sobyanin is Putin’s former chief of staff and remains a critical part of the president’s ruling apparatus. (Financial Times, 09.07.18)
• Nearly 1 out of every 50 candidates running in Russia’s regional elections this weekend reportedly has a criminal record for theft, assault or hooliganism, according to an investigation by the RBC news website. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18)
• Various estimates count the Jewish population in Russia anywhere from 180,000 to 1.5 million. Seventy-five percent of Russian respondents told Levada that anti-Semitism has either decreased or stayed the same over the past five years, while 17.6 percent said it was on the rise. (The Moscow Times, 09.07.18)
• Among Forbes’ list of the top 10 most influential Russians, only one is from the private sector. Russian President Vladimir Putin tops the list. (Forbes, 09.03.18)
• Hot functional tests started on Sept. 2 at unit two of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant in southwest Russia, Rosatom has announced. (World Nuclear News, 09.03.18)
• AEM-Technology has announced the completion of key welding work on MBIR, the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor that is to be installed at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors at Dmitrovgrad in Russia's Ulyanovsk region. (World Nuclear News, 08.31.18)
• Russia’s environmental ministry has published a report that paints an apocalyptic future for the country due to climate change, with consequences including epidemics, drought, mass flooding and hunger. (The Moscow Times, 09.06.18)

Defense and aerospace:

• New satellite photos show substantial upgrades of ICBM silos at the missile field near Kozelsk in western Russia. The images show that progress is well underway on at least half of the silos (possibly more) of the second regiment of the 28th Guards Missile Division from the Soviet-era SS-19 ICBM to the new SS-27 Mod (RS-24, Yars). (Federation of American Scientists, 09.05.18)
• A squadron of 28 Russian naval ships has been seen entering the Sea of Japan in what was described as the largest Russian naval deployment in the area since the Cold War, Japanese military officials said. The Russian Defense Ministry announced last week that 40 of its Pacific Fleet warships were taking part in missile drills in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18)
• Russia's space agency said on Sept. 5 it hopes to announce the origin of a small hole found on a Russian module docked at the International Space Station in the coming weeks, including addressing whether the damage was deliberate. (The Moscow Times, 09.05.18)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• No significant developments.

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• British authorities on Sept. 5 named two Russian suspects wanted for the Novichok nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. For the first time, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the suspects were both Russian military intelligence officers who had traveled from Moscow to London. “This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level,” she said. The Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service said on Sept. 5 they now had sufficient evidence to bring charges against the two men, who they named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Russian President Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for the attack, British Security Minister Ben Wallace said on Sept. 6. (The Washington Post, 09.05.18, Financial Times, 09.05.18, The Moscow Times, 09.06.18)
• In a joint statement, the leaders of Britain, the U.S., France, Germany and Canada said they have "full confidence" in the British assessment that the two suspects were GRU officers, and urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok program. (RFE/RL, 09.06.18 )
• Britain, bolstered by strong backing from its allies, condemned Russia at the U.N. Security Council over the chemical attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil earlier this year, urging Moscow to accept the "compelling evidence in this crime." London called the Sept. 6 emergency meeting of the Security Council to brief members on the arrest warrants it issued a day earlier for two suspects in the attack. (RFE/RL, 09.06.18)
  • "Every one of us in this room, and listening around the world, should be chilled to the bone with the findings of this investigation," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said in reference to the British probe into the attack. (RFE/RL, 09.06.18)
  • The Russian ambassador to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzia, once again denied the allegations, telling the Security Council that he heard "nothing new" from the British representative and that the charges against Moscow were an "unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts.” (RFE/RL, 09.06.18)
• Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said on Sept. 5 that the Kremlin was confused by Britain’s decision to identify the suspects in the case. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the evidence provided by U.K. investigators “meant nothing,” and restated Moscow’s position that a joint investigation between British and Russian authorities should be established. Zakharova told reporters on Sept. 7 that Russia wants to "find out who these people are," and called on Britain to share intelligence on them. Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sept. 7 it regrets that France, Germany, Canada and the U.S. “repeated lies” from London and accused Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack. (Financial Times, 09.05.18, AP, 09.07.18, Reuters, 09.07.18)
• People using the same passports as two men accused by Britain of the attempted murder of the Skripals traveled widely in Europe and made a previous trip to Britain, according to online Russian news outlet Fontanka. Fontanka said people using the passports in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov traveled to Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan and Paris on multiple occasions between September 2016 and March 2018. A person using Petrov's passport traveled to London at least once before the Skripals were poisoned, for a visit from Feb. 28. According to Fontanka, records show that Boshirov was born on April 12, 1978 in Dushanbe. A Mr. Boshirov had listed as an address a 25-story residential building on Bolshaya Naberezhnaya.  According to the flight manifests, Fontanka reported, an Alexander Petrov was born on July 13, 1979. The site found that someone with that name and birth date worked at Microgen, a state-owned Russian pharmaceutical company specializing in vaccines. But when contacted, this Aleksandr Petrov said it was a case of mistaken identity, as he had never traveled to London. (The Moscow Times, 09.06.18, New York Times, 09.07.18)
• “This was more Johnny English than James Bond,” declared the U.K.’s security minister Ben Wallace, a reference to the incompetent fictional MI6 agent played by comedian Rowan Atkinson. But whether the attempted murder of the Skripals was a botched job, rather than intentionally blatant, is an open question. “They don’t care about collateral damage,” said Robert Hannigan, a former director of the U.K.’s communications intelligence agency, GCHQ. “The threshold for risk in Russia is completely different to ours.” (Financial Times, 09.06.18)
• Any new EU sanctions on Moscow over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy earlier this year must be taken by the bloc's governments, the European Commission said on Sept. 6. (Reuters, 09.06.18)
• The substance that killed a woman in England in June was the same Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals in May, the world's chemical-weapons watchdog has confirmed. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy poisoned in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, appears to have been working in recent years with intelligence officers in Spain, a country locked in a pitched battle with Russian organized crime groups, some with ties to the Russian government. (New York Times, 09.06.18)
• Russian state bank VTB apologized for its CEO Andrey Kostin, who made what it called an "emotional comment" on Sept. 3 when he described former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson as a "jerk." (The Moscow Times, 09.04.18)
• The Kremlin has rejected claims by French President Emmanuel Macron that Russian President Vladimir Putin "dreams" of breaking up the EU. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's denial on Sept. 3 came after Macron told Swedish public broadcaster SVT in an interview over the weekend that he respected and wanted to work with Putin, despite his alleged malign designs on the EU. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• Investigators at Denmark's largest bank are studying around $150 billion of transactions that flowed through its Estonian outpost between 2007 and 2015 as part of an internal money-laundering probe. Much of that figure, which dwarfs Estonia's total deposits, came from companies with ties to Russia and the former Soviet Union. (Wall Street Journal, 09.06.18)
• An Estonian court sanctioned the arrest of a military officer and his father on Sept. 4 on suspicion of passing state secrets to neighboring Russia for more than five years. Both are ethnic-Russian Estonian citizens and face up to a lifetime in jail for treason if charged and found guilty. (Bloomberg, 09.05.18)
• Russia is in talks with Eritrea to set up a logistics center at one of the North African country's seaports. (RFE/RL, 09.01.18)
• Russia wants closer military and security ties with Vietnam, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, during a meeting in Sochi. (Reuters, 09.06.18)

China:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in a sign of strengthening ties between the two Asian giants. The summit will take place during Xi's working visit to Russia's far-eastern port city of Vladivostok on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, the Chinese foreign ministry said Sept. 7. It will be the first time a Chinese head of state has attended the Russian-hosted Eastern Economic Forum, a gathering Moscow hopes will encourage investment in its thinly populated far-east. (AP, 09.07.18)
• Alibaba is in “advanced stage negotiations” to form a joint venture ecommerce company with Russian partners, as China’s vision of a “digital silk road” across Eurasia takes shape. (Financial Times, 09.02.18)
• JBA Holdings, a joint venture between companies including Heilongjiang Agriculture Co. and Joyvio Group, will invest $100 million over three years to build a soybean crusher and grain port in Russia amid a push by Chinese firms to diversify their sources of crop supplies. The JV will also lease 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) of farmland in Russia to grow wheat, corn and soybeans. (Bloomberg, 09.05.18)

Ukraine:

• The U.S. and other western powers have been working to modernize Ukraine’s forces—including more than $1 billion in financial support and the Trump administration’s move in March to provide 210 Javelin missiles. The weapons are seen by military analysts as a game-changer in the event of an all-out assault by Russian-backed forces. Lt. Gen. Serhiy Nayev, the commander of Ukraine’s joint forces, says Ukraine’s forces are now “not only capable but ready” to repel Russian-backed separatists, which he claims have [over] 400 tanks—more than the U.K. (Financial Times. 09.06.18)
• Ukraine is looking to purchase a small number of surface-to-air missile systems from the U.S., possibly Patriots, amid a recent spike in tensions with separatists in Donbass, as well as their chief backer, Russia. On Aug. 28, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly explained his country’s desire to buy unspecified American-made air defense weapons in an interview with the country’s Radio NV. (Drive, 09.04.18)
• U.S. special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said: “We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about what do they need. I think that there’s going to be some discussion about naval capability because as you know their navy was basically taken by Russia. And so, they need to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think we’ll have to look at air defense.” (The Guardian, 08.31.18)
• Ukraine has begun joint military exercises, Rapid Trident 2018, with 10 NATO countries in western Ukraine. Taking part are about 2,200 troops from 14 countries, including the U.S. and nine other NATO member states. The maneuvers are scheduled to continue until Sept. 15. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• The Agile Spirit 2018 international military exercise involving members of the Ukrainian navy’s marine corps has begun in Georgia. The objective of the exercise is to upgrade preparedness to respond to crises during joint operations as the NATO Response Force and to improve interaction between servicemen from various countries. (Interfax, 09.04.18)
• U.S. special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said there was still a substantial gap between the U.S. and Russia over how a U.N. peacekeeping force could be deployed to end the four-year war. Volker predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would wait for presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine next year before reconsidering his negotiating position. (The Guardian, 08.31.18)
• Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin has said that before Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU, Ukraine will have to change the provisions of its constitution. On Sept. 3, a bill to introduce amendments to the Ukrainian constitution regarding the country's strategic course to obtain full membership in the EU and NATO was published on the Verkhovna Rada's website. (Interfax, 09.04.18)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Sept. 3 he plans to notify Russia about the expiration of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia by Sept. 30. (TASS, 09.03.18)
• EU envoys on Sept. 5 agreed to prolong for another six months the bloc's blacklist of people and entities involved in Russia's destabilization of Ukraine. The formal extension of the sanctions until mid-March will be completed in the coming days, diplomats said. (Reuters,  09.05.18)
• In a heated argument with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at the 2015 talks to form the Minsk Agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently became so angry he tripped up. "Poroshenko and Putin constantly raised their voices with each other. The Russian president was so worked up, that he started threatening to decisively crush his counterpart's forces," an excerpt from former French President Francois Hollande's 2018 book, "The Lessons of Power," says, according to a translation by UAWire.org. (Business Insider, 09.03.18)
• Denis Pushilin, the chairman of the "people's council" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine, has been selected as the acting head of the DNR. The Donetsk separatists' "people's council" also designated Nov. 11 as the date for the election of a head of the DNR. (RFE/RL, 09.07.18)
• The funeral in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk of Alexander Zakharchenko, a pro-Russian rebel leader killed in an explosion last week, drew vast crowds of mourners on Sept. 2. Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of his murder, while Kiev blamed his death on separatist infighting. (Reuters, 09.03.18)
• Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivschyna Party, received the greatest support among respondents who intend to take part in Ukraine’s presidential elections, with 17.8 percent, according to a survey conducted in August by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Razumkov Center. Anatoliy Hrytsenko , leader of the Civil Position party, came in second with 8.4 percent and current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko got 7.9 percent. (Interfax, 09.04.18)
• The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow. (RFE/RL, 09.01.18)
• Samuel Patten, a longtime Washington operative and associate of a Russian-Ukrainian man indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, has admitted to lobbying for a Ukrainian political party and failing to register as a foreign agent. (RFE/RL, 08.31.18)
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is calling for the nullification of a Ukrainian court ruling that gives authorities access to nearly 1 1/2 years of cell-phone data from an RFE/RL investigative reporter, Natalia Sedletska, saying the decision violates Ukraine’s own laws and Kiev’s commitments to a free press. The ruling stems from a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• Russia has evacuated more than 4,000 children from a town in Crimea. According to Russian media reports, a three decades-old titanium plant may have exposed more than 20,000 people in Armyansk to sulfur dioxide gas starting in mid-August. The plant was shut down only this week. (BBC, 09.06.18, The Washington Post, 09.07.18)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to develop closer ties with Kyrgyzstan and other Turkic nations of Central Asia. Speaking to journalists after talks in Bishkek on Sept. 4 with Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Orban said it was "an honor to be the first Hungarian prime minister to pay a visit to Kyrgyzstan." (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev says Uzbekistan is eager to join the Council of Cooperation of the Turkic-Speaking Countries, also known as the Turkic Council. (RFE/RL, 09.03.18)
• Three former executives from telecom giant Telia have gone on trial in Sweden in a high-profile bribery case involving the eldest daughter of late Uzbek President Islam Karimov. (RFE/RL, 09.04.18)
• Azerbaijan has bought military equipment worth more than $5 billion from Russia, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Sept. 1. (Jane’s, 09.03.18)
•  The U.S. would like to see a “thorough and fair investigation" into who is responsible for the violence that followed Armenia's March 2008 presidential election, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills has said. (RFE/RL, 09.06.18)
• Ahead of a visit to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has called for developing "much more strategic and cooperative" relations with Russia. Pashinian is set to meet with Putin in Moscow on Sept. 8. (RFE/RL, 09.07.18)
• Moldovan and international human rights organizations have criticized a decision by the country’s authorities to detain and expel seven Turkish citizens. The detainees were staff members of a Turkish high school in Chisinau’s Durlesti neighborhood that is linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016. (RFE/RL, 09.06.18)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.