This Week’s Highlights

• U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he is sharply cutting the number of U.S. troops in Germany and would cap the number of American military personnel there at 25,000, unless the German government spends more on defense. The move would cut the current U.S. troop presence in Germany in half, requiring the Pentagon to shift the remainder to the U.S. or elsewhere in Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal. Moscow is not going to assess U.S. plans to cut the numerical strength of its military contingent in Germany, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, TASS reports.
• Trump once asked his chief of staff if Finland is part of Russia, according to former national security adviser John Bolton’s upcoming memoir, Forbes reports. Bolton’s book also confirms that Trump linked his suspension of $391 million in security aid for Ukraine to his demands that Ukraine publicly announce investigations into supposed wrongdoing by Democrats. Bolton says that he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried eight to 10 times to persuade the president to release the aid, the New York Times reports. Bolton’s book also reveals that Trump asked if the U.K. was a nuclear power, according to Forbes.
• A trilateral meeting between Russia, China and India will be held online on June 23. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, "During this talk, the ministers will exchange their views on current political, economic and financial trials following the pandemic as well as opportunities to overcome the existing crisis," NDTV reports. Lavrov said June 17 Moscow welcomed contacts between its close allies India and China after a deadly border confrontation between the two that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead, according to AFP.
• A group of Russia-based hackers used sophisticated new techniques to spread disinformation in the U.S. and avoid detection by social media companies for years, according to a new report from information research firm Graphika Inc, the Wall Street Journal reports. The list of figures that operatives targeted include Ukraine's government, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Emmanuel Macron and Hillary Clinton, according to The Washington Post. 
• News reports say Russian and U.S. officials are negotiating a possible swap of ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. Interfax on June 17 cited an unnamed official as saying that the talks included Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, RFE/RL reports. "If an agreement is reached, it's most likely that a so-called exchange will be made after the U.S. president pardons the Russians and the Russian president pardons Whelan," the official was quoted as saying. A Russian court on June 15 sentenced Whelan to 16 years in a penal colony for espionage as he stood in the dock with a sign that read "Sham trial!" and pleaded for Trump to intervene in the case, according to The Moscow Times. 
• German prosecutors on June 17 charged Russian citizen Vadim K., who they said was acting on the Kremlin's orders, in the murder of Georgian national Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin last year and claimed that the suspect acted on orders of the “State agencies of the central government of the Russian federation,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Georgia has arrested a Russian national suspected of being hired to kill journalist Giorgi Gabunia, who insulted Putin, with the would-be victim’s boss claiming that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the killing, The Moscow Times reports. Kadyrov has denied accusations that he was behind the alleged plot, according to RFE/RL.
• After a 5 percent plunge in Russia’s GDP in 2020, Russia’s Ministry of the Economy predicts GDP growth of 2.8 percent in 2021 and 3 percent in 2022, according to bne IntelliNews.

NB: This week’s Russia in Review is appearing on Thursday, June 18, instead of Friday, June 19, due to a Harvard University holiday. Next week's Russia in Review will appear on Friday, June 26, as regularly scheduled. 

 

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• Russia’s Northern Fleet, the Defense Ministry’s 12^th Main Department, responsible for nuclear security and the Russian Geographic Society will organize an expedition to Novaya Zemlya in 2020. "Specialists of the Defense Ministry’s 12th Main Department will monitor the radio-ecology situation and will measure radiation at locations across the archipelago," the Northern Fleet’s press service said. (TASS, 06.15.20)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• The Kremlin on June 16 called for restraint following a sharp escalation in tensions after North Korea blew up a liaison office near its border with South Korea. "This is a concern, we urge all parties to show restraint," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Russia would be closely monitoring the situation. The Kremlin, an ally of the Stalinist regime, was not planning any talks at the highest level for the moment, he said. (The Moscow Times, 06.16.20)

Iran and its nuclear program:

• Russia on June 16 vowed to stand by its ally Iran and resist attempts to promote an anti-Iranian agenda amid tensions over Tehran's nuclear program. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the comments during a visit to Moscow by his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, as Iran sought to fend off criticism over granting access to sites where past nuclear activity may have occurred. Meanwhile, European diplomats are trying to forge a compromise to save the JCPOA deal from collapse by proposing a limited extension of the arms embargo on Tehran. (The Moscow Times, 06.16.20, Wall Street Journal, 06.17.20)

New Cold War/saber rattling:

• Russia on June 15 expelled two Czech diplomats, retaliating over the expulsion of two of its own embassy workers from Prague this month over a fake story about a poisoning plot. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Czech envoy Vitezslav Pivonka and informed him that "two employees of the Czech Embassy in Moscow are declared personas non-gratae," it said in a statement. "They are ordered to leave Russian territory with their family members" by end of day June 17, it said, calling the move a "mirror measure in response to Prague's provocative action." (The Moscow Times, 06.15.20)

NATO-Russia relations:

• U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed June 15 that he is sharply cutting the number of U.S. troops in Germany and would cap the number of American military personnel there at 25,000, unless the German government spends more on defense. The move would cut the current U.S. troop presence in Germany in half, requiring the Pentagon to shift the remainder to the U.S. or elsewhere in Europe. (Wall Street Journal, 06.15.20)
  • "NATO is not a commercial organization and security is not a commodity," German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said at a conference in Berlin. "American soldiers in Germany and Europe stand in service of all of NATO's shared security. And they serve the security of the United States of America." (Wall Street Journal, 06.17.20)
  • Moscow is not going to assess U.S. plans to cut the numerical strength of its military contingent in Germany, Lavrov said June 16. (TASS, 06.16.20)
• "New troops [NATO armed forces] in the eastern part of the alliance is not violating NATO-Russia Founding Act. The challenge now is that … Russia is violating … this act several times through the aggressive actions in Ukraine," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. (Interfax, 06.16.20)
• The NATO countries' defense ministers made a decision at their summit to enhance the alliance's missile and air defense system to counter Russia's missile threat, Stoltenberg said June 17. Russia will continue enhancing its military in the Western sector after the NATO defense minsters’ statements on the additional procurement of Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, according to State Duma Defense Committee deputy head Yuri Shvytkin. (Interfax, 06.18.20)

Missile defense:

• Russia will keep a close eye on developments after Japan’s decision to suspend deploying U.S. Aegis Ashore land-based missile shield launchers on its territory, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said June 17. (TASS, 06.17.20)

Nuclear arms control:

• The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report released June 15 that nine nuclear-weapon powers—the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—together possessed an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons at the start of 2020. The number is down by 465 nuclear weapons in "a marked decrease" from the previous year, when the nine states possessed a combined estimated total of 13,865 nuclear weapons. (RFE/RL, 06.14.20)

Counter-terrorism:

• A court in Albania has ordered the extradition of a Tajik man sought by Germany for suspected membership in an Islamic State cell. The district court in the capital, Tirana, decided June 12 that Komrom Zukhurov should not be extradited to Russia, where he is also wanted, or to his native Tajikistan, where he claims he was tortured. Albania announced it had arrested Zukhurov on April 30, two weeks after German authorities said they had detained a group of Tajik nationals suspected of forming an IS cell that plotted attacks on German soil. (RFE/RL, 06.13.20)
• Parviz Saidrahmonov, a notorious Islamic State recruiter who has been linked to terrorist attacks in Sweden, Russia and Tajikistan, has gone missing from a prison in northern Syria, according to people with knowledge of his detention. Saidrahmonov, also known as Abu Daoud, was among several key Islamic State figures from Tajikistan that Dushanbe wants extradited from Syria and Iraq. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)

Conflict in Syria:

• The U.S. has imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The bill, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, can be used to target Assad’s main backers—Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hizballah militant group. But it will also impact China as well as regional players Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Gulf states seeking to reconcile with Syria as it attempts to rebuild following nine years of devastating civil war. Russia will continue to provide support to Syria, despite the Caesar Act, Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee first deputy head Vladimir Dzhabarov said. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20, Interfax, 06.17.20)
• An estimated 80 percent of Syrians live in poverty. About 40 percent were unemployed at the end of 2019, the latest figures available, and joblessness has only increased because of government restrictions to control the coronavirus. (New York Times, 06.15.20)

Cyber security:

• A group of Russia-based hackers used sophisticated new techniques to spread disinformation in the U.S. and avoid detection by social media companies for years, according to a new report from information research firm Graphika Inc. Russian operatives used online forgeries, fake blog posts and more than 300 social media platforms to undermine opponents and spin disinformation about perceived enemies. The list of figures that operatives targeted over six years of persistent, wide-ranging activity reads like an enemies list for Russian President Vladimir Putin: Ukraine's government, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, French President Emmanuel Macron and former U.S. secretary of state and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. (The Washington Post, 06.16.20, Wall Street Journal, 06.16.20)
• The Russian and German governments are working to develop a dialogue on the main issues concerning cyberspace, and Berlin hopes that a consensus on this matter will be reached soon, the German embassy in Moscow said. (Interfax, 06.18.20)
• Russia has halted its largely unsuccessful two-year efforts to block the popular messaging service Telegram. Russia’s federal media watchdog Roskomnadzor made the surprise announcement June 18, citing Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s “stated readiness to counter terrorism and extremism.” (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20)

Elections interference:

• The U.S. Justice Department said June 12 that it might release a less-redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, possibly revealing more information about Trump's confidant Roger Stone. (The Washington Post, 06.14.20)

Energy exports from CIS:

• The German government has "noted with regret" a U.S. proposal to expand sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. "New sanctions would constitute a serious interference in European energy security and EU sovereignty," a statement by the Foreign Ministry said on June 14. A group of bipartisan U.S. senators early this month submitted legislation to stop Russia from completing the controversial pipeline. (RFE/RL, 06.14.20)
• Gazprom will reimburse Poland's PGNiG to the tune of $1.5 billion by July 1 for overcharging it for its supplies for years, the Polish company said June 15 following a court battle. (The Moscow Times, 06.15.20)
• A string of Turkish companies have accumulated debt of about $2 billion to Gazprom, according to people familiar with the matter, liability that could hinder Ankara's drive to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas, in part by boosting imports from the U.S. (Wall Street Journal, 06.15.20)

U.S.-Russian economic ties:

• No significant developments.

U.S.-Russian relations in general:

• A Russian court on June 15 sentenced former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan to 16 years in a penal colony for espionage in a case that strained ties with Washington. Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty of receiving classified information as he stood in the dock with a sign that read "Sham trial!" and pleaded for Trump to intervene in the case. (The Moscow Times, 06.15.20)
  • News reports say Russian and U.S. officials are negotiating a possible swap of Whelan. Interfax on June 17 cited an unnamed official as saying that the talks included Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko. "If an agreement is reached, it's most likely that a so-called exchange will be made after the U.S. president pardons the Russians and the Russian president pardons Whelan," the official was quoted as saying. (RFE/RL, 06.17.20)
• Trump once asked his chief of staff if Finland is part of Russia, according to former national security adviser John Bolton’s upcoming book. Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki was a “self-inflicted wound” and “Putin had to be laughing uproariously at what he had gotten away with in Helsinki,” according to the book that Bolton plans to publish next week. The book also reveals that Trump asked if the U.K. was a nuclear power, and Bolton recounts that in a May 2019 phone call with Trump, Putin compared Guaidó to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Bolton called the comparison a “brilliant display of Soviet style propaganda.” (Miami Herald, 06.18.20, New York Times, 06.18.20, Forbes, 06.18.20)
• “There can be no doubt that the summit of Russia, China, France, the United States and the U.K. can play an important role in finding common answers to modern challenges and threats, and will demonstrate a common commitment to the spirit of alliance, to those high humanist ideals and values for which our fathers and grandfathers were fighting shoulder to shoulder,” Putin wrote in his commentary for The National Interest. (Russia Matters, 06.18.20)
• Putin said June 14 that the U.S. anti-racism protests were a sign of deep crises in the country, criticizing the protests for sparking violence, and raising questions over Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Putin stressed he supported black Americans’ struggle for equality, calling this “a long-standing problem of the United States,” but spoke out against “mayhem and rioting.” “If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country,” Putin said in an interview. (The Moscow Times, 06.14.20)

 

II. Russia’s domestic policies

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• Russia confirmed 7,790 new coronavirus infections June 18, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 561,091. (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20) 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.
• St. Petersburg had the highest coronavirus mortality rate among all Russian cities in the month of April, according to a new analysis of official data. St. Petersburg recorded 200 deaths where COVID-19 was a direct cause or “had a significant impact” on the person’s death in April, state statistics agency Rosstat said June 13. St. Petersburg’s COVID-19 mortality rate of 4.7 percent that month was double those of both Moscow and Russia overall, making it the highest in the country. (The Moscow Times, 06.16.20)
• Nearly 500 Russian medics who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, the head of the state health watchdog said June 18. (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20)
• Putin says Russia is emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with minimal losses and has done better than the U.S. in handling the health crisis, but questions about Russia's recordkeeping persist. (RFE/RL, 06.14.20)
• Special disinfection tunnels have been installed at Putin’s residence outside Moscow and at the Kremlin to protect him from the coronavirus. (The Moscow Times, 06.17.20)
• Russian officials have urged hotels to ban unmarried couples from checking in as a way of preventing the spread of coronavirus. (The Moscow Times, 06.15.20)
• A potentially massive online vote-buying campaign is unfolding ahead of Russia’s vote on constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to rule until 2036. WhatsApp group admins are handing out batches of SIM cards and databases of elderly Moscow residents that can be used to register them for the online vote. The WhatsApp admins offer to pay 75 rubles ($1) for each account registered on the Moscow mayor’s office website and 50 rubles ($0.70) for each vote in favor of the amendments, Dozhd reported. Meanwhile  Russian bookstores have already started selling copies of the country’s amended constitution even though a public vote to approve it won’t happen until July 1. (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20, The Moscow Times, 06.16.20)
• Russia’s Economic Ministry has released a fresh forecast for 2019-2022. The ministry said there will be no V-shaped recovery: after a 5 percent plunge in 2020, the ministry predicts GDP growth of 2.8 percent in 2021 and 3 percent in 2022. The Urals price stays below the base budget price of $42, at which point the Russian budget breaks even. Urals will average $31.1 per barrel this year, rising to $35.4 in 2021 and only in 2022 will it return to the breakeven price of $42.2. (bne IntelliNews, 06.18.20)
• Russia has finished clearing fuel from the surface of a river hit by a massive diesel spill in the Arctic region, but the full clean-up could take years, officials said June 17. Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer, said it is prepared to wait until the full extent of the spill at one of Norilsk Nickel’s sites in Siberia is known before discussing any changes to the latter’s dividend policy.  (Financial Times, 06.16.20, The Moscow Times, 06.17.20)
• Work has started on installation of the main equipment for the nuclear fuel fabrication facility at the pilot energy complex (ODEK) in Seversk (Tomsk). The ultimate aim is to eliminate production of radioactive waste from nuclear power generation. (World Nuclear News, 06.15.20)
• Russian investigators have opened a criminal investigation against opposition politician Alexei Navalny for suspected libel over comments he made on social media. The Investigative Committee on June 15 accused Navalny of libeling a World War II veteran who was featured in a video clip with other Russians expressing support for proposed constitutional reforms. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)
• Senior editors at Russia's leading business newspaper Vedomosti quit en masse June 15 in protest against what they say is censorship under new management as a long-running dispute between journalists and management came to a head. (The Moscow Times, 06.15.20)
• Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva again has rejected charges that she had "justified terrorism" by publishing an online commentary that linked a suicide bombing with the country’s political climate as her trial resumed proceedings. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)
• During the spring, stubborn and sprawling areas of high pressure parked over the region resulted in parts of Siberia recording temperature departures from average that reached a staggering 18 degrees (10 degrees Celsius), according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. (The Washington Post, 06.16.20)
• Moscow experienced its hottest June 17 in more than half a century after temperatures hit 29.6 degrees Celsius that day. (The Moscow Times, 06.17.20)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has consecrated the main cathedral dedicated to the armed forces, built to mark Victory Day in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Religious leaders, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, his deputies, guests and hundreds of uniformed soldiers attended the ceremony on June 14 at the newly constructed Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, located some 60 kilometers outside of Moscow. (RFE/RL, 06.14.20)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• More than 43,000 Russian schools will be equipped with facial recognition cameras ominously named “Orwell,” Vedomosti reported June 16. (The Moscow Times, 06.16.20)
• Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) says its officers in the southwestern city of Volgograd have detained a teenager who is suspected of plotting a deadly school attack amid a rise in such cases across the country. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)
• The prosecutor at the high-profile trial of two activists from a group known as "Set" (Network) has recommended to a court in St. Petersburg that they be sentenced to lengthy prison terms. The prosecutor on June 17 urged the court to find the two defendants guilty of being members of a terrorist organization and to sentence Viktor Filinkov to nine years, and Yury Boyarshinov to six years in prison. (RFE/RL, 06.17.20)
• French police on June 18 detained six members of the Chechen community on suspicion of taking part in successive nights of violence that rocked the eastern city of Dijon, prosecutors said. From June 12 to June 15, Dijon was rocked by clashes and vehicle burnings after an assault this month on a 16-year-old Chechen boy that prompted other members of the community to stage reprisal raids. Chechens involved in the events have told French media they were targeting drug dealers of North African origin.  (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20)

 

III. Russia’s relations with other countries

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

• German prosecutors on June 17 charged a Russian citizen who they said was acting on the Kremlin's orders in the murder of a Georgian national in Berlin last year. Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen rebel leader, was shot dead in the German capital in August. The suspected killer, a Russian national identified in the indictment as Vadim K. was arrested near the scene. "State agencies of the central government of the Russian federation commissioned the defendant to liquidate the Georgian citizen of Chechen origin," Germany's federal prosecutor said on June 18. (Wall Street Journal, 06.18.20)
• The EU on June 18 rolled over for another year tough sanctions imposed over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The measures prohibit certain exports and imports from Crimea and ban EU-based companies from investment and tourism services in the strategic Black Sea peninsula. (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20)
• Russia and Turkey have postponed high-level talks that were expected to focus on Libya and Syria, where the two countries support opposing sides in long-standing conflicts.. (RFE/RL, 06.13.20)
• Separatists in southern Yemen have seized 64 billion riyals ($255 million) in banknotes that Russia had printed for the country’s central bank, Moscow confirmed June 17. (The Moscow Times, 06.18.20)

China-Russia: Allied or Aligned?

• Lavrov said June 17 Moscow welcomed contacts between its close allies India and China after a deadly border confrontation. Lavrov said that "it's already been announced that military representatives of India and China have been in contact, they are discussing the situation, discussing measures for its de-escalation. We welcome that." China and India have traded blame for the June 15 high-altitude brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. A trilateral meet between Russia, China and India will be held online on June 23. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, "During this talk, the ministers will exchange their views on current political, economic and financial trials following the pandemic as well as opportunities to overcome the existing crisis." (AFP, 06.17.20, NDTV, 06.17.20)
• Russian authorities have charged the president of the St. Petersburg-based Arctic Academy, Valery Mitko, with high treason in an ongoing spate of similar investigations targeting Russian academics. Mitko's lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said on June 15 that the 78-year-old researcher had been under house arrest since February and his case was being investigated by the FSB. Mitko is accused of transferring classified materials to China, Pavlov said, adding that his client had pleaded not guilty. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)

Ukraine:

• NATO has entered a closer partnership with Ukraine, recognizing the former Soviet republic as an enhanced opportunities partner after Kyiv demonstrated its "commitment to Euro-Atlantic security." This status is part of a NATO initiative intended to "maintain and deepen cooperation between Allies and partners that have made significant contributions to NATO-led operations and missions," the alliance announced June 12. Ukraine, being a NATO Extended Opportunities Partner, will receive more access to the education program, information exchange, head of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Reconnaissance Oleksandr Zavytnevych said. (Interfax, 06.16.20, RFE/RL, 06.12.20)
• In Bolton’s book, slated to be published next week, he offers firsthand evidence that Trump linked his suspension of $391 million in security aid for Ukraine to his demands that Ukraine publicly announce investigations into supposed wrongdoing by Democrats. If Bolton’s account is to be believed, it means that Trump explicitly sought to use taxpayer money as leverage to extract help from another country for his partisan political campaign. Bolton says he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried eight to 10 times to persuade the president to release the aid. (New York Times, 06.18.20)
• Ukrainian officials say they were offered $6 million in bribes to end a criminal investigation into the head of a gas company where the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden served on the board. Ukraine's anti-corruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnitskiy, told a press conference in Kyiv on June 13 that neither of the Bidens was connected to the alleged bribe attempt. The Burisma natural gas company was at the center of a scandal leading to Trump's impeachment trial. (RFE/RL, 06.13.20)
• Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that only 20 percent of the country's armed forces were combat-efficient when Russia annexed Crimea. Poroshenko told the Kyiv Court of Appeals on June 15 during his testimony at a hearing into an appeal by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych against his high-treason conviction that the Ukrainian army at the time of the invasion was extremely weak, a state Poroshenko blamed on Yanukovych. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)
• Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Office is petitioning the courts for an arrest warrant for Poroshenko and is asking for bail to be set at 10 million hryvnias ($373,000). The issue was to be decided at a court session on June 18, which Poroshenko was slated attend, but has now been pushed back to July 1. Poroshenko has been under investigation by law enforcement agencies for several months in several cases that he claims are politically motivated. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has expressed concerns about Ukraine's justice system at a time when the State Bureau of Investigations and the Prosecutor-General's Office are considering arresting Poroshenko. (bne IntelliNews,06.17.20, Korrespondent.net, 06.18.20, RFE/RL, 06.18.20)
• Hundreds of activists supporting the pro-Russian Party of Shariy have clashed with Ukrainian nationalist groups in Kyiv near the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (RFE/RL, 06.17.20)
• A court in Kyiv has placed under house arrest the controversial former leader of a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group suspected of premeditated murder and possession of an illegal bladed weapon in the killing of a man he claims was self-defense. After violent protests by his supporters outside, the Shevchenko district court ruled late on June 15 that Serhiy Sternenko, who once led the Right Sector group in the city of Odessa, will remain under house arrest for 60 days. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)
• Ukrainian Security Service officers have reportedly detained the head of the regional council in Kherson and are bringing him to Kyiv, where his pretrial arrest will be decided in a case where he is suspected of ordering a deadly attack on anti-corruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk in 2018. A member of Kherson's Dnipro district council, Oleksandr Vlasov, said on June 16 that Vladyslav Manher was detained while at a hospital early in the morning and is being transported to Kyiv. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)
• Ukraine's GDP could shrink up to 8 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the government's updated plan of action. (Interfax, 06.15.20)
• Ukraine's Supreme Court has reversed a lower-court decision in favor of the government in a landmark case related to state-owned PrivatBank. The top court's ruling on June 15 means the government does not have to pay back more than a billion hryvnias ($37 million) to two brothers who lost their savings in the 2016 nationalization of Ukraine's largest lender. The victory comes days after Ukraine struck a $5 billion agreement with the IMF that was partly contingent on its handling of the PrivatBank issue. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)

Russia's other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Georgia has arrested a Russian national suspected of being hired to kill a journalist who insulted Putin live on air, with the would-be victim’s boss claiming that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the killing. Television host Giorgi Gabunia ignited backlash last summer when he opened his broadcast with a minute of graphic vulgarity aimed at Putin and his deceased mother. Officials in both Georgia and Russia, which have had a tense relationship since fighting a brief war in 2008, condemned Gabunia’s tirade. Kadyrov has denied accusations that he was behind the alleged plot. (RFE/RL, 06.17.20, The Moscow Times, 06.16.20)
• The Armenian government has announced it has decided to use only 60 percent of a $270 million Russian loan designed to finance the ongoing modernization of its Soviet-era nuclear power plant at Metsamor. (RFE/RL, 06.12.20)
• Armenian lawmakers have voted to strip the leader of the country’s main opposition party of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution and allow his arrest. The National Assembly on June 16 backed the prosecutor-general’s motions against Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party, over suspected vote buying in the 2017 general elections. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)
• Dozens of Azerbaijani citizens have been arrested in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan after hundreds of Azerbaijani men stuck near the Russian-Azerbaijani border clashed with local police. The governor of Daghestan's southern district of Magaramkent said on June 18 that hundreds of Azerbaijanis stranded along the border because of the coronavirus lockdown clashed with local law enforcement after they demanded their expedited repatriation. (RFE/RL, 06.18.20)
• On May 25, a military court in Uzbekistan sentenced the former director of the presidential Institute for Strategic and Interregional Research, Rafik Saifulin, to 12 years in prison after he was convicted of treason for allegedly spying for Russia. (RFE/RL, 06.14.20)
• Three Uzbek police officers have been arrested and charged with illegally detaining and torturing a man who then died in hospital, the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office has said. State prosecutors said on June 13 that the police officers in the eastern city of Andijon detained a local man in May and tortured him. Prosecutors said the man, identified as A. Abdukarimov, was taken to hospital and died on June 11. (RFE/RL, 06.13.20)
• Kyrgyz Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev has resigned, citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the assignment of national radio frequencies. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)
• Prosecutors in Kyrgyzstan have asked a court to sentence former President Almazbek Atambaev to 15 years in prison at his trial over the illegal release of notorious crime boss Aziz Batukaev in 2013. (RFE/RL, 06.17.20)
• Turkmenistan, the only country in Central Asia that has not officially registered coronavirus cases, has reportedly locked down two major hospitals amid concerns of a possible COVID-19 outbreak. (RFE/RL, 06.16.20)
• Turkmenistan has further tightened the rationing of basic foodstuffs at subsidized prices, introducing special registration books to track purchases at state stores. (RFE/RL, 06.12.20)
• Tajik opposition activist Hizbullo Shovalizoda, who was extradited from Austria in March, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on extremism charges. (RFE/RL, 06.12.20)
• Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who continues to control the Central Asian country after his sudden resignation last year, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Nazarbaev's press service said June 18 that he was currently self-isolated and continued to work remotely. (RFE/RL, 06.18.20)
• Moldovan President Igor Dodon brought army officers onto the streets on June 13 to monitor the enforcement of the sanitary measures against coronavirus for the second time since the outbreak in March, as the situation has deteriorated abruptly over the past couple of weeks. (bne IntelliNews, 06.15.20)
• A potential challenger to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in an upcoming presidential election has been detained along with his son for questioning at the Committee for State Control (KDK). The state-run Television and Radio Corporation confirmed reports from activists for Viktar Babaryka's election campaign on June 18 that Babaryka and his son "had been brought" to the KDK's Financial Investigations Department for questioning in an ongoing probe into suspected money laundering. (RFE/RL, 06.18.20)
• Prominent Belarusian opposition leader Mikalay Statkevich and several bloggers have been sentenced to 15 days in jail as part of a widening crackdown on dissent in the country ahead of elections. Statkevich was already sentenced on June 1 to 15 days in jail for taking part in an "unauthorized" opposition event in Minsk to collect signatures for petitions to support would-be candidates for the upcoming elections. (RFE/RL, 06.15.20)

 

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.