This Week's Highlights:

 

• The majority of U.S. voters accept special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that President Trump did not conspire with Russia, and believe that congressional Democrats should do the same, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll reported by The Hill.
• The Russian and Chinese navies are to hold Joint Sea 2019 naval drills in late April-early May, Newsweek cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying. Some 84 percent of Russians consider China to be more of a partner to Russia than a rival (11 percent), according to a recent survey by the Levada Center in conjunction with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
• A poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology released March 29 showed 20.9 percent of respondents backing comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, while President Petro Poroshenko had 17 percent support and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko 9.7 percent, according to the AP. As Ukrainians prepare to vote in Sunday's presidential election, the revolutionary fervor that brought Poroshenko to power has dissipated into widespread disillusionment, the Wall Street Journal writes.
• Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told his Saudi counterpart, Khalid al-Falih, when the two met in Baku this month that he cannot guarantee an extension of an OPEC-led pact cutting oil supply to the end of 2019, Reuters reported.
• Russia announced a $30 million gift to Kyrgyzstan ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s trip to the Central Asian country, according to The Moscow Times. During the one-day visit, the sides agreed to expand Russia’s military base in Kyrgyzstan by 60 hectares, RFE/RL reports.
• More than 1,300 Russian state officials suspected of violating corruption rules were fired for loss of trust last year, The Moscow Times cited federal prosecutors as saying this week.

 

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• The National Nuclear Security Administration requested some $16.5 billion for weapons, nonproliferation and nuclear-Navy propulsion work for the 2020 budget year. Weapons activities would get the biggest increase: nearly 12 percent to almost $12.5 billion, compared with the 2019 budget. Total nonproliferation spending would rise about 3 percent to almost $2 billion.(Exchange Monitor, 03.27.19)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Russia sent home nearly two-thirds of some 30,000 North Koreans working there during 2018 and China repatriated more than half those employed there but did not specify a figure, according to unpublished reports by Moscow and Beijing to the U.N. Security Council. (Reuters, 03.26.19)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• No significant developments.

New Cold War/saber rattling:

• An underwater drone armed with a nuclear warhead is slated to join Russia's arsenal no earlier than 2027, people familiar with a U.S. intelligence assessment tell CNBC. (CNBC, 03.25.19)
• In a speech to a meeting of the National Space Council held on March 26 U.S. Vice President Mike Pence referenced Russian and Chinese activities in space, saying "make no mistake about it, we're in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher.” (Space.com, 03.28.19)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• NATO will plow $260 million into stationing U.S. military equipment in Poland, lending allied heft to Washington’s strategy for quickly reinforcing Europe with troops in case of a Russian incursion. (Wall Street Journal, 03.22.19)
• In the strongest signal yet from Washington that Ankara cannot have both the F-35 fighter jets and Russia’s S-400 defense system, officials have told Reuters the U.S. could soon freeze preparations for delivering the F-35 to Turkey. (Reuters, 03.26.19)
• Speaking during a visit to Turkey’s south coast by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey is plowing ahead with discussions about the delivery of Russian-made S-400 air defense system, despite mounting tensions with the U.S. over the purchase. (Financial Times, 03.29.19)
• Two Russian naval vessels were closely escorting NATO warships in the Black Sea that are headed toward Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said March 28. (The Moscow Times, 03.29.19)
• U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have spoken by phone on issues including NATO funding, Ukraine and trade. (RFE/RL, 03.23.19)
• NATO has extended the mandate of its top civilian official, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, for two years, making the former Norwegian premier one of the longest-serving heads of the military alliance. (AP, 03.28.19)
• Serbian ultranationalists staged a demonstration in Belgrade on March 24 to mark the 20th anniversary of NATO's intervention. (RFE/RL, 03.24.19)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• Findings from a new binational survey, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center, show that nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87 percent) and 74 percent of Russians favor their two countries’ coming to an agreement to limit nuclear weapons. A slim majority of Americans oppose the U.S. decision to withdraw from the INF agreement (41 percent support, 54 percent oppose). (Chicago Council, 03.18.19)

Counterterrorism:

• For U.S. counterterrorism strategy, the focus will move from years of armed conflict as ISIS held parts of Iraq and Syria to confrontation with a more dispersed and furtive insurgency. (Wall Street Journal, 03.25.19)

Conflict in Syria:

• President Trump's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights became the latest rallying call against U.S. policies at the U.N. Security Council. All 14 other council members said March 27 that they oppose Washington's decision and that the Golan Heights is territory occupied by Israel. Russia, Iran and a number of Arab countries, including U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, have separately blasted Trump's decision. (Wall Street Journal, 03.28.19, RFE/RL, 03.26.19)
• The Russian military has confirmed that three of its soldiers were killed in an ambush in Syria late last month. (The Moscow Times, 03.26.19)

Cyber security:

• Facebook said on March 26 it has removed more accounts from Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo, citing what it described as “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” A total of 2,632 pages, groups and accounts were removed. (Reuters, 03.26.19)

Elections interference:

• U.S. Attorney General William Barr on March 24 released a four-page summary of conclusions of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. According to the summary, Mueller’s team found no evidence of collusion between U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, but left unresolved the issue of whether Trump had obstructed justice by undermining the investigations. Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the investigation did not produce sufficient evidence to establish that Trump committed the crime of obstructing justice. The report also contains information about ongoing criminal investigations that Mueller referred to other U.S. attorneys' offices. Barr said in a letter to lawmakers on March 29 that he plans to issue a redacted copy of the report by mid-April. (RFE/RL, 03.27.19,  RFE/RL, 03.27.19, Reuters, 03.24.19, Reuters, 03.25.19, Reuters, 03.26.19, Reuters, 03.29.19)
• Mueller’s still-secret report is nearly 400 pages long, according to American officials with knowledge of it, a length that raises new questions about Barr’s four-page summary. (NYT, 03.28.19, RFE/RL, 03.27.19, Reuters, 03.29.19)
• Upon release of the summary of Mueller’s report, President Trump declared a "complete and total exoneration.” Trump then gave an interview to Fox, in which he lavished praise on Barr and refused to rule out pardoning indicted campaign aides, such as Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos. He also touched upon the issue at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on March 28. “After three years of lies and spin and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead," he claimed. (RFE/RL, 03.23.19, The Washington Post, 03.28.19, The Washington Post, 03.28.19)
• In a joint statement, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings said that the Mueller report "expressly does not exonerate the President," adding: "Instead, it 'sets out evidence on both sides of the question' of obstruction—including the evidence that President Trump attempted to obstruct justice." "Undoubtedly there is collusion," Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said. Democrats say they may subpoena the report if it’s not forthcoming by their April 2 deadline, which Barr has said will not be met. (AP, 03.29.19, RFE/RL, 03.23.19, The Washington Post, 03.26.19)
• U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on March 25 blocked a second attempt by Democrats to pass a measure aimed at prodding the Justice Department to release to the public Mueller’s report. (Reuters, 03.25.19)
• Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a leading Senate Republican, said on March 25 he would ask Barr to appoint a special counsel to probe whether U.S. law enforcement officials made missteps in their investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. (Reuters, 03.25.19)
• The majority of U.S. voters accept special counsel Mueller’s conclusion that President Trump did not conspire with Russia, and believe that congressional Democrats should do the same, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill. Sixty-four percent said that they accept Mueller's conclusion, the survey found, while 61 percent said they agree with the finding. (The Hill, 03.28.18)
• Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reiterated Kremlin denials, asserting that Russia had not interfered in elections in the United States or anywhere else and saying it was natural that the probe did not establish collusion between Russia and associates of Trump. "It's hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat," Peskov said on March 25. (RFE/RL, 03.23.19)
• The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow hoped that "in time, Washington will...officially admit not only that there was no 'collusion' but that all the insinuations of 'Russian intervention' are groundless slander invented for use in the domestic political struggle in the United States." (RFE/RL, 03.23.19)
• Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, has welcomed the findings of Mueller's report on Moscow’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, saying this gives the two countries a chance to repair ties. (RFE/RL, 03.25.19)
• Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, the first person charged in Mueller’s Russia investigation, said on March 26 his lawyers have applied for a pardon and that he may withdraw his guilty plea. (Reuters, 03.26.19)
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said March 25 that he had told Sen. John McCain to give the FBI the dossier on the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. (The Washington Post, 03.25.19)

Energy exports:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an allocation of budget funds in 2021-2022 for the construction of the Utrenny liquefied natural gas terminal in the Russian port of Sabetta on the Northern Sea route. (Reuters, 03.28.19)
• Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told his Saudi counterpart, Khalid al-Falih, when the two met in Baku this month that he cannot guarantee an extension of an OPEC-led pact cutting oil supply to the end of 2019. OPEC and its allies, including Russia, aim to hold their next ministerial monitoring committee meeting, known as the JMMC, on May 19 in Jeddah (Reuters, 03.28.18, Reuters, 03.26.19)
• The Danish government has refused to allow companies building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to pass through its territorial waters, a move that could delay but not kill the project. (Kyiv Post, 03.27.19)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Ford will pay around $200 million in cash to workers and suppliers who lose their jobs when the company closes three of its plants in Russia in June. One assembly plant will remain open and will focus on the production of Ford Transit light commercial vehicles (The Moscow Times, 03.28.19)

Other bilateral issues:

• U.S. President Trump has called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Venezuela and warned that "all options" were open to achieve that. Two Russian military planes landed outside Venezuela's capital, Caracas, on March 23, carrying nearly 100 Russian military personnel. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan have also weighed in on the issue. Pompeo has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Moscow's dispatch of military personnel to Venezuela is increasing tensions there and warned that Washington will not "stand idly by.” Shanahan dismissed Russian assurances on March 28 that its troops in Venezuela posed no security threat, saying: "I'm not sure I always believe what they say." (Reuters, 03.28.19, RFE/RL, 03.25.19, RFE/RL, 03.27.19)
  • Russian military advisers will stay in Venezuela as long as needed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said a day after U.S. President Donald Trump called on Moscow to “get out” of the South American country. (The Moscow Times, 03.28.19)
• U.S. officials have “exchanged views” with representatives of Russia and China on the current status of the Afghan peace process, the State Department says. In a statement on March 22, the department said representatives met in Washington on March 21-22 and “discussed common efforts to bring peace, prosperity, and security to Afghanistan.” (RFE/RL, 03.22.19)
• The White House has received a long-awaited package of new sanctions on Russia, intended to punish the Kremlin for a 2018 nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K. U.S. officials at the State and Treasury departments have vetted the sanctions and are awaiting approval from the White House to issue them. (Bloomberg, 03.29.19)
• A London arbitration court has ruled against Kremlin-connected businessman Artem Avetisyan who attempted to seize control of a Russian bank in a battle that led to the detention of Michael Calvey, the top U.S. private equity investor in Russia. (Financial Times, 03.25.19)
• Maria Butina, who has admitted to working as a Russian agent to infiltrate an influential gun rights group and make inroads with U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, will be sentenced on April 26. (Reuters, 03.28.19) 
• A spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee said in an emailed statement that testimony by Felix Sater, a Russian-born property developer who worked on a plan to build a Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow, which had been scheduled for March 27, would be postponed. He did not provide a future date. (Reuters, 03.25.19)
• A firm hired by the U.S. Treasury Department is auditing Rusal to check whether it is complying with the terms of a deal under which Washington agreed to lift sanctions on the company, Rusal said. (Reuters, 03.29.19)
• Andrew Marshall, a Pentagon strategist who helped shape American military thinking on the Soviet Union, China and other global competitors for more than four decades, died on March 26 in Alexandria, Virginia. (New York Times, 03.28.19)
• Large majorities of Russians (85 percent) and Americans (78 percent) say the United States and Russia are more rivals than partners, according to surveys conducted by the Chicago Council and Levada Center in February 2019. (Chicago Council, 03.21.19)
  • In the United States, public perceptions that Russia is a threat to U.S. security have risen (from 18 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2019), according to the surveys. About six in 10 think the U.S. response will be somewhat or very ineffective in preventing Russia from using chemical agents to assassinate citizens of other countries (61 percent), aiding separatist groups in other countries (58 percent), using aggressive tactics against its neighbors (57 percent), violating international agreements (56 percent), conducting cyber-espionage against other countries (60 percent),  interfering in other countries’ domestic politics (58 percent) or developing new, higher-speed missiles (59 percent). (Chicago Council, 03.21.19)
  • In Russia, majorities believe that their country’s recent foreign policy has worsened relations with the United States (78 percent), Russia’s economic situation (58 percent) and Russian living standards (64 percent). But majorities also think it has improved the state of their military (83 percent) and their country’s influence abroad (62 percent). Russians also tend to believe that Russia (47 percent) rather than the United States (8 percent) has a greater interest in improving the bilateral relationship. (Chicago Council, 03.21.19)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Russia’s Finance Ministry borrowed more than $7.2 billion so far in March through local-currency and Eurobond sales, almost four times the monthly average in 2018, capitalizing on a recovery in demand among foreign investors. The head of the ministry’s debt department said Russia may issue more Eurobonds this year if market conditions are favorable (Bloomberg, 03.25.19, Reuters, 03.26.19)
• Inflation expectations in Russia continued to fall in March, the central bank said on March 27: Inflation is set to peak at around 5.5 percent in March or April before slowing to 4.7-5.2 percent by the end of the year. (Reuters, 03.27.19)
• Within the span of a decade Russia has quadrupled its bullion reserves. The country’s central bank bought 274 tons of bullion last year, according to the World Gold Council. Dollars represent 22 percent of the reserves, down from 46 percent in mid-2017. (Bloomberg, 03.29.19)
• Russia ranks in the top 25 percent of countries whose citizens can enjoy the most freedom of travel abroad, according to an annual rating of passport “strength” by Henley & Partners. (The Moscow Times, 03.26.19)
• A new survey by Moscow’s Higher School of Economics found that 94 percent of respondents saw environmental pollution as a pressing concern. (The Moscow Times, 03.25.19)
• Russia's communications watchdog has threatened to block access to popular VPN services that give Russian internet users access to websites outlawed by Moscow. (RFE/RL, 03.28.19)
• More than a dozen patrol officers have been fired in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia for failing to disperse protesters rallying against a controversial land swap deal with Chechnya. (The Moscow Times, 03.29.19)
• Russian law enforcement agencies have raided more homes belonging to members of the Jehovah's Witnesses in regions east of Moscow, according to the U.S.-based religious group. (RFE/RL, 03.27.19)
• Human Rights Watch has called on the Russian authorities to drop the case against opposition activist Alexander Korovainy who is facing administrative charges for posting an infographic on prices of household items in 2009 and 2019 from a news outlet backed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (RFE/RL, 03.24.19)
• In a March 26 statement, the Moscow-based NGO Memorial contended that the arrest of Azat Miftakhov and the charges against him are politically motivated. Miftakhov, 25, a postgraduate mathematics student at Moscow State University, was initially arrested on Feb. 1 and accused of helping make an improvised bomb found in January. (RFE/RL, 03.26.19)
• The head of Russia's Sakha-Yakutia region has signed a decree banning the employment of foreigners in dozens of economic sectors, amid tensions following the arrest of a Central Asian migrant suspected of raping a local woman. (RFE/RL, 03.28.19)

Defense and aerospace:

• One of Russia’s largest defense contractors, JSC Almaz Antey, has received a patent for a flying, shotgun-wielding drone. (Jalopnik, 03.29.19)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• More than 1,300 Russian state officials suspected of violating corruption rules were fired for loss of trust last year, federal prosecutors said March 26. (The Moscow Times, 03.27.19)
• Russia's Investigative Committee says Mikhail Abyzov, former Cabinet minister and ally of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, has been detained for allegedly embezzling $62 million from a Siberian energy distribution company. (RFE/RL, 03.26.19)
• Viktor Ishayev, a former Putin envoy and longtime head of Russia’s Far East region of Khabarovsk, has been detained in Moscow on suspicion of embezzling money from Rosneft. (The Moscow Times, 03.28.19)
• Russian lawmakers have passed legislation that extends punishments for those holding senior positions in organized crime groups. Under the proposal, those found guilty of “creating a criminal organization” or participating in senior-level meetings will face up to 20 years in jail. (The Moscow Times, 03.27.19)
• Swedish police on March 27 raided the headquarters of Swedbank AB, the latest Scandinavian banking giant to come under suspicion of laundering billions of dollars in illicit funds from Russia. Birgitte Bonnesen, the chief executive of Swedbank, has been fired. (Wall Street Journal, 03.27.19, Financial Times, 03.28.19)
• A Lithuanian court found former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity on March 27 for his role in a 1991 crackdown against the Baltic state's pro-independence movement. Russia has refused to cooperate with the trial, calling it illegal. (The Moscow Times, 03.27.19)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Russians see the EU as more of a rival to Russia (50 percent versus 37 percent who see it as a partner), according to a recent survey by the Levada Center. (Chicago Council, 03.21.19)
• A Russian diplomat, identified as Yevgeny Umerenko, quietly left Sweden following the arrest of a computer specialist he allegedly handled as a spy and met for dinner in Stockholm three weeks ago to carry out an act of espionage, Swedish authorities said. (AP, 03.28.19)
• For Venezuela coverage see “Other bilateral issues” in Section I above.

China:

• The Russian Defense Ministry announced March 27 that "the Russian Navy and [China’s] People's Liberation Army Navy are to hold the Joint Sea 2019 joint naval drills in late April-early May 2019." The announcement came after Chinese Rear Admiral Yan Zhenming and Russian Rear Admiral Alexander Shuvanov met in St. Petersburg. (Newsweek, 03.27.19)
• Russians consider China to be more of a partner to Russia (84 percent versus 11 percent who see it as a rival), according to a recent survey conducted by the Levada Center. (Chicago Council, 03.21.19)

Ukraine:

• A poll by Kiev International Institute of Sociology released March 29, the last day surveys can be published, showed 20.9 percent of respondents backing comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, while President Petro Poroshenko had 13.7 percent support and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko 9.7 percent. (AP, 03.29.19)
• Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has accused President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of waging campaigns that involve bribing voters ahead of the March 31 presidential election—a blunt claim seen as part of the increasingly vicious infighting in the top echelons of the Ukrainian government. (AP, 03.29.19)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko alleged March 28 that his two top rivals in the weekend’s coming election, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, are backed by self-exiled tycoon Ihor Kolomoysky who wants to unseat Poroshenko as revenge for the nationalization of his bank. (AP, 03.28.19)
• Five years ago, Ukrainians staged a revolution that sought to throw off a Russia-backed government and sweep away a corrupt ruling class. Today, as Ukrainians prepare to vote in the March 31 presidential election, that revolutionary fervor has dissipated into widespread disillusionment (Wall Street Journal, 03.28.19)
• The BBC says it has agreed to pay damages to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko over an "incorrect" report that alleged that a payment of $400,000 was made to Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to extend a meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents. (RFE/RL, 03.28.19)
• Ukraine is bracing itself for "unprecedented" cyberattacks during the first round of voting in the presidential election on March 31, Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service has warned. The EU’s disinformation watchdog has also warned about Russian "conventional and hybrid aggression" ahead of the vote. (RFE/RL, 03.28.19)
• Unlike the 2016 interference in the United States, which centered on fake Facebook pages created by Russians in faraway St. Petersburg, the operation in Ukraine this year tried to circumvent Facebook’s new safeguards by paying Ukrainian citizens to give a Russian agent access to their personal pages, according to the Security Service of Ukraine. (New York Times, 03.29.19)
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he hopes to be able in the coming days to announce additional measures along with Western allies to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine. NATO members are scheduled to be in Washington on April 4 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Western military alliance. (RFE/RL, 03.28.19)
• Approximately 500 congregations have joined the new independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church so far, angering Russian President Vladimir Putin. (PBS NewsHour, 03.24.19)
• Russia has connected the railway sections of a $3.6 billion road-and-rail bridge linking Russia and Crimea ahead of train navigation scheduled to begin this December. (The Moscow Times, 03.25.19)
• Russia staged large-scale land, air and sea drills in the annexed Crimean peninsula on March 27.  The drills, which lasted three days, involved around 1,500 paratroopers and around 300 military hardware units, including large naval ships and aircraft. (Reuters, 03.28.19)
• The United States has said Turkish diplomat Yasar Halit Cevik will be taking over the international monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine as the conflict there continues to fester. (RFE/RL, 03.27.19)
• Poland issued more first-time residence permits to non-EU citizens than any other EU nation in 2017, with 86 percent of them going to Ukrainians, in the latest available European migration statistics. Those Ukrainians accounted for 18.7 percent of all newcomers to the entire EU. (Wall Street Journal, 03.27.19)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Russia announced a $30 million gift to Kyrgyzstan ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Central Asian country. During Putin's one-day visit, the sides agreed to expand the territory of Russia’s military base in Kyrgyzstan by 60 hectares. (The Moscow Times, 03.28.19, RFE/RL, 03.28.19)
• The United States has removed Uzbek cotton from a list of products that are barred from the country due to concerns about child labor. (RFE/RL, 03.27.19)
• Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates have signed $10 billion worth of agreements on cooperation in investment and finance, renewable energy, industry and infrastructure development, agriculture and other fields. (RFE/RL, 03.25.19)
• In Tajikistan, U.S.-funded news broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is facing Washington’s scrutiny. Critics see Radio Ozodi, RFE/RL’s Tajik service, as overly accommodating to the strongman president, unintentionally enabling him to gloss over his abuses. In its written reply, RFE/RL denied that its staffers have ever colluded with Tajik officials or deleted stories at their request. (Eurasianet.org, 03.26.19)
• Interim Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has signed a decree to rename the capital Astana after former President Nursultan Nazarbaev. (RFE/RL, 03.23.19)
• Interim Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has appointed recently dismissed Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintaev to head his administration. (RFE/RL, 03.24.19)
• The Kazakh bank immersed in a multinational fight to recoup assets allegedly stolen more than a decade ago has filed a new U.S. lawsuit, alleging that a former associate of President Donald Trump considered using funds from those assets to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. (RFE/RL, 03.25.19)
• During a visit to Georgia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has again said that the South Caucasus country will eventually join the Western military alliance, despite the Kremlin's fierce opposition. Stoltenberg was in Tbilisi on March 25 to hold meetings with Georgian officials and attend joint NATO-Georgia military exercises. (RFE/RL, 03.25.19)
• A Georgian court has sentenced a man to life in prison after a jury convicted him of murdering an American-Georgian couple and their 4-year-old son in July 2018. (RFE/RL, 03.27.19)