This Week’s Highlights:

• Russia's ongoing development of an advanced command-and-control military system using sophisticated artificial intelligence has surpassed the existing capacities of NATO, according to research group Jamestown Foundation. Development of Russian weapons should be accompanied by the active use of artificial intelligence technology, expanding the line of drones, as well as laser, hypersonic and robotic systems, Putin told his security council, according to TASS.
• U.S. Senators are seeking to pass a bipartisan bill before the end of the year that would enable the imposition of new sanctions on Russia if it interferes in U.S. elections, RFE/RL reports.
• "He was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security foreign policy. And those two things had just diverged,” former National Security Council official Fiona Hill said in reference to U.S. ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland’s activities in Ukraine in her testimony before Congress, CNN reports.
• American company TJX Cos said it had acquired a 25 percent stake in Russian low-cost clothing retailer Familia for $225 million, the first major M&A purchase in Russia by a Western company since the U.S. and EU sanctioned Moscow in 2014, according to Financial Times.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed to examples from the former Soviet bloc to argue that economic growth would not immunize a society against ethnic separatism, The New York Times reports. The Baltic republics were among the most developed in the Soviet Union but also the first to leave when the country broke up, Xi said.
• Four Russian-speaking men who were filmed beheading, dismembering and setting fire to a Syrian man in 2017 are believed to be private mercenaries for the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported. One of the mercenaries has been identified as Stanislav D, according to this weekly.  
• Then Prime Minister of Russia Yevgeny Primakov made two attempts to dismiss Vladimir Putin from his post as head of the FSB in the late 1990s, Boris Yeltsin’s advisor Valentin Yumashev said on Russian TV. Yumashev—who is Putin’s adviser—also claimed that then-FSB director Putin told him in 1998 that Primakov suggested that he put the leader of the Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, under surveillance, Gazeta.ru reports.

NB: Next week’s Russia in Review will appear on Wednesday, Nov. 27, instead of Friday, Nov. 29, because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays.

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• A group of anti-nuclear activists have protested against the transport of depleted uranium from a fuel rod production plant in Germany to Russia, saying that the British-Dutch-German group Urenco was trying to "cheaply dispose" of the unwanted radioactive waste. (Clean Energy Wire, 11.19.19)
• “Based on data received from the Global Environmental Monitoring System, there’s an increase in background radiation in the South China Sea in connection with a radiation incident,” Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor agency said. It added that the radiation levels did not “currently threaten the Russian population” and that it “has increased its radiation monitoring in the adjacent border areas.” (The Moscow Times, 11.22.19)
• Indian Minister of State Jitendra Singh confirmed to the country's parliament this week that a cyberattack discovered in September at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which Russian companies built, had been limited to the plant's administrative network. (World Nuclear News, 11.22.19)
• Rosatom has publicly expressed interest in jointly developing a floating nuclear power plant with India, alongside other small and medium sized reactors. (Bellona, 11.18.19)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Russia and China have coordinated a new draft plan on settling the situation on the Korean Peninsula and are ready to present it to partners in the region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Nov. 19. Morgulov said the plan will be presented to North Korea's first vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui during his visit to Moscow. While in Moscow, Choe agreed in meetings with top officials from Russia’s Foreign Ministry to strengthen ties and expand “strategic cooperation” between the two countries. Choe also told reporters it would be “impossible” to hold another summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump if he maintains his current stance towards the North. (TASS, 11.20.19, NK News, 11.21.19, Reuters, 11.20.19)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has asked Iran for details on why traces of uranium were found at an undeclared site after Iranian officials failed to provide information about the discovery. The IAEA has not named the site in question, but inspectors are believed to have taken samples from a location in Tehran's Turquzabad district. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• Iran is likely to seek out Russia and China to purchase advanced weapons systems such as tanks and fighter jets when a U.N. arms embargo against the country expires next year, a senior U.S. defense intelligence official said. The official said Iran’s defense spending “has taken a hit” partially due to U.S. sanctions. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is canceling one of four sanctions waivers that allowed foreign firms to cooperate with Iran's civilian nuclear program without penalties. (Al-Monitor, 11.19.19, RFE/RL, 11.18.19)

New Cold War/saber rattling:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press on with the development of a weapon that was at the center of a deadly nuclear accident in August. Putin told a Nov. 21 ceremony at the Kremlin to present posthumous awards to the families of the victims that the "technical ideas and solutions" involved in the project were "without an equivalent in the world.” (RFE/RL, 11.22.19)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• French President Emmanel Macron has told a close circle of associates earlier this fall that “NATO will cease to exist in five years,” according to a commentary published in The Moscow Times on Nov. 14. (Russia Matters, 11.18.19)
• NATO is planning a 70th birthday summit in London with themes likely to please U.S. President Donald Trump, such as new evidence that European countries are responding to pressure from Trump to spend more on their militaries. (Financial Times, 11.18.19)
• NATO foreign ministers have for the first time formally declared space as an “operational domain.” At their meeting, the ministers were also to endorse a confidential report laying out NATO’s new policy toward China. NATO doesn’t plan to move into Asia, but rather to respond to China’s growing presence. The trick has been to find a way not to portray the country as an adversary like Russia. “Our alliance must address the current and potential long-term threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on sidelines of the meeting. (AP, 11.20.19, Defense News, 11.21.19, U.S. State Department, 11.20.19)
• “It is clear to everyone that Russia will not attack anyone. Do you understand how many people live in the EU and NATO and what their aggregate economic and military potential is? This is simply nonsense, total stupidity,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “We are also seriously concerned about the NATO infrastructure approaching our borders, as well as the attempts to militarize outer space,” Putin told his Security Council in separate remarks on Nov. 22. (Kremlin.ru, 11.20.19, Kremlin.ru, 11.22.19)
• “Look what Putin is doing in Europe. Putin is—his whole effort is to break up NATO, to increase his power,” former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate on Nov. 20. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)
• Russia's ongoing development of an advanced command-and-control military system using sophisticated artificial intelligence has surpassed the existing capacities of NATO, an analysis by research group Jamestown Foundation says. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• Estonia wants Russia to return territory that it says is annexed by Moscow, its top lawmaker has said as the prospects of a Russian-Estonian border treaty turned grim this year over Tallinn’s territorial claims. (The Moscow Times, 11.20.19)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• “[T]he President [Trump] has spoken deeply about how the world has changed since New START was originally created. We now have an expanded threat from the Chinese Communist Party. The President’s made clear that any time we begin to have a conversation about how to create a strategic—a strategic structure that secures America, it’s no longer the case that it can only be the United States and Russia,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. (U.S. State Department, 11.20.19)
• U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen Nov. 21 said Trump's withdrawal from the INF Treaty in August following Russian violations "made a bad situation even worse." Van Hollen also said extending New START—the last remaining arms control agreement with Russia—should be a "national security priority." (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• “When we look at international agreements, we must start negotiating back with Russia, which has been a horrible player on the international scene, but the president precipitously got out of the nuclear agreement with Russia and we must start negotiating, even though they were cheating, for the good of this world. And we must also start the negotiations for the New START Treaty,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate on Nov. 20. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)

Counter-terrorism:

• No significant developments.

Conflict in Syria:

• Four Russian-speaking men who were filmed beheading, dismembering and setting fire to a Syrian man in 2017 are believed to be private mercenaries for the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported. One of the mercenaries has been identified as Stanislav D by this newspaper. “This has absolutely no relation to Russian soldiers, no matter what is being published about it,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. (The Moscow Times, 11.21.19, Guardian, 11.22.19)
• A new Russian air commandant’s office will be set up near the Syrian town of Qamishli. Russian helicopters and maintenance infrastructure will occupy the former U.S. military base at the border with Turkey after the U.S. troops pulled out in late October. The base will supply and support the Russian military police in the area, the Izvestia daily writes. "Additional forces of Russian military police are being sent to normalize the situation in Syria's border districts," Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Meanwhile, the U.S. expanded its ground patrol routes to villages west of Qamishli. (TASS, 11.19.19, Interfax, 11.19.19, ISW, 11.20.19)
• A Russian military vehicle was pelted with Molotov cocktails during its joint patrol with Turkish forces near the Syrian border town of Kobani. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.19)
• Russia said Nov. 19 it was bewildered by a Turkish pledge to conduct a new military operation in northern Syria if the area was not cleared of people Ankara calls terrorists, warning that any such move would damage efforts to stabilize the region. (New York Times, 11.19.19)
• Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat have discussed settlement in Syria and Russian-Israeli cooperation between the defense agencies and justice bodies at a meeting in Moscow. (Interfax, 11.19.19)

Cyber security:

• “I want to propose a new world data organization, like a WTO for data, because right now, unfortunately, we're living in a world where data is the new oil and we don't have our arms around it. These are the ways that we'll actually get Russia to the table and make it so they have to join the international community and stop resisting appeals to the world order,” U.S. entrepreneur Andrew Yang said at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate on Nov. 20. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)

Elections interference:

• U.S. senators are seeking to pass a bipartisan bill before the end of the year that would enable the imposition of new sanctions on Russia if it interferes in U.S. elections. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• A highly anticipated Justice Department inspector general’s report on aspects of the Russia investigation, including its origins and whether the FBI abused its surveillance powers, will be released in early December. Meanwhile,the U.S. Justice Department inspector general has found evidence that an FBI employee may have altered a document connected to court-approved surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. (The Washington Post, 11.22.19, New York Times, 11.21.19)
• Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill said in her statement prepared for the impeachment hearings: “I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that … Ukraine—not Russia—attacked us in 2016.” (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)
• Spain has opened an investigation into the role of a secret Russian military unit in Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum. (The Moscow Times, 11.22.19)

Energy exports:

• No significant developments.

Bilateral economic ties:

• American company TJX Cos said it had acquired a 25 percent stake in Russian low-cost clothing retailer Familia for $225 million, the first major M&A purchase in Russia by a Western company since the U.S. and EU sanctioned Moscow in 2014. (Financial Times, 11.19.19)

Other bilateral issues:

• The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has approved John Sullivan, a deputy secretary of state, as the country's ambassador to Russia. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• U.S. officials have asked MIT to turn over documents regarding the university's contacts with foreign governments and donations from foreign sources, including those coming from Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. The University of Maryland received a similar demand from the Education Department. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• A Moscow city court has upheld a court decision to prolong the pretrial detention of Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen charged in Russia with espionage, until Dec. 29. Lawyers for the detained former U.S. Marine, who has rejected the charges, had argued that Whelan should be subjected to a less restrictive detention, such as house arrest. (RFE/RL, 11.19.19)
• Swedbank AB may have violated U.S. sanctions against Russia by facilitating the transfer of about 10 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from gun maker Kalashnikov to a U.S. subsidiary in Florida. (Wall Street Journal, 11.20.19)
• Russia's Justice Ministry has issued a statement listing RFE/RL's Sever.Realii website as "foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent." (RFE/RL, 11.15.19)
• Apathy toward U.S. President Donald Trump has crossed the 50 percent mark for the first time since the state-run VTsIOM pollster began asking the question in early 2017, with 53 percent of Russian respondents viewing him with indifference. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they viewed Trump negatively, while 11 percent had a positive view. (The Moscow Times, 11.18.19)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• "They've made themselves bullet proof," James Barrineau, co-head of emerging market debt for Schroders Investment in New York, says of Russia, which has over $433 million in foreign currency reserves and $107.9 million worth of gold. (Forbes, 11.18.19)
• The ruble’s implied volatility on the financial markets—a measure of how extreme traders expect swings in the value of the currency will be over the next three months—has hit its lowest level since the beginning of 2015. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.19)
• Russian state nuclear power agency Rosatom is planning a massive expansion in the maritime shipping market with an investment of up to $7 billion. (bne IntelliNews, 11.22.19)
• Russian gas goliath Gazprom raked in $3 billion on Nov. 22 by selling shares to an unknown mystery buyer in an unconventional share deal. (The Moscow Times, 11.22.19)
• Yandex has agreed on a restructuring with the Kremlin that increases government influence over Russia’s largest tech company and seeks to prevent it from ever falling under foreign control. (Financial Times, 11.18.19)
• Russia has passed a law banning the sale of certain devices that are not pre-installed with Russian software. The law will come into force in July 2020 and cover smartphones, computers and smart televisions. (BBC, 11.21.19)
• Producing energy without carbon emissions will send humanity back to the prehistoric period, Russian President Vladimir Putin told an investment forum Nov. 20. (The Moscow Times, 11.20.19)
• In 2018, there were about 10 million more women than men in Russia. The numbers are even more astounding when you look at the group of people ages 65 and older—there are almost two times as many women as men. (The Washington Post, 11.18.19)
• In a poll released Nov. 20, the Levada Center said that in the last two years, the number of Russians who consider freedom of speech as one of the most important human rights has grown to 58 percent from 34 percent. (RFE/RL, 11.20.19)
• According to the Levada Center, 32 percent of Russian respondents expressed “admiration” and “sympathy” toward Vladimir Putin, down from 42 percent two years ago. Meanwhile, 61 percent said they felt “neutral” and “distant” toward the Russian president, up by 7 percent since 2017. (The Moscow Times, 11.18.19)
• Then Prime Minister of Russia Yevgeny Primakov made two attempts to dismiss Vladimir Putin from the post of the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the late 1990s, Boris Yeltsin’s advisor Valentin Yumashev said on Russian TV. Yumashev—who is Putin’s adviser—claimed that then-FSB director Putin told him in 1998 that Primakov suggested that he put the leader of the Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, under surveillance, which Putin found unacceptable, Gazeta.ru reported. Yumashev also claimed that Yeltsin picked Putin as his successor because he believed that Putin would continue liberal reforms while also displaying stamina. (Russia Matters, 11.22.19)
• Russia's lower house of parliament passed legislation on Nov. 21 that will allow individual journalists to be labeled foreign agents, a move that critics say will tighten curbs on the media. (The Moscow Times, 11.21.19)
• The Russian parliament’s commission on foreign interference said it has found several “camps” that allegedly receive funding from abroad to train protesters, both in-person and online. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.19)
• Influential pro-Kremlin billionaire Konstantin Malofeev wants to bankroll a conservative religious troll farm. (The Moscow Times, 11.18.19)
• The president of Russia's track and field governing body was among seven people suspended on Nov. 21 for obstructing an antidoping investigation, deepening a crisis for Russian sports that soon could see the country barred from next summer's Tokyo Olympics and other major international sporting events. (New York Times, 11.22.19)
• A foundation run by Katerina Tikhonova, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughter, has earned a record 488 million rubles ($7.6 million) last year. (The Moscow Times, 11.21.19)

Defense and aerospace:

• Development of Russian weapons should be accompanied by the active use of artificial intelligence technologies, an expansion of the line of drones, as well as laser, hypersonic and robotic systems, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Russian Security Council. He noted that the work on preparing the state armament program until 2033 will begin in 2020. (TASS, 11.22.19)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russian oligarch Mikhail Abyzov built a complex network of offshore companies that were used to move a fortune out of Russia, according to a Swedbank internal draft report obtained by OCCRP. From 2011 to 2016, money going into Swedbank accounts of Abyzov-linked companies totaled around $860 million; $770 million flowed out. (OCCRP/The Moscow Times, 11.20.19)
• Russian investigators said on Nov. 21 they had opened two criminal cases into the management of a company involved in building the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space center in the country's Far East. The announcement came less than two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin complained to government officials about corruption at the facility. (Reuters, 11.21.19)
• The prosecutor in the trial of 11 Central Asians accused of being involved in a deadly 2017 subway blast in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, has asked for a 20-year prison sentence for Shokhista Karimova, the only woman charged in the incident. (RFE/RL, 11.19.19)
• Police have busted what they say is Russia’s largest synthetic drug lab on a farm outside Moscow, the Interior Ministry said. It estimated that 1.5 metric tons of synthetic drugs may have been manufactured at the lab’s chemical reactors. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.19)
• Russia’s State Duma has passed a law allowing Russia’s security services and law-enforcement agencies to shoot down drones, Kommersant reported. (Russia Matters, 11.22.19)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Russia’s top EU envoy has applauded French President Emmanuel Macron’s opposition to enlargement of the union. Vladimir Chizhov, the Kremlin’s ambassador to the EU, said Macron “has a point” when he argues the EU needs to deal with tensions between its members before starting talks for North Macedonia and Albania to join. (Financial Times, 11.17.19)
• The Kremlin has expressed confidence that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's planned visit to Moscow next month will "once again demonstrate the spirit of partnership" between the two countries, after Belgrade said it had uncovered spying by Russian agents. Serbian intelligence agencies have uncovered a wide-ranging intelligence operation involving Russian spies and members of the Serbian military, Vucic said on Nov. 21. (RFE/RL,11.22.19, The Moscow Times, 11.22.19)
• Russia's Foreign Ministry said Nov. 19 that a U.S. decision to effectively back Israel's right to build Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank undermined the legal basis for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Reuters, 11.18.19)
• Libya's U.N.-backed government believes that two Russians arrested on spying allegations earlier this year were employed by the Wagner Group, suggesting the Kremlin-linked security firm has played a wider role in the country's conflict than previously known. (The Washington Post, 11.19.19)
• The Kremlin wants Russian lawmakers to refrain from inviting high-level foreign guests to Victory Day commemorations next spring. (The Moscow Times, 11.19.19)

China:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed to examples from the former Soviet bloc to argue that economic growth would not immunize a society against ethnic separatism. The Baltic republics were among the most developed in the Soviet Union but also the first to leave when the country broke up, he said. (New York Times, 11.16.19)

Ukraine:

• The leaders of the countries involved in the Normandy-format talks (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) could sign a framework agreement on a political settlement in Donbas at the upcoming summit in Paris on Dec. 9. (Interfax, 11.19.19)
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will advance the following issues during the summit: conducting local and regional elections in territories that Kyiv doesn't currently control, return of all Ukrainian captives and sealing a permanent cease-fire. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko says Kyiv is ready to accept a "reasonable compromise" next month during the Normandy format talks. (RFE/RL, 11.19.19)
  • “He seems to be a nice person, sincere, and I think that he really wants to improve the situation, including in Donbas,” Vladimir Putin said of Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (Kremlin.ru, 11.20.19)
• Ukrainian naval ships, captured by Russia last November and released on Nov. 19 to be returned to Ukraine, are in very poor condition and cannot move independently, the commander of Ukraine's navy said. (The Moscow Times, 11.20.19)
• Russia's FSB security service has detained a Russian serviceman suspected of spying for Ukraine. (The Moscow Times, 11.20.19)
• Two Ukrainian mining engineers have been killed and another four injured in explosions at an arms depot near the eastern city of Kharkiv. (RFE/RL, 11.15.19)
• Officers of Ukraine's Security Service have arrested the chairman of the state-owned Ukreximbank, Oleksandr Hrytsenko, on suspicion of creating an organized crime group, embezzlement and money laundering. (RFE/RL, 11.18.19)
• Several thousand Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv and other cities to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the beginning of the pro-democracy protests that eventually led the Moscow-backed president to flee the country. (RFE/RL, 11.22.19)
• The World Bank has revised upwards its forecast for Ukraine's GDP growth in 2019 from 3.4 percent year-on-year to 3.6 percent year on year. (bne IntelliNews, 11.20.19)
• “The United States has provided combined civilian and military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 of about $3 billion plus … three $1 billion loan guarantees. … The Europeans … since 2014 have provided a combined $12 billion to Ukraine,” U.S. State Department official David Holmes said on Nov. 21. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)
• "What I can say is that the aid from the U.S. hasn't stopped," said Lt. Lubomyr Loboiko, who serves at a Ukrainian command base in the Donetsk region. "Instructors are working at our training grounds. They were working, and they are working. And we're exchanging information." (The Washington Post, 11.20.19)
• Tim Morrison, a top adviser on the U.S. National Security Council, has said that national security adviser John Bolton pushed Donald Trump to release nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, but Bolton failed to persuade him to do so before resigning. (RFE/RL, 11.17.19)
• Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a U.S. national security council official, said that President Trump made “inappropriate” demands in the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy that has sparked a congressional impeachment inquiry: “It is improper of the president of the United States to ask a foreign government to investigate a political opponent.” Vindman also said he was offered the position of Ukraine's defense minister three times. (Financial Times, 11.19.19, RFE/RL, 11.19.19)
• Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, testified before a impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives on Nov. 20 that U.S. President Donald Trump never told him that the release of military aid to Ukraine was dependent on its leaders announcing an investigation into his political rival. However, he also said he was following Trump’s orders, with the full knowledge of other top administration officials, when he pressured the Ukrainians to conduct investigations into Trump’s political rivals in what he called a clear “quid pro quo.” He testified that Trump instructed him to work with Rudy Giuliani and that he kept Mike Pompeo apprised of key developments. (RFE/RL, 11.20.19, New York Times, 11.20.19, New York Times, 11.20.19)
• "He was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security foreign policy. And those two things had just diverged,” Fiona Hill said in reference to Gordon Sondland in her testimony. She also said it was plain that Trump’s desire for an investigation into Burisma related to the fact that it could damage Joe Biden, a potential rival in the 2020 election. (CNN, 11.22.19, Financial Times, 11.22.19)
• U.S. State Department official Holmes gave a detailed account to House investigators of a conversation he overheard between Trump and Sondland about investigations the U.S. president was seeking in Ukraine. Holmes said Ukrainian officials "came to understand what was required" to get military assistance and a meeting with Trump, according to newly released testimony.  Holmes said that during lunch in Kyiv on July 26 with Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU told him that Trump “doesn’t give a s**t about Ukraine, he only cares about ‘big stuff.’” (RFE/RL, 11.21.19,Wall Street Journal, 11.18.19, The Washington Post, 11.19.19)
• U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and Ukraine Laura Cooper told lawmakers conducting an impeachment probe into U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine voiced concern over a stoppage in $390 million of U.S. military aid to the country as early as July 25, the same day that Trump made a controversial phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart. (RFE/RL, 11.21.19)
• Trump said Nov. 18 he would consider testifying in the House impeachment probe despite calling it a witch hunt, saying he was intrigued by the possibility of providing his own version of events. (Wall Street Journal, 11.18.19)
• Mike Pompeo said during a Nov. 18 news conference in Washington that Trump had "reversed the massive failures" of the Obama administration by giving lethal weapons to Ukraine. "I am proud of what we have done. President Trump's policy has been consistent throughout. The State Department is fully supportive," Pompeo said. (RFE/RL, 11.19.19)
• The FBI sought last month to interview the whistleblower who helped ignite the impeachment inquiry as a witness in an ongoing investigation, but the interview never took place. (New York Times, 11.20.10)
• “[Trump] held up aid to make sure that—while at the same time innocent people in the Donbas are getting killed by Russian soldiers,” Biden said at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate on Nov. 20. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)
• In the U.S., "it seems there is no interesting topic other than Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said. (The Washington Post, 11.21.19)
• An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Nov. 18 found that 70 percent of Americans believe Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine “were wrong” and a slim majority—51 percent—say he should be impeached and removed from office. (New York Times, 11.18.19)
• Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham sent a letter to Pompeo on Nov. 21 requesting documents related to former vice president Joe Biden and his communications with Ukrainian officials, a step seen as a GOP effort to counter the House impeachment investigation of Trump. (The Washington Post, 11.22.19)
• U.S. federal prosecutors are planning to interview Andrew Favorov, an executive of the Ukrainian state-owned Naftogaz oil and gas conglomerate, as part of an investigation into the business dealings of Giuliani and two of his Soviet-born business associates. (RFE/RL, 11.20.19)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will seek reelection in the polls set for August 2020. Belarus’s authoritarian president underscored his iron grip on power after election results revealed that the country’s new parliament would not include a single opposition politician. Opposition figures had previously held two seats in the 110-member parliament. Former Miss Belarus Maria Vasilevich became the youngest candidate to win a seat in parliament during the elections and has also been reportedly romantically involved with Lukashenko. (Financial Times, 11.18.19, bne IntelliNews, 11.20.19, RFE/RL, 11.17.19)
• Lukashenko on Nov. 17 threatened to pull out of signing an integration deal with Russia next month if Moscow failed to resolve their dispute over energy subsidies. (Reuters, 11.17.19)
• A joint investigation by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, OCCRP and the Kyrgyz news site Kloop revealed that a Uyghur businessman from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, Aierken Saimaiti, secretly provided reporters with documents demonstrating how hundreds of millions of dollars were moved out of Kyrgyzstan via a network led by Khabibula Abdukadyr, a Chinese-born Uyghur with a Kazakh passport. (RFE/RL, 11.22.19)
• Orthodox Christianity and Islam are based on the same fundamental values, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to a religious conference in Kyrgyzstan. (The Moscow Times, 11.22.19)
• Opposition activists in Georgia tried to shut state buildings with padlocks and chains in the capital and other cities across the country, as protests spread demanding an early parliamentary election. (Reuters, 11.21.19)

IV. Quoteworthy

• “Why don’t they come and sit in jail with me? They’ll be opposition leaders, too. But they won’t go anywhere near it because they’re cowards,” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said of some of the other Russian opposition leaders. (Financial Times, 11.22.19)