This Week’s Highlights:

• A Democratic-led House of Representatives is likely to revive or intensify some of the investigations into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential elections and to expand sanctions against Russia, according to a Russia Matters review of commentary on the impact this week’s midterm elections will have on U.S. policies.
• Tens of thousands protested U.S. President Donald Trump's removal of Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general out of concern that the move threatens the independence of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to The Washington Post. Mueller faces at least two key decision points: a probe into longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone's activities and ongoing negotiations with Trump's legal team over a request to interview the president, according to the Post.
• A week before hosting Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin along with many other heads of state in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a "real European army" to allow the EU to defend itself against Russia and the United States, according to RFE/RL. The French have also reportedly lobbied Trump and Putin into agreeing not to hold a full-fledged bilateral meeting while in Paris on Nov. 11. The two leaders are still planning to have such a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in December.
• The U.S. State Department notified Congress that Russia ignored a deadline to swear off the use of chemical weapons, opening the possibility of new sanctions, which may include downgrading diplomatic relations and blanket bans on the import of Russian oil, according to Bloomberg. Almost nine out of 10 large Russian companies have said they are wary of looming U.S. sanctions, according to a survey cited by The Moscow Times.
• With less than two months to go before the end of 2018, Russian researchers said they have already recorded over 2,500 protests this year compared to under 1,500 nationwide last year, according to The Moscow Times.

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• Russia’s floating nuclear power plant’s first reactor achieved a sustained chain reaction at its mooring in Murmansk harbor last week. (Bellona, 11.05.18)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• The U.S. blocked on Nov. 8 an attempt by Russia to ease U.N. sanctions on North Korea in what it claimed was an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation. (RFE/RL, 11.09.18)
• Yury Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said Russia expects Kim Jong Un to visit the country in 2019, in a blow to Moscow’s previous hopes of hosting the North Korean leader this year. (Financial Times, 11.07.18)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The U.S. began enforcing tough new economic restrictions against Iran on Nov. 5, including a threat to sanction buyers of Iranian crude. Russian oil companies have stepped in, stealing customers from Iran. But Moscow also plans to defy U.S. sanctions and purchase Iranian imports. It’s offering to pay only in the form of barter, and then process the crude for domestic use. (Wall Street Journal, 11.07.18)
• Washington said on Nov. 5 it will exempt China from U.S. sanctions on importing Iranian oil for six months, along with seven other countries: Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Nov. 6 that U.S. sanctions on Iran were not legitimate, in Moscow's first official comment since Washington restored the sanctions. (Reuters, 11.06.18, Financial Times, 11.05.18)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for a "real European army." "We [the EU] have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States," Macron said. "We will not protect Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army," he added. (RFE/RL, 11.06.18)
• Around 17,500 soldiers from 10 NATO member states are participating in "Anakonda" military drills that started on Nov. 7 in Poland and the Baltic states. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• A Russian Su-27 made a dangerous pass ahead of a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries taking part in a NATO military exercise in international air space above the Black Sea on Nov. 5. (Business Insider, 11.05.18)
• A Russian Navy Tu-142 Bear-F long-range maritime patrol reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft made a “surprise visit” to the USS Mount Whitney off the Norwegian coast. (Aviationist, 11.03.18)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• “The INF Treaty has prevented the unchecked deployment of nuclear missiles in Europe,” stated a letter sent to the White House signed by more than a dozen prominent arms control figures, including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and former Sens. Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn. Another letter, sent by the American College of National Security Leaders, a group of former high-level military officers, said: “The INF Treaty is a bedrock to our current arms control regime and serves rather than hampers American interests.” (New York Times, 11.08.18)

Counter-terrorism:

• The Islamic State has claimed that one of its "fighters" was responsible for starting the deadly prison riot in northern Tajikistan on Nov. 7. Sources said that at least 24 people, including two guards, were killed in the riot. (RFE/RL, 11.09.18)
• FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov said his officers "took measures to detect and foil attempts by terrorists to use drones during the preparation and hosting of various major political and sports events, most of all during the soccer World Cup." (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• Dias Kadyrbayev, who was convicted in June 2015 for concealing criminal evidence for his college friend, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was deported to his native Kazakhstan, U.S. immigration officials have confirmed. (RFE/RL, 11.02.18)

Conflict in Syria:

• Russia said it deployed its new Admiral Makarov frigate with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles to the Mediterranean Sea on Nov. 5, a few months after Moscow had reinforced its naval forces off the Syrian coast. (Reuters, 11.05.18)
• The Russian S-300 air defense systems deployed in Syria are reliably protected, and Damascus is fully entitled to use them to defend its national interests, Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee head Vladimir Shamanov told Interfax. A Polyana-D4 automatic control system for an air defense brigade has been supplied to Syria along with S-300 air defense complexes, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. (Interfax, 11.06.18, TASS, 11.06.18)
• Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin discussed the implementation of the memorandum on Idlib and the outcomes of the recent four-sided summit in Istanbul with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. (Interfax, 11.06.18)
• Syria’s government is ready to work with the U.N. Secretary General’s new special envoy, Geir Pedersen, Russian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vasily Nebenzya said on Nov. 9. (TASS, 11.06.18)

Cyber security:

• Russia and Spain have reportedly agreed to set up a joint cybersecurity group to prevent diplomatic relations from being damaged by the spread of misinformation. Spanish ministers said last November that Russian-based groups had used online social media to heavily promote Catalonia’s independence referendum. (The Moscow Times, 11.07.18)

Elections interference:

• U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, throwing the future of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation into uncertainty. Trump announced in a tweet that Sessions' chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, will become the new acting attorney general. A Justice Department spokesperson said that the acting attorney general was in charge of "all matters" within the department, including the Russia probe. Whitaker has earlier publicly called for limits on the investigation, leading many Democrats to demand he also recuse himself from probe-related matters. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18, RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump said the Mueller investigation was not good for the U.S. "It should end, because it is very bad for the country," Trump told reporters. When asked if he would fire Mueller, as some critics have feared, Trump said, "I could have ended it any time I wanted, [but] I didn't." Trump also called an investigation into whether his 2016 campaign engaged in collusion with Russia a "hoax." (RFE/RL, 11.08.18, RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• Michael Dreeben, the U.S. Justice Department’s deputy solicitor-general, considered one of the foremost experts in U.S. criminal law, said it would be straightforward for an acting attorney general to fire Robert Mueller without cause. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker could simply amend the May 2017 order that appointed Mueller to remove a reference to Justice Department regulations that protect him from dismissal without good cause. (Financial Times, 11.09.18)
• Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian election interference will continue despite the change in leadership at the Justice Department, White House spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• With the midterm elections now over, special counsel Robert Mueller faces key decision points. Among the most pressing matters: a probe into longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone's activities and ongoing negotiations with Trump's legal team over a request to interview him. The grand jury hearing evidence in the Russia investigation has been seen meeting at a federal courthouse in Washington on six of the last eight Fridays. The special counsel appears to be intensely focused on Stone. (The Washington Post, 11.07.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump's advisers are privately expressing worries that the special counsel has been stealthily compiling information and could soon issue new indictments or a damning final report. (AP, 11.09.18)
• Tens of thousands of protesters nationwide spent the evening of Nov. 8 decrying U.S. President Donald Trump's removal of Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, a move they fear threatens the independence of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. (The Washington Post, 11.08.18)
• U.S. security officials and social media firms said Nov. 6 they spotted a limited amount of deliberate disinformation targeting the midterm election, but that they hadn't observed any significant efforts to directly breach election infrastructure with cyberattacks. (Wall Street Journal, 11.07.18)
• Facebook said on Nov. 7 that a website claiming to be associated with the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg published a list of Instagram accounts they claimed to have created. "We had already blocked most of these accounts ... and have now blocked the rest," Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy said. The social network had already blocked 115 Facebook and Instagram accounts on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• Former FBI agent Clint Watts was among the first to ring the alarm bell about Russia's audacious disinformation campaign during the 2016 U.S. election. Two years later, Watts has more bad news. When it comes to spreading lies and stoking division online, Watts said, "it's Americans in 2018." (The Washington Post, 11.07.18)
• Days after the Electoral Commission referred him and other groups and individuals associated with the Leave.EU campaign group to the National Crime Agency, Aaron Banks insisted there was “no Russian money” involved in the group’s financing during a television appearance. (Financial Times, 11.05.18)
• Andrey Mikhailov, the man who allegedly helped catering magnate Evgeny Prigozhin build a media empire, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta says U.S. election interference wasn't a Kremlin initiative. (Meduza, 11.08.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 9 said he won the 2016 presidential election not because of illegal coordination with the Russian government but because he was the better candidate and Hillary Clinton “didn’t know what the hell she was doing.” (The Washington Post, 11.09.18)
• In some contested midterm races, votes were still being counted as of Nov. 9. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted: “You mean they are just now finding votes in Florida and Georgia—but the Election was on Tuesday?” Trump wrote. “Let’s blame the Russians and demand an immediate apology from President Putin!” (The Washington Post, 11.09.18)

Energy exports:

• Saudi Arabia and Russia are being forced to reduce production after their plan on reversing cuts backfired, Iran’s representative to OPEC said, pegging the potential cut at more than 1 million barrels a day. (Bloomberg, 11.07.18)
• Washington may still impose sanctions over the construction of Nord Stream 2, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Nov. 8. (RFE/RL, 11.09.18)
• Poland’s state-owned energy group PGNiG has struck its second long-term deal for U.S. liquefied natural gas in as many months, in the latest demonstration of the country’s determination to break the Russian stranglehold on its gas supplies. (Financial Times, 11.08.18)
• Two oil benchmarks, Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate, on Nov. 8 dipped to prices that are between 17 and 20 percent below what they were a month ago. Brent Crude closed at $70.97 and West Texas at $60.67. (The Washington Post, 11.08.18)

Bilateral economic ties:

• McDonalds boosted the share of domestic suppliers its restaurants in Russia use to 98 percent. (Wall Street Journal, 11.09.18)

Other bilateral issues:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says that relations with the U.S. cannot get much worse, but also suggests that prospects for improvement are hard to discern following the U.S. midterm elections. Dmitry Peskov spoke on Nov. 7, after the Democratic Party won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives but Republicans retained control over the Senate. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• In a Democratic-controlled House, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, is likely to take chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Another Russia critic, Adam Smith (D-Wash.), is likely to take over as head of the House Armed Services Committee. Jim Risch of Idaho is widely expected to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations. He is not considered to be as hawkish on Russia policy as Bob Corker. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who is poised to lead the new Democratic majority as speaker, said her caucus would use its subpoena authority to pursue sweeping oversight of the Trump administration. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18, The Washington Post, 11.08.18)
• A Democratic-led House of Representatives is likely to revive or intensify some of the investigations into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential elections and to expand sanctions against Russia, according to Russia Matters’ review of commentary on the impact this week’s midterm elections will have on U.S. policies. (Russia Matters, 11.08.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump said Nov. 5 that he will "probably not" have a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris on Nov.11, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Nov. 6 that "a substantive meeting is unlikely to happen in Paris." At the White House news conference on Nov. 7, Trump reiterated that he had no meetings scheduled with Putin in Paris and repeated that he will likely meet Putin during a G20 summit in Argentina later this month. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
  • Kommersant quoted an anonymous European diplomat as saying that French President Emmanuel Macron asked Moscow and Washington not to arrange a major meeting in Paris because it could overshadow the World War I anniversary events. (RFE/RL, 11.05.18)
• The U.S. State Department notified Congress that Russia ignored a deadline to swear off the use of chemical weapons, opening the possibility of new sanctions linked to a nerve-agent attack in the U.K. The law demands new, sweeping sanctions including a downgrading in diplomatic relations, blanket bans on the import of Russian oil and exports of “all other goods and technology” aside from agricultural products, as well as limits on loans from U.S. banks. Trump can avert those sanctions if he concludes that waiving them is in the U.S. national interest. Russia has rejected the U.S. claim that it has flouted an international ban on chemical weapons. (Bloomberg, 11.07.18, AP, 11.09.18)
• Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, industrial tycoon Viktor Vekselberg and VTB Bank head Andrei Kostin, who are subject to U.S. sanctions, have been informed that they will not be welcome at January’s annual World Economic Forum event in Davos, in a sign of the increased wariness among international organizations to deal with those blacklisted by Washington. The ban undermines the entire event, the Kremlin has said, adding that such steps would likely see Russia reduce its delegation to the elite forum (Financial Times, 11.06.18, Financial Times, 11.07.18)
• David Tessler, a senior U.S. state department official, on Nov. 6 called on the EU to maintain rolling punitive measures on Russia that have come under attack from Italy’s coalition government. Some EU diplomats expect a fresh Italian move on Russia [sanctions] as soon as next month at an EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels, where governments would need to endorse a further half-year extension of sanctions over Russia’s occupation of Crimea. (Financial Times, 11.06.18)
• With the Trump administration closing in on its latest self-imposed deadline to make a final decision by Dec. 12, there are signs that Oleg Deripaska’s companies could escape the sanctions entirely. (New York Times, 11.04.18)
• Almost nine out of 10 large Russian companies say they are wary of looming U.S. sanctions, according to a new survey by the U.S.-based Adizes Institute consultancy commissioned by the RBC news website. (The Moscow Times, 11.06.18)
• "I wouldn't suggest that it's a Cold War," U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Nov. 5. "But if you think about the 1990s," after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he added, "the United States had no competitor, and as we look at Russia and China today, we see Russia and China as peer competitors." (Business Insider, 11.09.18)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• The $11.57 billion sale of a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and giant commodity trader Glencore was designed to replenish Russia’s coffers. Nearly two years after the sale was first announced, nine sources with knowledge of the transaction have told Reuters that VTB financed a large share of the acquisition. (Reuters, 11.09.18)
• State-run VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, more than doubled net profit year-on-year to 41.2 billion rubles in the third quarter of 2018. (Financial Times, 11.08.18)
• Hot functional tests have been completed at unit two of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant in southwest Russia. (World Nuclear News, 11.07.18)
• With less than two months to go before the end of 2018, researchers at the Center for Economic and Political Reforms said they have already recorded over 2,500 protests this year compared to under 1,500 nationwide last year. (The Moscow Times, 11.08.18)
• The Russian government has approved regulation aimed at tightening control over popular anonymous messenger services by identifying users through their cell phone numbers. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin last weekend signed a decree transferring the republic of Buryatia and the Zabaikalsky region to the Far Eastern Federal District in a move meant to stimulate regional development. (The Moscow Times, 11.05.18)
• Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov is on trial in Moscow, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted on an embezzlement charge he has called unfounded and "absurd." (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• Six people were briefly detained at nationalist marches on Nov. 4 as Russia marked National Unity Day. (The Moscow Times, 11.05.18)
• The Supreme Court of Russia's Chechnya has rejected the ruling of a lower court that granted early release to jailed independent journalist Alaudi Musayev. (RFE/RL, 11.09.18)
• The Russian-language Meduza news website has announced the resignation of its chief editor, Ivan Kolpakov, following reports that he had harassed a co-worker’s wife at a staff party. (The Moscow Times, 11.09.18)

Defense and aerospace:

• The Russian air force plans to develop automated forward air controllers. They will include automated controllers on tracked ground robots and airborne controllers on drones. (The National Interest, 11.03.18)
• The Russian air force performed a successful launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from launch pad No. 4 of launch complex No. 43 at the Plesetsk space launch site. (Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces Blog, 11.05.18)
• Russian military crews of Silok electronic-warfare vehicles "forced to land unmanned aerial vehicles" during a war game in the Leningrad region involving 500 service members, the Kremlin announced on Nov. 2. (The National Interest, 11.04.18)
• Russia has created groupings of precision weapon carriers capable of using missiles against targets at a range of up to 4,000 kilometers. (TASS, 11.06.18)
• A Russian-made MiG-29 fighter plane crashed during a training flight in Egypt. (The Moscow Times, 11.05.18)
• Russia has rebooted one of three computers aboard the International Space Station after a malfunction. On Nov. 6, Roskosmos said that one of the three computers on the station's Russian module malfunctioned, but gave assurance that the defect had no impact on the safety of the crew. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russia’s police chief has said that the number of murders recorded in the country has gone down by more than a quarter in the past five years. The crime rate has gone down despite police force numbers dropping by half a million to 895,000 full-time deputies following the 2011 reforms, he said. He also said Russian law enforcement prevented several attacks planned against foreigners in the run-up to the soccer World Cup this summer. (The Moscow Times, 11.07.18, The Moscow Times, 11.07.18)
• A military expert based in St. Petersburg has been detained on suspicion of state treason, the news site Fontanka reported late on Nov. 2. Vladimir Neyelov, who investigated Russian mercenaries like Wagner, now faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. (The Moscow Times, 11.05.18)
• A judge in Monaco has declared Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev a formal suspect in a probe into corruption and influence-peddling, the principality's chief prosecutor said on Nov. 7, after police questioned him for 24 hours. The Russian Embassy to France has asked for clarifications after Rybolovlev’s detention.  (Reuters, 11.08.18, Reuters, 11.07.18, RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• An unknown assailant tried to assassinate Oleg Burlakov, Russia’s 158th wealthiest businessman with a net worth of $650 million. (The Moscow Times, 11.06.18)
• Media reports in Russia says that the acting mayor of Makhachkala Abusupyan Gasanov has been detained after his office was searched. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Representatives from the Taliban attended a Moscow peace conference on Nov. 9 to which Russia’s invited a dozen countries. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sent four senior members of his nation’s High Peace Council. The U.S. sent an observer from its Moscow embassy. "Russia stands for preserving the one and undivided Afghanistan, in which all of the ethnic groups that inhabit this country would live side by side peacefully and happily," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, sitting between a five-man Taliban delegation and four members of Afghanistan's High Peace Council. There are few expectations of significant breakthroughs during the meeting. (The Moscow Times, 11.09.18, The Washington Post, 11.09.18)
• A senior Austrian military officer is believed to have spied for Moscow for decades, Vienna said on Nov. 9. (The Moscow Times, 11.09.18)
• Russian energy majors are putting pressure on Western oil buyers to use euros instead of dollars for payments and introducing penalty clauses in contracts as Moscow seeks protection against possible new U.S. sanctions. (Reuters, 11.09.18)

China:

• In comments echoed by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accused the U.S. of misusing sanctions to gain an advantage in world trade and to resolve domestic political disputes during his visit to Beijing on Nov. 7. Medvedev told reporters that he expected trade between Russia and China to reach $100 billion this year for the first time, and to eventually double to $200 billion. The premiers of China and Russia signed a deal for cooperation on global satellite navigation systems on Nov. 7. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18, Financial Times, 11.07.18)

Ukraine:

• Little change, if any, is expected in the congressional approach toward Ukraine, which has had mostly solid backing from both Republicans and Democrats over the past two years. House Democrats may consider funding for more weapons supplies to Ukraine's armed forces. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• Western governments have urged Russia to cancel the Nov. 11 planned elections in parts of eastern Ukraine under its de-facto control, warning that they will further undermine already ineffective efforts to bring peace to the region. (Irish Times, 11.09.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 7 blamed the “regime” of former U.S. President Barack Obama for Ukraine’s loss of Crimea. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• The U.S. imposed sanctions Nov. 8 on three Russian and Ukrainian individuals it said were linked to human rights abuses in Crimea, moves designed to prevent what Treasury Department officials said were attempts by Moscow to normalize relations with the Ukrainian enclave. (Wall Street Journal, 11.08.18)
• Families of those killed when a Buk missile blew Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 out of the sky above Ukraine in 2014 have called on U.S. President Donald Trump to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide answers about the downing. (AP, 11.09.18)
• The EU commissioner in charge of enlargement, Johannes Hahn, on Nov. 9 urged Ukraine to move forward on reforms, warning against any retreat from such efforts, especially on fighting corruption. (RFE/RL, 11.09.18)
• Ukraine's government said on Nov. 5 that one of its soldiers has been killed and four wounded as a result of clashes with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.  (RFE/RL, 11.05.18)
• Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko has told parliament he will offer his resignation amid public outrage over the handling of an investigation into an acid attack that killed anticorruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk. (RFE/RL, 11.06.18)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed an agreement on Nov. 3 in Istanbul, outlining cooperation between Kiev and the Patriarchate of Constantinople that paves the way for the establishment of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (RFE/RL, 11.03.18)
• Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko signed new legislation on Nov. 7 imposing jail sentences on Russians who cross the Ukrainian border illegally. (The Moscow Times, 11.07.18)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Russian communities in other countries number a total of 30 million, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for relations with compatriots abroad, Oleg Malginov, said. (TASS, 11.06.18)
• Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has said that the U.S. "military and political role" in Europe is crucial to regional security and emphasized that he does not want a Russian military base in his country. (RFE/RL, 11.06.18)
• Belarusian authorities have charged the chief editor of the BelaPAN private news agency, Iryna Leushyna, and the editor of the independent online news portal Tut.by, Halina Ulasik, with illegally obtaining information via the Internet from the state-run BelTA news agency. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• Leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met in Astana on Nov. 8, but decided to delay the decision to appoint a new CSTO Secretary General until the next meeting of the presidents, to be held in December in St. Petersburg. (Belsat, 11.09.18, Asbarez, 11.09.18)
• Authorities say police killed two alleged religious extremists in a confrontation in Ganca, Azerbaijan's second-largest city and the site of past violence blamed on Islamic militants. (RFE/RL, 11.05.18)
• Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of the jailed former boss of Azerbaijan's biggest bank, has been detained in London and faces extradition. (RFE/RL, 11.07.18)
• Armenia says it has no intention of removing its ambassador in Berlin after a German investigative report alleged that Ashot Smbatian may have ties to a brutal Armenian mafia ring operating in that country. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• The Armenian government is in talks with Moscow and Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom on the possibility of gaining a price cut for consumers of natural gas supplied to the South Caucasus country. (RFE/RL, 11.08.18)
• An Uzbek businessman, Gafur Rakhimov, with alleged ties to organized crime has been elected president of the amateur boxing federation (AIBA), despite fears that his appointment could lead to the sport's ejection from the Olympics. (RFE/RL, 11.03.18)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.