This Week’s Highlights:

• Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley had three phone conversations with Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov in October, including one that reportedly took place a day before U.S. military forces in Syria started an operation in which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed, according to TASS. The Washington Post reports that Trump had informed Russia of the military operation before telling congressional leadership, according to Nancy Pelosi. Trump thanked Russia along with other countries for their roles in the raid, The Moscow Times reported.
• In his Oct. 30 confirmation hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Russia, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said: "The need for principled engagement with Russia is as important to our national interest as ever … This requires sustained diplomacy with the Russian government in areas of shared interests, for example in arms control, nonproliferation and counterterrorism, and resolute opposition to Russia where it undermines the interests and values of the United States and our allies and partners," TASS reports.
• Moscow is not planning to establish a military alliance with China, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "Neither Russia nor China are planning to create a military alliance," he said, according to TASS.
• Russian conscript solider Ramil Shamsutdinov and the eight military servicemen he had shot all served in a military unit providing security for a Russian Ministy of Defense nuclear depot, according to Kommersant.
• Russia’s Bulava SLBM is not designed to penetrate ice when launched from a Borei-class nuclear submarine, Russian military expert Maksim Klimov writes. Additionally, these SSBNs can test-fire Bulavas only from west to east because the Russian military’s northwestern range, Chizha, doesn’t feature all the necessary equipment to measure telemetry and other flight data from incoming SLBMs, Vedomosti reported.
• Russian investigators have resolved what the BBC has described as the first contract killing in Russia ordered through the dark web. Yaroslav Sumbayev was the hacker who allegedly placed the order for the murder of Yevgenia Shishkina of the Central Federal District police department, who had been probing his alleged cyber crimes. Shishkina was killed last October. Her murderer was subsequently apprehended and pointed to Sumbayev, according to the BBC and Meduza.
• A new study from consultants at Oxford Economics has found that Putin’s $400 billion six-year National Projects program will result in an increase in annual GDP growth of just 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, The Moscow Times reports.

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

Nuclear security and safety:

• Russian conscript solider Ramil Shamsutdinov and the eight military servicemen whom he had shot all served in military unit No. 54160, located in the closed town of Gorny, and which handles nuclear warheads, according to Novaya Gazeta. The unit is part of a Russian Defense Ministry branch formerly called the 12^th Main Directorate (12^th GUMO), which is in charge of storing and servicing Russia’s nuclear arsenal, according to this weekly. According to Kommersant, however, Shamsutdinov and his victims all served in military unit No. 14258. The mission of unit No. 14258 is to provide security and logistical support to other units located in Gorny, including a 12^th GUMO base, which stores and issues nuclear warheads, according to the daily. While only 12^th GUMO officers reportedly have access to the warheads, the aforementioned directorate has continued to rely on conscripts for some of its rank-and-file. Kommersant cited sources in Shamsutdinov’s unit that say he may have fallen victim to hazing by other servicemen. (Russia Matters, 10.27.19)
• TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has completed the first phase of testing its accident-tolerant fuel in a reactor at the State Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad. (World Nuclear News, 10.31.19)
• Argentinian Ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi has been appointed director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency by the organization’s board of governors. He is set to take office in early December. (World Nuclear News, 10.31.19)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• No significant developments.

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The Trump administration will again issue sanctions waivers to allow Russia, China and Europe to continue nuclear nonproliferation work in Iran. The periodic waivers grant exemptions from U.S. sanctions against Iran, and allow foreign companies to collaborate on the civilian nuclear program with Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. (The Independent, 10.31.19)

New Cold War/saber rattling:

• At least eight Russian nuclear-powered submarines sailed out from their homeports on the Kola Peninsula last week, Norwegian military intelligence told the country's National Public Broadcasting Organization. The aim of the massive operation is to get as far out to the North Atlantic as possible without being discovered by NATO, the intelligence service said. Such maneuvers from the Northern Fleet haven’t been seen since the Cold War. (The Barents Observer, 10.30.19)
• Russia is preparing to conduct at least five tests next year of its new ballistic missile that has been called the largest missile in history, Vedomosti reported Oct. 30. Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the Sarmat missile, also called Satan-2, last year. Russia went on to test-launch the ICBM from a northern Russia cosmodrome last March to study its behavior during takeoff. (The Moscow Times, 10.30.19)
• Russia's Defense Ministry says it has test-launched a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile from an upgraded model of the Borei-class nuclear submarine for the first time, striking a target thousands of kilometers away. The ministry said Oct. 30 that the missile was fired from a submarine submerged in the White Sea near Arkhangelsk on Russia's northern coast. (RFE/RL, 10.30.19)
• Russia’s Bulava SLBM is not designed to penetrate ice, according to Russian military expert Maksim Klimov. For a Borei-class SSBN patrolling off northern Russia to launch this missile, it’d have to find some clear water, which could delay the firing for a day or even two, Klimov claimed on his blog. (Russia Matters, 10.30.19)
• Russian SSBNs can test-fire Bulavas only from west to east because the Russian military’s northwestern range, Chizha, located in the Arkhangelsk region, doesn’t feature all the necessary equipment to measure telemetry and other flight data from incoming SLBMs, Vedomosti reported. (Russia Matters, 10.31.19)
• The U.S. Air Force has halted funding for Boeing's $349 million ballistic missile development effort, effectively clearing the way for a Northrop Grumman-led team to become the only bidder for one of the Pentagon's most expensive weapons production programs. (The Washington Post, 10.28.19)
• Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, on Oct. 28 published a new book titled “What is at stake: The future of the global world.” “There are two dangers threatening humanity ... The threat of devastating war using weapons of mass destruction and the threat of ecological catastrophe due to accelerating global warming,” he writes in the book. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Some 58 percent of Germans want Turkey expelled from NATO over its recent military offensive in Syria, according to a new survey. Only 18 percent were against the idea. There is even stronger German support for economic sanctions and export bans against Ankara, the findings of a YouGov survey, commissioned by news agency dpa and released on Oct. 28, showed. (bne Intellinews, 10.29.19)
• A Russian diplomat who Bulgarian prosecutors suspect was involved in espionage has left Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said Oct. 28. The ministry had asked for his recall in a meeting with the Russian ambassador on Oct. 25. (Reuters, 10.28.19)
• Poland has detained and charged a man with spying for Russia, the country’s state broadcaster TVP reported Oct. 28. The arrest is the latest in a string of espionage-related cases in Russia, which sentenced a Polish national to 14 years in prison in June, and in Poland, which sentenced an ex-government employee to three years in July. (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says a decision “will come soon” on whether to pardon Norwegian Frode Berg, who was convicted of espionage and sentenced in April to 14 years in prison. (RFE/RL, 10.26.19)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Arms control:

• The Trump administration has taken steps toward leaving the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, designed to reduce the risk of war between Russia and the West by allowing both sides to conduct reconnaissance flights over one another's territories. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a document signaling his intent to withdraw the U.S. from the treaty, two U.S. officials said. (Wall Street Journal, 10.27.19)
• Russia’s foreign ministry said on Nov. 1 there was no longer enough time left for Moscow and Washington to draft a replacement to the New START nuclear arms control treaty before it expires in 2021, Interfax reported. (Reuters, 11.01.19)

Counter-terrorism:

• U.S. President Donald Trump thanked countries including Russia for their roles in an overnight raid led by U.S. military forces in Syria that reportedly killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Oct. 26. (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)
• Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Gen. Mark Milley had a phone conversation with Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov Oct. 25, JCS press service said. It was the third phone conversation between the two states’ military chiefs since the beginning of October. (TASS, 10.28.19)
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 27 called on the White House to brief lawmakers on the raid that targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump had informed Russia of the military operation before telling congressional leadership. (The Washington Post, 10.27.19)
• The Russian military detected the presence of U.S. planes and drones in the part of Syria where, according to the U.S., the operation against Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was held, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. (Interfax, 10.28.19)
• American officials are hesitant to help Russia take custody of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State in Syria, a top U.S. diplomat said. “My concern is what happens to those people, and particularly family members of those fighters, who get sent back to Russia, which is one of the limitations on our counterterrorism dialogue,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan during his confirmation hearing to be ambassador to Russia. (Washington Examiner, 10.30.19)

Conflict in Syria:

• Turkish and Russian troops began their first joint patrols on Nov. 1 in northeast Syria, in accordance with a deal reached last week between Ankara and Moscow that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters. (RFE/RL, 11.01.19)
• The Russian military police are continuing to carry out patrolling missions along the Syrian-Turkish border in line with the Russian-Turkish memorandum on mutual understanding, while Kurdish units are withdrawing from these areas, Russian Maj. Gen. Alexei Bakin said at a press briefing on Oct. 28. (Interfax, 10.28.19)
• Turkey has handed over 18 Syrian government soldiers captured this week in northeastern Syria in a deal negotiated by Russian forces, defusing growing tensions with the administration of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. (New York Times, 11.01.19)
• The U.S. military sent fresh forces on Oct. 26 to secure oil fields in eastern Syria, two U.S. officials said, as part of a pivot from a decision earlier this month to pull most American troops out of the country. Once the comings and goings are done, the number of U.S. forces in Syria is expected to reach about 900—close to the 1,000 troops on the ground when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal. (New York Times, 10.31.19, Wall Street Journal, 10.26.19)
• Russia's Defense Ministry on Oct. 26 attacked U.S. plans to maintain and boost the American military presence in eastern Syria as "international state banditry" motivated by a desire to protect oil smugglers and not by real security concerns. (Reuters, 10.26.19)
• The first session of the Syrian constitutional committee met in Geneva on Oct. 30. A total of 150 delegates representing the government, opposition and civil society are tasked with reforming Syria’s constitution before is put to the vote of the Syrian people. (Al Jazeera, 10.30.19)
• An estimated 50 Russian women have disappeared after fleeing from the Ain Issa prison camp for the wives and children of Islamic State fighters in northern Syria, BBC Russia has reported. (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)

Cyber security:

• Several Democratic presidential campaigns targeted by a Russia-based operation on Facebook's popular Instagram app said they had been unaware of the new foreign disinformation efforts until the tech giant announced them publicly last week, raising alarms that American democracy remains vulnerable to foreign interference even after three years of investigations into the Kremlin's attack on the 2016 election. (The Washington Post, 10.28.19)
• Microsoft said it has tracked "significant" cyberattacks coming from a group it calls "Strontium" or "Fancy Bear," targeting anti-doping authorities and global sporting organizations. (Reuters, 10.29.19)
• The Kremlin has assumed sweeping new powers over internet connections in Russia, raising concerns from activists that they could be used to stifle dissent or shut the country off from the global web. However, while a law authorizing the measures came into force on Nov. 1, experts say Russia is still months away at best from effective implementation. (Financial Times, 11.01.19)
• A cyberattack afflicted 2,000 websites in Georgia on Oct. 28, local press reported, including those of the president, courts, several mayors’ offices and three television channels. According to local news sites, it was the largest cyberattack in the country since 2008. (AP, 10.28.19)
• Russian investigators have resolved what the BBC has described as the first contract killing in Russia ordered through the dark web. Yaroslav Sumbayev was the hacker who allegedly placed the order for the murder of Yevgenia Shishkina of the Central Federal District police department’s transport division, who had been probing his alleged cyber crimes. Shishkina was killed last October. Her murderer was subsequently apprehended and pointed to Sumbayev. (Russia Matters, 10.31.19, Meduza, 10.31.19)
• The Nadvoitsy Aluminum Plant in Russia’s northern Karelia region, owned by Rusal, stopped production last summer after it lost access to American customers following the introduction of U.S. sanctions. It is now set to be transformed into a bitcoin mining hub. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)

Elections interference:

• A U.S. judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide secret grand jury testimony from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to a congressional committee as lawmakers gather evidence for the impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump. (RFE/RL, 10.26.19)

Energy exports:

• The Danish Energy Agency said Oct. 30 it had granted a permit for Nord Stream 2 to construct a 147-kilometer-long section of the twin pipeline southeast of Denmark's Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea. Copenhagen's approval of the project in Danish waters removes the last major hurdle for the pipeline. Following Denmark’s move, members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 31 introduced a bipartisan resolution to support energy independence in Central and Eastern Europe. (RFE/RL, 10.30.19, RFE/RL, 10.31.19)
• Officials from Russia, Ukraine and the EU met again on Oct. 28 in Brussels to discuss terms for the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine next year, with still no breakthrough in negotiations in sight. (bne Intellinews, 10.29.19)

Bilateral economic ties:

• No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

• In his confirmation hearing Oct. 30 to become U.S. ambassador to Russia, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said: "The need for principled engagement with Russia is as important to our national interest as ever. Russia’s status as a nuclear superpower and permanent member of the U.N. Security Council compels us to engage on a range of issues involving global stability and security," he noted. "This requires sustained diplomacy with the Russian government in areas of shared interests, for example in arms control, nonproliferation and counterterrorism, and resolute opposition to Russia where it undermines the interests and values of the United States and our allies and partners, for example by threatening stability in Europe and election security in the United States." (TASS, 10.30.19)
• With lingering uncertainty about when new commercial crew spaceships will be ready to launch humans, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said it is in NASA’s interests to pay Russia for one or more additional Soyuz seats next year to ensure the station remains continuously staffed with at least one American. (Spaceflight Now, 10.25.19)
• Facebook said Oct. 30 it had suspended three networks of Russian accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries and were tied to Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin. (Reuters, 10.30.19)
• The Moscow City Court has denied bail to U.S. investor Michael Calvey and ruled to extend the house arrest of Calvey and his partner, French citizen Philippe Delpal, until Jan. 13. (RFE/RL, 10.29.19)
• Deutsche Bank alerted U.S. federal authorities to a transaction in which it sold a stake in a California office complex to a company linked to Vitaly Yusufov, the son of a former Russian energy minister. (New York Times, 10.31.19)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Russia’s output was up 2.6 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2019, accelerating from 1.7 percent year on year growth in the second quarter. (bne Intellinews, 10.31.19)
• A new study from consultants at Oxford Economics has found that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s $400 billion six-year National Projects program will result in an increase in annual GDP growth of just 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points. (The Moscow Times, 10.31.19)
• Russia’s counter-sanctions against Western food imports cost its citizens $70 per person every year through higher prices, according to the Center for Economic and Financial Research and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)
• A recent survey by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration found that one in three Russians are currently engaged in the so-called “informal” economy—down from almost 45 percent two years ago. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)
• Boris Titov, the Kremlin's business ombudsman, compiled a list in 2018 of exiled business owners facing prosecution who wanted to return to Russia. Andrey Kokovin, the first business owner who returned to Russia after appearing on the so-called “Titov list” has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for fraud, Russian media reported Nov. 1. (The Moscow Times, 11.01.19)
• A court in Moscow has approved the Justice Ministry’s decision to brand opposition politician and blogger Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation as "a foreign agent." (RFE/RL, 11.01.19)
• Russia's Supreme Court has ruled on Nov. 1 that the nongovernmental organization For Human Rights must be closed because the group's charter contradicts the country's Civic Code. The court also cited the reluctance of the group to register as a foreign agent. (RFE/RL, 11.01.19)
• A Moscow court has ordered two prominent opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny and Lyubov Sobol, and their foundation to pay 88 million rubles ($1.4 million) in compensation to a company associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s so-called personal chef, Yeveny Prigozhin. (RFE/RL, 10.28.19)
• A Moscow court has relaunched an embezzlement case against Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov and his co-defendants. (RFE/RL, 11.01.19)
• Prominent Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who helped expose the Soviet Union's abuse of psychiatry to silence critics, has died in Britain aged 76. (RFE/RL, 10.28.19)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin's declassified KGB profile notes his “moral stability” and “the well-deserved authority he enjoys among colleagues.” (The Moscow Times, 10.31.19)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russia’s military top brass are forcing junior officers to serve in the armed services against their will, often long after they apply for dismissal, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Oct. 28. (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• The lower house of Russia’s parliament plans to fast-track the passage of a bill that would increase oversight of private security firms, shortly after a man stabbed a six-year-old boy to death at a kindergarten. (RFE/RL, 10.31.19)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from May 2018 to April 2019, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. (Bloomberg, 11.01.19)
• Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has praised Moscow for its support in an increasingly bitter standoff between Havana and Washington during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin outside Moscow.  Putin told the Cuban leader that "Russia has always had a special affinity for Cuba’s independent stance, its sovereign policy. We are glad that Cuba’s statehood continues to strengthen." (RFE/RL, 10.29.19)
• The United States has accused Russia of inflaming tensions in Chile, where recent protests and unrest have left more than 20 people dead in recent days. (RFE/RL, 11.01.19)
• A parallel central bank in eastern Libya stepped up deliveries of new banknotes from Russia this year, before and after eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar launched a military offensive to capture Tripoli. The data obtained by Reuters shows nearly 4.5 billion Libyan dinars ($3.22 billion) were dispatched in four shipments from February to June. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)
• Five Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group are believed to have been killed alongside 20 Mozambique servicemen during an ambush in the southeastern African nation. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)
• Alexander Malkevich, a veteran of Russia's propaganda wars, founded an English-language website called USAReally, which tells the story of a declining America caught in the throes of violence. Now, he says, he spends about one-third of his time on Africa. (New York Times, 10.29.19)
• Speaking at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban insisted that Hungary’s cooperation with Russia was a win for all, including the EU and NATO. At the same press conference, Putin said the duo had discussed regional and international affairs, particularly “the prospects of normalizing relations between Russia and the European Union.” They also discussed industrial projects and energy supply, the Syrian conflict and the Ukraine crisis. (Euractiv, 10.31.19)
• Russia announced joint tactical exercises with Serbia involving 10 Russian aircraft in its southern region of Astrakhan. Russia and Serbia have carried out successive joint military exercises in the past week, including Russia’s first use of its advanced S-400 missile defense system abroad. (The Moscow Times, 11.01.19)
• Israel has suspended the extradition to the U.S. of Russian hacker Alexei Burkov after Russia proposed to swap him for Naama Issachar, an Israeli woman jailed in Russia over airport marijuana possession. (The Moscow Times , 11.01.19)
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of sitting on an explosive parliamentary report on the security threat posed by Russia to the U.K., which examined allegations that Kremlin-sponsored activity distorted the result of the 2016 EU referendum. (The Guardian, 10.31.19)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to eight leaders of Old Believer communities in the United States and Brazil who are planning to move back to their motherland, authorities have said. (The Moscow Times, 10.29.19)
• Emails claiming to show how to improve Russia’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup by bribing world football’s decision-makers have leaked, the investigative news website The Insider has reported. (The Moscow Times, 10.30.19)

China:

• Moscow is not planning to establish a military alliance with China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Nov. 1. "Neither Russia nor China are planning to create a military alliance," he said. (TASS, 11.01.19)
• Chinese farmers are, according to BBC research, represented in 40 percent of Russia’s Far East, most significantly in the Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan. (BBC, 10.31.19)

Ukraine:

• In a joint statement with NATO, Ukraine vowed to respect minority rights and implement a set of recommendations regarding an education law that Hungary opposes. The NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting in Kyiv released the statement on Oct. 31, a day after NATO-member Hungary vetoed an earlier draft because it didn’t include a clause that mentioned the “deprivation of rights” of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 10.31.19)
• Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 31 after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has demanded that Russia end its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and called on it to withdraw all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. (RFE/RL, 10.31.19)
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko said on Oct. 29 a planned troop withdrawal has started in the town of Zolote in the eastern Luhansk region, where Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for more than five years. Ukrainian volunteer veterans withdrew their registered firearms from the village of Zolote-4 after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and communication with police. Now, the timing of an international summit on ending fighting in eastern Ukraine depends on Russia, Prystaiko said Nov. 1. (RFE/RL, 10.29.19, UNIAN, 10.27.19, Reuters, 11.01.19)
• A divided House approved legislation Oct. 31 formally authorizing and articulating guidelines for the next phase of its impeachment inquiry, a move that signaled Democrats are on course to bring charges against U.S. President Donald Trump later this year. At issue is whether Trump abused the power of his office to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate his domestic political rivals. (The Washington Post, 10.31.19)
• Tim Morrison, the outgoing top White House Russia expert, testified behind closed doors that he doesn't believe anything illegal was discussed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (The Hill, 10.31.19)
• Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the director for European affairs at the National Security Council, told members of Congress that he tried to edit a White House log of a July call between Trump and Ukraine's president to include details that were omitted. "I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” he said. (NBC News, 10.30.19)
• Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, told House committees last week that efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies to press Kyiv to open investigations in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine's president amounted to a quid pro quo, his lawyer said. (Wall Street Journal, 10.26.19)
• State Department official Christopher Anderson told House impeachment investigators that then-U.S. national security adviser John Bolton warned U.S. diplomats in June that the president's attorney Rudy Giuliani could pose an obstacle to improving the White House's relations with Ukraine. (The Washington Post, 10.30.19)
• U.S. President Donald Trump has reinstated duty-free treatment with Ukraine on certain items following a suspension in 2017, the White House says. According to the U.S. Trade Representative's office, the reinstatement affects about one-third of the $36 million in trade benefits that had originally been suspended for Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 10.26.19)
• Real wages in Ukraine grew 9.8 percent year-on-year in September, accelerating from a 7.7 percent year-on-year growth in August. Ukraine's unemployment level fell from 9.2 percent in the first quarter to 7.8 percent in the second quarter. (bne Intellinews, 10.29.19)
• Ukraine's incumbent authorities are not going to return problem-ridden banks, including PrivatBank, to their former owners, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. (Interfax, 10.29.19)
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Oct. 28 signed a law abolishing a two-decade-old list of state enterprises that were barred from privatization. The list contained over 1,000 state-run businesses. (RFE/RL, 10.28.19)
• Ukraine’s parliament has approved President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s bill that criminally punishes state officials for illegally enriching themselves. (RFE/RL, 10.31.19)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Latvia’s parliament has ruled to grant citizenship to all children born in the country, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status, in new legislation that has been described as “historic.” An estimated 230,000 people in Latvia, or more than 10 percent of the population, hold “non-citizen passports.” (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)
• Belarus has "reinforced the nation's border” and "stationed more ground troops in the Lithuanian direction” in reaction to NATO exercises and the deployment of a contingent of U.S. armed forces in the neighboring country near the border with Belarus, the country's Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov said Oct. 28. (bne Intellinews, 10.29.19)
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 405-11 on Oct. 29 to recognize the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as a genocide. (Reuters, 10.30.19)
• According to the IMF’s revised World Economic Outlook, Armenia has the highest growth projection in emerging Europe: the organization expects that the Armenian economy will expand by 6 percent this year. (Emerging Europe, 10.28.19)
• The Russian military has for the first time deployed the S-300 surface-to-air missile system at its military base in Tajikistan near Afghanistan, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced. (The Moscow Times, 10.28.19)
• Two ethnic Kazakhs from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang have been given asylum-seeker status in Kazakhstan. (RFE/RL, 10.29.19)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.