This Week’s Highlights

• The Kremlin has received and is considering the United States’ invitation to a COVID-19 summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to TASS. The virtual summit is to take place Sept. 22, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
• Officials in the U.S. and EU are crafting a pledge to reduce global methane emissions by nearly a third by 2030, the Wall Street Journal reports. The officials are working to get China, Russia and other major oil and gas producers to join the commitment as a cornerstone accomplishment for international climate talks scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November.
• Referring to the AUKUS partnership, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said he believes that there are no grounds to expect Australia to become a new nuclear power, but noted that Australia’s decision to build nuclear-powered submarines sparks concern and sets a bad example for North Korea and Iran, according to TASS.
• Leaders of the Russia- and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have urged the world to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and boost assistance to the war-torn nation, RFE/RL reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at SCO summit by video link that the convergence of different integration processes in Eurasia complies with the interests of the region’s countries, while China’s Xi Jinping said SCO member nations should help to drive a smooth transition in Afghanistan, according to TASS and RFE/RL.
• In the Russian parliamentary elections that begin on Sept. 17 and run through Sept. 19, there is little question that Putin’s governing United Russia party will win. There are several ways that the Kremlin tries to create the illusion of democratic choice while making sure it comes out on top, including duplicate candidates, fake political parties, crossing off names, “walking-around money” and regulating the internet, the New York Times reports. According to RFE/RL, an election-guide app created by opposition activist Alexei Navalny to erode the dominance of United Russia disappeared from Apple and Google stores on the same day that Russians began voting in national parliamentary elections.
• Russia’s earnings from tech exports have jumped more than threefold over the last two years, according to a new report from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, according to bne IntelliNews. The export sales of scientific and technology services and IP-protected products reached $4.5 billion in 2020—up 30% from 2019, three times more than in 2018 and 15 to 20 times more than in the early 2000s.

 

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

Nuclear security and non-proliferation:

• Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov believes that there are no grounds to expect Australia to become a new nuclear power. He was commenting on the situation around the creation of the AUKUS partnership. Australia’s decision to build nuclear-powered submarines sparks concern and sets a bad example for North Korea and Iran, he said. Australia's construction of nuclear-powered submarines needs to be closely monitored by the IAEA, he said. The U.S. has launched a new trilateral security partnership with the U.K. and Australia that will enable Canberra to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, a move that will strengthen the allies’ ability to counter China. (Financial Times, 09.15.21, TASS, 09.17.21)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Russia calls on both sides on the Korean Peninsula not to promote tensions following the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea and South Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sept. 15. The recent missile testing by North Korea is a forced step taken by Pyongyang amid frozen dialogue with Washington and the absence of promised economic support, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Alexei Chepa told said. (TASS, 09.15.21, Interfax, 09.15.21)
• The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program may resume before the end of the year, a diplomatic source in Seoul told TASS Sept. 16. (TASS, 09.16.21)

Iran and its nuclear program: 

• IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he on Sept. 12 had a "very short but very constructive" trip to Tehran. He said Iran had agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to service monitoring and surveillance equipment and replace the digital storage media in cameras at declared nuclear sites. (World Nuclear News, 09.13.21)
• Russia welcomes Iran’s declaration of its readiness to resume negotiations on reviving the nuclear deal, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said. (TASS, 09.14.21)

Great Power rivalry/New Cold War/NATO-Russia relations:

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave an unapologetic defense of the American military’s chaotic and bloody withdrawal from Afghanistan as he appeared before lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Conversely, there is nothing that strategic competitors like China and Russia—or adversaries like Iran and North Korea—would have liked more than for the United States to re-up a 20-year war and remain bogged down in Afghanistan for another decade,” he added. (Financial Times, 09.14.21)
• A new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa contains a singularly startling allegation. In the waning weeks of the Trump administration, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, twice called his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, offering assurances that the U.S. was not about to launch an attack against China. “If we’re going to attack,” Milley told Li, according to Woodward and Costa, “I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” (LA Times, 09.16.21)
• U.S. President Joe Biden suggested he hold a face-to-face summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a 90-minute call last week but failed to secure an agreement from his counterpart, leading some U.S. officials to conclude that Beijing is continuing to play hardball with Washington. (Financial Times, 09.15.21)
• The Pentagon is asking all military personnel, civilian officials and contractors to report any anomalous health episodes similar to the illnesses that have befallen diplomats and CIA officers at the American Embassy in Havana, according to a new departmentwide message. (New York Times, 09.16.21)

China-Russia: Allied or Aligned?

• Putin will travel to China for next year's Winter Olympic Games, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sept. 16 during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.17.21)

Missile defense:

• The Russian Air and Space Defense Forces conducted a test of the new interceptor of the Moscow missile defense system at the Sary-Shagan test site. According to a VKS representative, "after a series of tests the interceptor fully confirmed technical characteristics of the interceptor and the combat crews successfully completed the mission by hitting the notional target with required accuracy." The test appears to have taken place on Sept. 16. (Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces, 09.17.21)

Nuclear arms control:

• No significant developments.

Counter-terrorism:

• Russia on Sept. 11 said it was ready to resume anti-terrorism cooperation with the U.S. as America marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11. In a statement released by Moscow's diplomatic mission in Washington, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said Russia was grieving together with the U.S. and proposed reviving cooperation on the fight against terrorism despite a litany of problems in bilateral ties. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.13.21)
  • Journalists of the Russian agencies TASS and RIA Novosti were reportedly denied accreditation for events dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York. (Novaya Gazeta, 09.11.21)
• In an op-ed for Gazeta.ru Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has called on the U.S. on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to learn from its disastrous policy in fighting against terrorism in Afghanistan. "Russia has always been ready for such work, despite our complicated relations with the West," Medvedev said of counter-terrorism cooperation. "Deepening of cooperation between Russia and the U.S. in countering terrorism is crucial," he said. (Interfax, 09.13.21)
• Al-Qaida could rebuild inside Afghanistan in one to two years, top U.S. intelligence officials said Sept. 14, noting that some members of the terrorist group had already returned to the country. (New York Times, 09.14.21)

Conflict in Syria:

• Putin has met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Moscow to discuss military cooperation against the remaining rebel-held areas in Syria. "Terrorists have sustained serious, significant damage, and the Syrian government, headed by you, controls 90% of the territory," Putin said. Assad hailed what he called a success of the Russian and Syrian armies in "liberating occupied territories" of Syria. (RFE/RL, 09.14.21)
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia later this month for talks with Putin about the violence in northwestern Syria, where Moscow and Ankara back opposing sides, two Turkish officials said Sept. 17. (Reuters, 09.17.21)
• Syria's Information Ministry took a group of journalists to Daraa four days after government troops entered the area known as Daraa al-Balad, a bastion of the Syrian armed opposition since 2013. Russian and Syrian flags flew outside as Russian military police vehicles were seen driving by. (Euronews, 09.12.21)

Cyber security:

• Russian tech giant Yandex said it beat off the largest distributed denial-of-service hacker attack in the history of the internet, Reuters reported Sept. 10. Hackers tried to flood its servers with messages and crash the system in August and September, the company said. The assault started in August and reached a record level Sept. 5. (bne IntelliNews, 09.15.21)
• Russia's federal platform for remote online voting is facing serious cyberattacks, half of which are coming from the U.S., Central Election Commission Chairperson Ella Pamfilova said at the CEC information center Sept. 17. (TASS, 09.17.21)

Energy exports from CIS:

• A group of U.S. bipartisan lawmakers is seeking to undo Biden’s decision to waive sanctions on the Russian-owned operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. An amendment introduced Sept. 14 orders the president to impose sanctions on any entity responsible for the planning, construction or operation of Nord Stream 2. (RFE/RL, 09.15.21) 
• The Kremlin has said quick approval of Nord Stream 2 would alleviate a feared natural gas shortage in Europe this winter. Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said Sept. 15 that Nord Stream 2 would “significantly balance price parameters for natural gas in Europe, including on the spot market,” provided Germany quickly approves the pipeline. Gas prices have more than quadrupled since the start of the year to the highest on record. (Financial Times, 09.15.21)
  • A group of lawmakers across political groups in the European Parliament called on the European Commission to investigate the role of Gazprom in a spike in natural gas prices, saying they suspect market manipulation. (Bloomberg, 09.17.21)
• The Russian Energy Ministry will report to the government on potentially allowing state oil giant Rosneft access to gas exports "in the coming days," according to Interfax quoting Vice-Prime Minister Alexander Novak. (bne IntelliNews, 09.15.21)
• Gas supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline that started in December 2019 have reached 10 billion cubic meters, CEO of Gazprom Alexei Miller said Sept. 17. (TASS, 09.17.21)

U.S.-Russian economic ties:

• No significant developments.

U.S.-Russian relations in general:

• The Kremlin has received the United States’ invitation to a virtual COVID-19 summit, which is currently under consideration, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sept. 15. Biden wants 70% of the world’s population in “all country income categories” fully vaccinated by next September. Biden is expected to seek such a commitment from world and business leaders at a virtual global COVID-19 summit on Sept. 22, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The U.S. registered 0.57 average deaths per 100,000 people in the week leading to Sept. 15, compared with 0.53 in Russia. (Politico, 09.16.21, TASS, 09.15.21, Financial Times, 09.17.21)
• On Sept. 9 scientists at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France took delivery of the first part of a massive magnet so strong its American manufacturer claims it can lift an aircraft carrier. All nations contributing to the project—including the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, India, South Korea and much of Europe—share in the $20 billion cost and benefit jointly from the scientific results and intellectual property generated. (AP, 09.09.21)
• Officials in the U.S. and EU are crafting a pledge to reduce global methane emissions by nearly a third by 2030, and pushing several of the world's largest economies to join them, according to people familiar with the effort. The officials are working to get China, Russia and other major oil and gas producers to join the commitment as a cornerstone accomplishment for international climate talks scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November. (Wall Street Journal, 09.15.21)
• An election-guide app created by opposition activist Alexei Navalny to erode the dominance of the ruling United Russia party disappeared from Apple and Google stores on the same day that Russians began voting in national parliamentary elections. Allies of Navalny said the Smart Voting app was no longer visible in the two tech giants' online stores on Sept. 17, just as three days of voting for the State Duma got under way. (RFE/RL, 09.17.21)
• Independent internet monitors say access to Google Docs has been restored after a temporary outage that coincided with the publication by associates of jailed opposition politician Navalny of a list of election candidates voters should cast ballots for to topple ruling party incumbents in elections later this week. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Russia said late Sept. 12 it summoned the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow over interference of U.S. tech giants in parliamentary polls due later this week. The Foreign Ministry said Ambassador John Sullivan was presented with "irrefutable proof" of U.S. tech giants violating Russian laws in connection with the Sept. 17-19 elections to the lower house State Duma. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.13.21)
• A court in Moscow has ordered Facebook, Twitter and Telegram to pay more fines for failing to delete content banned by Russian law amid a government campaign to gain more control over the Internet. A magistrate court in Moscow's Tagansky district on Sept. 14 fined Facebook 21 million rubles ($288,000), Telegram 9 million rubles ($123,400), and Twitter 5 million rubles ($68,500) for failing to abide by requests to delete the content as requested by Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor. (RFE/RL, 09.14.21)
• Navalny has been included in Time magazine's annual list of "the 100 most influential people of 2021." (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Russian opposition activist Anton Deinega has sought refuge in the U.S. out of fear for his family's safety after he took part in unsanctioned rallies in January to support Navalny. (RFE/RL, 09.13.21)
• The Supreme Court of Russia's Mordovia region has decided not to hear, at least for now, a request from Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is serving a lengthy prison term on espionage charges he calls trumped-up, to be transferred to the U.S. to serve out the rest of his sentence. (RFE/RL, 09.14.21)
• The prosecutor tasked with examining the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian election interference charged a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on Sept. 16 with making a false statement to the FBI five years ago. The indictment accuses Michael Sussmann of hiding that he was working with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign during a September 2016 conversation he had with the FBI’s general counsel, when he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about potentially suspicious contacts between a Russian bank and a Trump Organization server. The FBI looked into the matter but ultimately found no evidence of a secret back channel. (AP, 09.16.21)

 

II. Russia’s domestic policies

Domestic politics, economy and energy:

• Here’s a link to RFE/RL’s interactive map of COVID-19’s spread around the world, including in Russia and the rest of post-Soviet Eurasia.
• In the parliamentary elections that begin on Sept. 17 and run through Sept. 19, there is little question that Putin’s governing United Russia party will win. For the Kremlin, which hopes to mobilize support for government policies and reinforce its legitimacy, the trick is to win handily while maintaining the plausibility of a contested outcome. There are several ways that the Kremlin tries to create the illusion of democratic choice while making sure it comes out on top, including duplicate candidates, fake political parties, crossing off names, “walking-around money” and regulating the internet. (New York Times, 09.17.21)
• Russia’s three-day voting periods are likely here to stay, the head of the country’s Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova said Sept. 17, a move that critics warn will make it easier to commit voter fraud. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.17.21)
• Navalny’s team has published its long-anticipated roster of candidates it hopes supporters will rally behind to oust pro-Kremlin incumbents during this weekend’s parliamentary elections. With virtually all of Navalny’s allies shut out from the ballot, his team says it is backing a total of 1,234 candidates for Russia’s lower-house State Duma and local assemblies in the polls starting Sept. 17. The Smart Voting system created by Navalny has heavily backed Communist Party candidates to oust their Kremlin-backed opponents. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.15.21, RFE/RL, 09.15.21) 
• A court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has ordered the arrest of a journalist after he made a post on social media about the voting strategy of Navalny. (RFE/RL, 09.11.21)
• More than 150 media and nongovernmental organizations in Russia have launched a petition urging the authorities to cancel the controversial “foreign agent” law, which is widely seen as a tool used by the Kremlin to stifle civil society and independent media. (RFE/RL, 09.14.21)
• Veteran Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina was sentenced Sept. 10 to one year of “restricted freedom” for promoting January protests in support of Navalny. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.13.21)
• The condition of a Russian woman who launched a dry hunger strike to protest against the "anti-sanitary conditions" of her prison cell is deteriorating rapidly. Antonina Zimina's father, Konstantin Zimin, told RFE/RL on Sept. 15 that his daughter, who was handed a 13-year prison sentence on high treason charges she denies, is refusing both food and water. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• The investigative journalism group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project says it has halted its operations in Russia to shield its journalists from an ongoing government crackdown on independent media in the country. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Smoke from Russian wildfires this summer reached all the way across the North Pole to hit Greenland and Canada, according to new satellite data. Carbon emissions from global wildfires have set a record high for August this year, after extensive blazes in Russia’s Far East, as well as California and Canada, pushed past the previous highest level for the month. (Financial Times, 09.17.21)
• Russia’s earnings from tech exports have jumped more than threefold over the last two years, according to a new report from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, reports East-West Digital News. The export sales of scientific and technology services and IP-protected products reached $4.5 billion in 2020—up 30% from 2019, three times more than in 2018, and fifteen to twenty times more than in the early 2000s. (bne IntelliNews, 09.15.21)
• Russian electric car drivers will be able to access toll roads at no cost starting from 2022 in a new trial experiment, the RBC news website reported Sept. 13. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.14.21)
• Putin says he expects to remain in self-isolation for several days after dozens of members of his inner circle tested positive for COVID-19. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Lavrov’s alleged secret mistress, Svetlana Polyakova, wields significant influence within the ministry and owns several luxury properties, according to a new investigation by the Important Stories (iStories) investigative outlet published Sept. 14. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.15.21) 

Defense and aerospace:

• The fourth day of the Zapad-2021 exercise featured the main event at Russia’s range of Mulino, a large-scale iteration of maneuver defense by a coalition grouping of forces. The exercise featured the 31st Air Assault Brigade, extensive air support and bombing from VKS Aerospace Forces, attack helicopters, drone strikes, large concentrations of supporting artillery, extensive mine warfare and use of combat engineer-sapper units. At other ranges there were notable paradrops, including a night drop by the VDV’s 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade. Three Iskander-M launches took place at different ranges, SRBM and cruise missiles fired. Meanwhile the Northern Fleet continued its battle against an unidentified force of marines which had made an amphibious landing on Kola Peninsula. (Russian Military Analysis, 09.16.21)
  • “Zapad fits into a broader pattern: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its military capabilities and its military presence near our borders,” said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general. (Financial Times, 09.12.21)
  • “Russia’s hope is that they can close all those gaps which certainly exist in terms of command and control . . . That’s in part what this whole [Zapad] thing is built around,” a senior Western intelligence official told the FT. A major red flag for Western militaries would be if any Russian troops or equipment “stay forever, if they are permanently integrated,” the official added. (Financial Times, 09.12.21)
  • The foreign and defense ministers of the Baltic states and Poland have gathered to discuss a joint response to conventional and hybrid threats as Russia and Belarus staged Zapad-2021. (RFE/RL, 09.13.21)
• Russia has completed tests of its new S-500 surface-to-air missile system and has started supplying it to the armed forces, the RIA news agency quoted deputy prime minister Yuri Borisov as saying Sept. 16. (Reuters, 09.16.21)
• A Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted into space carrying 34 new satellites from British operator OneWeb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world. The rocket, operated by Europe's Arianespace, took off at 18:07 GMT on Sept. 14 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, broadcast live by the Russian Roscosmos space agency. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.15.21) 
• Russia took a step closer on Sept. 16 to claiming another record in space when a commission of medical and safety experts approved a plan for an actress and a director to blast off early next month to film the first full-length, fictional movie in space. (New York Times, 09.17.21)

Emergencies, security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Four people died and four others are in serious conditions after the crash of a small commercial aircraft in a remote forested area in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk region. Officials said there were 14 passengers and two crew members aboard the L-410 aircraft when it crashed on Sept. 12 several kilometers from the settlement of Kazachinskoye. Three passengers and one pilot were killed. (RFE/RL, 09.12.21)
• The alleged killer of the Russian oligarch known as "the Sausage King" has been apprehended in Moscow after escaping from the detention center he was being held in last month. Investigative Committee spokeswoman Olga Vrady said Sept. 14 that Alexander Mavridi was caught in the capital the day before with several thousand dollars worth of various currencies in his backpack. (RFE/RL, 09.14.21)

 

III. Russia’s relations with other countries

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

• Leaders of the Russia- and China-led SCO have urged the world to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and boost assistance to the war-torn nation. Russia and China's leaders on Sept. 17 urged the new Taliban government in Afghanistan to remain peaceful to its neighbors and combat terrorism and drug trafficking. Putin and Xi both spoke via video link at the SCO summit. Putin said the organization, holding its meeting in Tajikistan, should "use its potential" to "stimulate the new Afghan authorities" in fulfilling their promises on normalizing life and bringing security in Afghanistan. Putin insisted that the SCO should do its "utmost" to prevent the threats of "terrorism, drug trafficking and religious extremism" emanating from Afghanistan. Xi said SCO member nations should help to drive a smooth transition in Afghanistan. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.17.21, The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.17.21, RFE/RL, 09.17.21)
• The convergence of different integration processes in Eurasia complies with the interests of the region’s countries, Putin said at the SCO summit. The Russian leader also stressed the importance of the memorandum of understanding signed at the summit between the SCO Secretariat and the Eurasian Economic Commission. “This is definitely in line with the implementation of Russia’s idea to create a Greater Eurasian Partnership," Putin stated. (TASS, 09.17.21)
  • Iran's permanent membership in the SCO was approved Sept. 17 during the multilateral alliance's ongoing summit in Tajikistan. (Anadolu, 09.17.21)
• The Kremlin said Sept. 15 there were no formal discussions on military cooperation with Mali after France warned the West African country against hiring hundreds of Russian mercenaries linked to Moscow's foreign conflicts. Germany joined France Sept. 15 in expressing concern about reports of an agreement between Mali’s new military rulers and the Wagner Group. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.15.21, RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Russia has voted for a British draft U.N. resolution extending the mandate of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya until Sept. 30, Russia's First Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. said. (Interfax, 09.16.21)
• Lavrov is to give a speech, in person, during the general political discussion of the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 25, according to TASS. He will also hold a number of bilateral meetings with foreign partners on the sidelines. (Russia Matters, 09.17.21)
• The head of the U.N. said Sept. 15 he could not insist that world leaders show they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 when attending the General Assembly meeting in New York next week. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., said that Moscow objected to proof of vaccination being required to enter the General Assembly, describing it as “clearly discriminatory.” (Financial Times, 09.15.21)
• An official at the World Health Organization (WHO) says the group has suspended its approval process for Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, after a number of manufacturing infringements were uncovered during an inspection in Russia earlier this year. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• The share of Russians who long for their homeland to be “a country with high living standards, even if it won’t be one of the world’s strongest”(66%)  is twice as large as the share of Russians who want their homeland to be  a “great power which other countries respect and are afraid of” (32%), according to the Levada Center.  (Russia Matters, 09.11.21)

Ukraine:

• Germany and France suggest a Normandy Four (Germany, Russia, France, Ukraine) meeting be held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly but so far such ideas cannot be called serious, Lavrov said. (TASS, 09.10.21)
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Ukraine must remain a transit country for Russian natural-gas exports during her final tour of European capitals before leaving office. (RFE/RL, 09.11.21)
• The U.S. is ready to participate in the Normandy format and in a parallel process, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said. (Interfax, 09.11.21)
• Ukraine said Sept. 14 that one of its soldiers had been killed by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, amid a fresh outbreak of fighting in the years-long conflict. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.14.21)
• One serviceman of the armed forces of Ukraine was killed, three more received shrapnel wounds in Donbass, the press center of the JFO headquarters said Sept. 11. Two Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 10 others wounded in the country’s war-torn east as clashes tick back up, the Ukrainian army said on Sept. 12. (Interfax, 09.11.21, Al Jazeera, 09.12.21)
• The Russian side has demanded that the Czech Republic provide detailed information regarding the reasons and conditions of the recent detention of Russian national Alexander Franchetti—who is wanted in Ukraine—in Prague. (TASS, 09.13.21)
• Authorities in eastern Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) have readied nearly 1,000 buses and trains to neighboring Russia for residents to cast ballots in this weekend’s parliamentary elections, a move slammed by officials in Kyiv. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.16.21)
• Western diplomats have expressed concern over Ukraine’s delay in implementing recently passed judicial legislation that is seen in Washington and Brussels as crucial to improving the nation's rule of law and cleaning up corruption. The G7 diplomats warned against attempts to delay reforms “aimed at strengthening the rule of law, increasing public confidence in the judiciary, attracting foreign investment, and bringing Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic future closer,” according to a copy of the statement distributed by Ukraine’s presidential office. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• “Ukraine has accumulated 17 bcm of gas before the heating season" said Ukrainian economist Yury Vitrenko. According to Vitrenko, in 2016-18, Ukraine started the heating season with approximately 16 bcm in underground storage. (Ukraine Business News, 09.12.21)
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said Kyiv expects to receive a second tranche from the IMF under a $5 billion loan program before the end of the year, even as the nation’s crucial judicial reform stumbles. (RFE/RL, 09.15.21) 
• Vitaliy Pisanets, the Ukrainian judge who oversaw the investigative phase of the case of the 2016 murder in Kyiv of journalist Pavel Sheremet, has been found dead outside Kyiv. (RFE/RL, 09.12.21)

Russia's other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Leaders of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met for a summit in the Tajik capital on Sept. 16 and “agreed to fortify the CSTO’s southern borders and continue to plan and implement a package of measures aimed at bringing down the level of and neutralizing potential threats in the organization’s space," Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said after the talks. Meanwhile, the office of Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said he "supported the joint CSTO position that the placement of Afghan refugees or foreign military bases on our countries' territories is unacceptable." (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to the Central Asian nation, John Pommersheim, to make a verbal protest over Biden's recent comments. “For example, if we were in Tajikistan and pulled up a C-130 and said we’re going to let, you know, anybody who was involved with being sympathetic to us to get on the plane, you’d have people hanging in the wheel as well," Biden said. (RFE/RL, 09.15.21) 
• Uzbekistan has deported all Afghan military pilots and members of their families who illegally flew to safety in the Central Asian state. The pilots and their families were reportedly being transferred to a U.S. military base in the United Arab Emirates. (RFE/RL, 09.13.21)
• Tajik authorities say they have accepted around 100 Afghan nationals from a group of more than 200 people, including many women and children, who crossed the border overnight to flee Afghanistan because of the Taliban's takeover of the country. (RFE/RL, 09.13.21)
• Kazakhstan's lower chamber of parliament, the Mazhilis, has approved the first reading of a bill that would allow the blocking of social networks and messaging apps if their owners fail to establish local offices in the Central Asian country. (RFE/RL, 09.15.21)
• A corporation linked to a relative of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has received tens of millions of dollars from the country's sovereign wealth fund, an investigation by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service has revealed. Orient Group, which is linked to Oybek Umarov received the funds through the Uzbek Oman Investment Company, the investigation showed. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Another former Kyrgyz prime minister, Joomart Otorbaev, has been detained as part of a widening investigation into alleged corruption during the development of the Kumtor gold-mine project. Kyrgyzstan has also added several former leaders of Canada's Centerra Gold company and its operator of the Kumtor Gold company to its wanted list as part of a widening investigation into alleged corruption during the development of a major gold-mining project. (RFE/RL, 09.16.21, RFE/RL, 09.17.21)
• Azerbaijani forces have reportedly set up checkpoints on a strategic road connecting Armenia to Iran. The highway passes through areas handed over to Azerbaijan by Armenia as a condition of a Russian-brokered cease-fire last year which guaranteed a free flow of traffic. Witnesses said the forces have been collecting money from Iranian truckers for use of the road in violation of the terms of the cease-fire. (RFE/RL, 09.15.21) 
• Armenia has challenged Azerbaijan at the U.N.’s top court, accusing it of decades of rights abuses against Armenian citizens and ethnic Armenians—including events that unfolded during the 2020 war over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia contends that Azerbaijan has "subjected Armenians to racial discrimination" for decades as a "state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred," according to a statement issued on Sept. 16 by The Hague-based International Court of Justice. (RFE/RL, 09.18.21)
• Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has said that Baku will host joint military drills in the days ahead with troops from Turkey and Pakistan—the first such drills involving the three countries. (RFE/RL, 09.11.21)
• Iran has referred to the "illegality of Turkey's military presence in the Caspian Sea" following submarine attack and defense group military exercises jointly conducted by Azerbaijani and Turkish special forces that ended Sept. 12. (bne IntelliNews, 09.14.21)
• Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Sept. 12 said Minsk planned to buy $1 billion worth of Russian arms as he oversaw massive Moscow-led military drills that rattled some EU countries. Lukashenko said he wanted to buy Russia's S-400 air defense systems with a view to placing them on his country's border with Western-backed Ukraine. (The Moscow Times/AFP, 09.13.21)
• Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to take "decisive action in solving the Belarus crisis." Speaking in Paris on Sept. 15, the first day of a four-day trip to France to bolster support for her movement, Tsikhanouskaya said, "democratic countries have to be firm and principled." (RFE/RL, 09.16.21)
• Lithuania has capped the amount of electricity that can enter its grid from Belarus as part of measures to avoid importing power from the Ostrovets nuclear power plant. Grid operator LitGrid said the interconnection would be limited to 262 MW, with throughputs calculated every day. (World Nuclear News, 09.16.21)
• Since joining the EU, with its open borders and freedom to work anywhere in the bloc, in 2004, Latvia has lost 17% of its population; only neighboring Lithuania has lost more. The working-age population has fallen 23% over the same period. Last year, Latvia recorded its lowest number of births in a century and the sharpest population drop in the EU, at 0.8%. (Wall Street Journal, 09.13.21)
• Soviet-era Georgian chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili has launched a $5 million lawsuit against Netflix for defamation, accusing the streaming network of "brazenly and deliberately" lying about her in the fictional television series The Queen’s Gambit. (RFE/RL, 09.17.21)

 

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.