Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1660

January 26:

The regime of dictator Muammar Qaddhafi is seeking to bolster its arms trade with Russia. "Libya is ready to buy around 20 fighter planes,” as well as multiple units of the “S-300PMU2 air defense systems and several dozen T-90S tanks from Russia, and also to modernize more than 70 tanks and other weapons," the Agence France Presse reports an anonymous government source as telling the Interfax news agency. Reports of the prospective deal, valued in excess of $2 billion, comes on the eve of a visit to Moscow by Libyan defense minister Gen. Abu-Bakr Yunis Jaber.

January 27:

The United States and Russia are making “steady progress” toward a successor arms control pact to replace the now-defunct START Treaty, according to the Obama administration. Bloomberg reports that President Obama has spoken with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, about bilateral progress on arms control between Moscow and Washington. As part of their dialogue, the two presidents affirmed negotiations on the new nuclear treaty to be “nearly complete,” and pledged “to continue the constructive contacts that have advanced U.S.-Russian relations over the last year.”

January 31:

In their latest crackdown on opposition activists, Russia’s security forces have arrested 100 protestors in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Associated Press reports that the protestors had congregated in the central square of each city in violation of an official ban to rally against the policies of President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

February 1:

The on-again, off-again territorial tensions between Russia and Japan are at risk of flaring up again. Australia’s ABC News reports that the Japanese government has lodged a formal complaint with the Kremlin after Russian border guards in the contested Kuril Islands opened fire on two Japanese fishing vessels. Russia’s coast guard has said that the incident, which took place in waters disputed by Russia and Japan, occurred when the Japanese vessels refused Russian orders to stop for inspection. The Japanese fishermen dispute this charge, and say they were operating legally.

February 2:

Russia’s economy charted the biggest decline in a decade-and-a-half last year, according to new governmental statistics. Business Day reports that new figures compiled by Russia’s State Statistics Service indicate that Russia’s economy constricted by 7.9 percent in 2009. The decline can be traced back to a precipitous decline in world oil prices, which dropped by 77 percent last year. “The economy was impacted by its high oil dependence and was vulnerable when external capital markets shut down,” ING Bank economist Tatiana Orlova has explained.