June 26:
Following a short debate, the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the Magnitsky Act. Foreign Policy magazine reports that Senate version of the bill, unlike its House counterpart, levies restrictions “on the financial activities and travel of foreign officials found to have been connected to various human rights violations in any country,” most likely in an attempt to dampen Moscow’s hostility. The bill will now be joined with legislation to grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations status ahead of its accession to the WTO later this year.
In what several U.S. officials are calling a sign of Russia’s “hardening posture” toward the U.S., the Kremlin chose the first day of a summit between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin to stage wargames that sent nuclear bombers into U.S. airspace near Alaska. “The Russians continue to exercise our air defense identification zone, which shows Mr. Putin loves to let President Obama know that they still have global capability,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, warning that the exercises “should be a concern.” The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Russian bombers involved in the “exercises” are equipped with long-range precision-guided cruise missiles, raising concerns that the Kremlin was simulating cruise missile strikes on U.S. oil pipelines in Alaska, which are responsible for carrying over 11 percent of U.S. oil. It is unclear if Moscow notified the U.S. of the planned exercises, but F-15 jets intercepted the aircraft in Alaskan airspace.
June 27:
The Washington Post suggests that Russia’s volatile relationship with NATO is tied up in Cold War-era betrayals and suspicions. While the Kremlin has allowed NATO to transport much-needed supplies to Afghanistan through the Northern Distribution Network, and recently offered the use of the Ulyanovsk base as an additional transfer hub for the Alliance's withdrawal, many Russians vehemently object to NATO activity in Russia. Soviet-era protestors maintain that NATO cannot be trusted, citing a broken promise that the organization would not move east with the fall of the Berlin Wall (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states are all now members). Although the deal with NATO to utilize Ulyanovsk could bring the impoverished city as much as $1 billion annually, locals insist that “No matter where NATO and America go, they will never leave freely.”
June 29:
Nearly seven percent of Russia’s working population is comprised of illegal migrants, the highest total in the world, a new study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found. The group reports that 960,000 temporary laborer migrants came to Russia in 2010, a number more than double the total that entered the U.S. in the same time period. According to IANS/RIA Novosti, most came from the former Soviet States of Kazakhstan (28,000 people), Ukraine (27,500), and Uzbekistan (24,000). The total number of illegal migrants is more than double the country’s total of legal migrant workers, which comprises 2.5 percent of Russia’s workforce.
June 30:
Moscow has made its opposition to the Magnitsky Law clear. Reuters reports that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has informed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that “the possible endorsement in the United States of the ‘Magnitsky law’ will bring serious damage to relations between our countries.” Although the bill has been passed in Congress, analysts question whether the White House, which publicly announced its opposition to the bill, will allow the creation of a law that would further complicate relations with the Kremlin.
July 2:
A recent poll has revealed that Vladimir Putin’s popularity in Moscow is drastically lower than it is in provincial Russia. According to the Associated Press, the poll, conducted by GFK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, revealed that only 38 percent of Moscow citizens have a favorable opinion of the Russian president, as opposed to 60 percent of all Russians. Stability remains a primary concern in the provinces, where people still fear the chaos of the 1990s, when stores were sparsely stocked and salaries often went unpaid for months. All Russians, however, agree that the economy ranks among their highest priorities - a factor that could drastically alter public opinion if gas prices continue to drop.