April 20:
The new government in Kyiv has accused the Kremlin of subversion on its soil. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian authorities has charged that Moscow is organizing, funding and deploying pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russian authorities " are organizing and conducting [these] operations and destabilizing the situation in our country," Vitaly Naida, Ukraine's counterintelligence chief, has charged. The Kremlin, for its part, is denying the accusation. "We do not interfere in Ukraine's internal affairs—it contradicts our interests," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has insisted. "We don't have agents there, no GRU and no FSB."
April 21:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented a draft law that would create a gambling zone in Crimea as part of plans to develop the Crimean economy, reports the BBC. Under existing Russian law, casinos are restricted to four official gambling zones in the country (Kaliningrad Oblast; Azov City, in Krasnodar Krai; Altai Krai, and; Primorskii Krai). Under Putin’s plan, Crimea—the newest subject of the Russian Federation—would become the fifth.
April 22:
The Obama administration is warning Russia against further “provocative behavior” in Ukraine. The BBC reports that Vice President Joe Biden, in Kyiv for meetings with new Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has put the Kremlin on notice that further interference in Ukrainian affairs – and continued support for pro-Russian elements operating inside the country – would lead to “greater isolation.”
The Russian government is refining its plans for a sustained strategic presence in the Arctic. Russia Todayreports that at a recent meeting of the country’s National Security Council in Moscow, Russian president Vladimir Putin sketched the contours of his evolving vision for Russia’s share of the region. According to Putin, the territory should not be administered by traditional bureaucracy but by “a flexible operational structure, which will help better coordinate the activities of ministries and departments, regions and businesses.” Border security detachments, Putin said, should be strengthened as well – as should the “military infrastructure” Russia possesses in the region. This incudes creating a “united system of naval bases for ships and next-generation submarines in our part of the Arctic.”
According to Russia Today, Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree officially rehabilitating Crimean Tatars as well as other ethnic minorities that were deported en masse by Joseph Stalin in 1944. Many of these minorities have been stuck in land disputes since their return to the peninsula, but the new decree will allow them to privatize landholdings under a simplified procedure. Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev has accused Russia of using the decree “to ingratiate itself” with the Tatar population, who remain some of the most vocal opponents of Crimea’s annexation.
April 23:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced that Russia will respond in Ukraine if its interests are attacked, despite the diplomatic deal recently concluded with the West and Ukraine. According to the BBC, Lavrov has accused Kyiv of distorting the agreement calling for illegal armed groups to be disarmed and has asked Ukraine to withdraw its own military units from the country’s east. The U.S., meanwhile, has urged Russia to call off pro-Russian gunmen in the region and tone down its aggressive rhetoric.
Moscow is backing up its political rhetoric with a concrete show of military force. Reuters reports that Russia’s navy has launched snap military exercises in the Caspian Sea. The drill is another in an elevated number of snap military drills carried out by Russia since the start of tensions with Ukraine. NATO has claimed that these military drills have boosted Russia’s troop presence on the border of Ukraine to around 40,000.