Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1578

July 24:

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Ilshat Baichurin has dismissed as “disinformation and another media hoax” an Izvestia article which quoted an unnamed top Russian air force official as saying that nuclear-capable bombers may once again be deployed in Cuba, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, a new Izvestia article claims that Russian strategic bomber crews have already surveyed sites in Cuba for possible stopovers and that Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers may also be deployed in Venezuela and Algeria. Quoting unnamed Defense Ministry officials, the article states that while the bomber crews have visited Cuba, it does not mean that Russian strategic bombers have landed on the island.

The Financial Times reports that Robert Dudley, the CEO of TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint venture, has abruptly left Russia, citing mounting uncertainties over his visa and “sustained harassment.” BP said it would launch arbitration proceedings against its Russian partners in TNK-BP to recover “any and all losses” incurred as a result of a battle for control of the joint venture that has focused on Dudley’s role as chief executive and led to “sustained attacks” on him.

Newsru.com reports the value of shares in Mechel, one of Russia’s largest coal and steel firms, have plummeted after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused it of selling coking coal, a component used in steelmaking, to domestic customers at twice the price it was selling it for abroad, adding that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and even prosecutors should probe Mechel’s pricing policies. Putin, who made his remarks at a meeting of metals barons in Nizhny Novgorod, noted the absence of Mechel owner Igor Zyuzin, who checked into a hospital with heart problems the day before the meeting. “Igor Vladimirovich [Zyuzin] should get better as soon as possible, otherwise a doctor will be sent to him to clear up all of these problems,” Putin said.


July 25:

The U.S. has said that Iran is not expected to receive advanced S-300 missile batteries before year’s end, Reuters reports. “We firmly believe, based upon our understanding of the situation, that the Iranians will not be receiving that Russian anti-aircraft system this year,” said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. Reuters had earlier quoted senior Israeli defense sources as saying that first delivery of the S-300 missile batteries was expected as soon as early September, though it could take six to 12 months for them to be deployed and operable. S-300s would make any strike by Israel or the United States on Iran’s nuclear facilities more difficult.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s website was brought down this week by hackers apparently based in Russia, United Press International reports. The attack was monitored by several U.S. Internet watch operations, including the center run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security known as U.S.-CERT, for Computer Emergency Response Team. A source at U.S.-CERT told the news agency that the attack did not look like a prelude to, or opening salvo in, any wider assault. “We don’t think it is part of anything larger,” he said. UPI reports that 300 websites in Lithuania were defaced earlier this month after a law banning the public display of Soviet symbols was promulgated.


July 27:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said that the government of former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has taken his country down a “very harmful” path and that Russia has “become an autocracy,” Agence France-Presse reports. “We need to improve their behavior,” McCain told ABC television when asked about his threat to exclude Russia from the Group of Eight if he wins the White House in November.