Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1585

August 17:

The Sunday Times reports that in response to U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, Russia may arm its Baltic fleet with nuclear warheads. Russia could supply nuclear warheads to the submarines, cruisers and fighter bombers of the Baltic fleet, which a senior Russian military source said has been under-funded since communism’s collapse. “That will change now,” said the source. “In view of America’s determination to set up a missile defense shield in Europe, the military is reviewing all its plans to give Washington an adequate response.” U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker said he knew Russia was considering rearming the Baltic fleet with nuclear warheads and said such a move would be “really unfortunate.”


August 18:

President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed not to let Russian citizens be harmed, Rusnovosti.ru reports. “If somebody thinks they can murder our citizens, murder our soldiers and officers who are peacekeepers, we will never permit that,” he told veterans in Kursk. “Anyone who tries to do something like that will receive a crushing response. We have all the resources for that – economic, political and military... We do not want a worsening of the international situation, we simply want to be respected.” Medvedev accused Georgia of committing an “unprecedented” act of aggression in South Ossetia.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has accused President Dmitry Medvedev of failing to fulfill his pledge to pull Russian troops out of Georgia under a French-brokered ceasefire, Agence France-Presse reports. “(I wonder) why the Russian president either will not or cannot keep his word,” Rice said while flying to Brussels for crisis talks at NATO headquarters hours after the White House demanded that Moscow proceed with its withdrawal “without delay.”


August 19:

NATO has pulled its punches against Russia, suspending formal contacts as punishment for the Georgia invasion but bucking U.S. pressure for more severe penalties, the Associated Press reports. Although NATO members said they would not convene any more meetings of the NATO-Russia Council until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia, they bowed to concerns from Europe - which depends heavily on Russia for energy - and stopped short of adopting specific long-term steps to punish Moscow for its actions. “The mountain gave birth to a mouse,” Russia’s ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said of NATO’s emergency meeting in Brussels.

AP also reports that Russian soldiers in Georgia took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a Black Sea port, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and also seized American Humvees that were awaiting shipment back to the United States.


August 20:

Lawmakers in Abkhazia have approved a request from the Georgian breakaway region’s president, Sergei Bagapsh, to ask Russia to recognize it as a “sovereign and independent state,” CNN reports. According to Interfax, Bagapsh also wants a friendship and mutual assistance treaty with Moscow, which would call for maintaining Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia.


August 22:

The United States has said it is “very concerned” about reports that Russia is planning to sell weapons to Syria, the Telegraph reports. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s visit to Moscow on August 21st that Moscow is ready to deliver “defensive” weapons to Damascus. “We are obviously very concerned about reports that Russia may be providing weapons systems to Syria,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood. “We have always said to the Russians that these sales should not go forward, they don’t contribute to regional stability and, again, I urge them not to go through with these sales if there is any intent to go through with them.”