Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1654

October 26:

The lower house of Russia's parliament has given the green light for a new, more aggressive national military posture. The Associated Press reports that the State Duma has provided final approval for President Dmitry Medvedev's bill to dramatically expand the mandate of the Russian military "to send troops outside the country to fend off attacks on the Russian military, deter aggression against another state, defend Russian citizens, combat pirates and protect shipping."


October 28:

Police in Russia's capital have opened a criminal case against a leading human rights activist, the Moscow Times reports. Oleg Orlov, who heads the Memorial human rights watchdog group, was hauled in for questioning by local authorities after a complaint was lodged against him by Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. Orlov had publicly accused Kadyrov of ordering the murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova earlier this year. The criminal charges were filed less than a week after Orlov won the European Union's vaunted Sakharov Prize for his defense of human rights and individual liberties.


October 30:

Ahead of the winter season, Russia's premier is once again raising the specter of interruptions in energy deliveries to Europe. The BBC reports Vladimir Putin as saying that there have been "problems with payments" for Russian energy shipments. At issue, according to Putin, is the European Union's failure to provide Ukraine - over whose territory some 90 percent of Russian energy shipments transit - with the requisite money owed to Russia.


November 1:

According to London's Telegraph, Russia's military has carried out wargames designed to simulate a nuclear attack and combined aerial and naval invasion of Poland. The maneuvers, held in September but only just disclosed in the Polish press, involved some 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops. The drills are being seen in Warsaw as a shot across the bow of the administration of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which has made closer ties with Europe and the United States the centerpiece of its foreign policy. "It's an attempt to put us in our place," says one Polish parliamentarian. "Don't forget all this happened on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland."


November 2:

The government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London is seeking to mend fences with Moscow. According to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has used an official visit to Moscow - the first of its kind in half a decade - to try and smooth over diplomatic differences between the two countries, whose bilateral ties have been on the rocks since the 2006 killing of former intelligence agent Alexandr Litvinenko in London - an act that has been attributed to Russia's security services. "There are important areas of common ground alongside well-publicized areas of difference," Miliband emphasized following meetings with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.