August 14:
Within the next year, the Kremlin is expected to appeal to the United Nations in an attempt to annex roughly 380,000 square miles of the Arctic. Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, and Norway all have Arctic coasts that could hypothetically include the North Pole, according to the Christian Science Monitor, but no official agreement delineating the area between them yet exists. Canada has built up its military presence in the region, and is also expected to submit a claim to the international body. Interest in the Arctic has skyrocketed in recent months, spurred by the region's potential energy wealth - estimates suggest that up to one-quarter of the world’s untapped hydrocarbon reserves could reside under its ice - and its position as a new route from Asia to Europe that would cut shipping times by nearly a third.
August 15:
The Internet has assumed an increasingly prominent role in political competition in Russia. According to theRussia and India Report, nearly a third of Internet users in Russia identified the web as “an important source of political information” in 2011, up from just 15 percent in 2007. Social networking sites and blogs have become rallying points for activists and virtual home offices for elected politicians. These online fora, however, also provide opportunities for hackers and spyware to interfere in political campaigns, and even to create false profiles by which to discredit opponents. Internet usage, moreover, is expected to increase further in the run-up to the country’s elections later this year.
August 16:
Gennady Burbulis, a former aide to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, fears that Russia could suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union without immediate efforts toward modernization and democratization. “The threat is huge if this regime cannot transform itself,” says Burbulis, who stood by Yeltsin during the unsuccessful coup attempt against his fledgling government in August 1991. “The threat, ultimately, is the disintegration of Russia.” And while former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is often credited with stabilizing the Russian Federation, Burbulis has warned against centralization at the cost of democratic reform. “The sad thing,” he tells Reuters, “is that we have lost the greatest achievement of the first period of the Yeltsin era — real freedom of the media and freedom of speech.”
August 17:
Despite calls from the United States to halt its arms trade with Syria, Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, has announced that sales to Damascus will continue. Russian officials have insisted that its weapons trade with the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad, currently weathering a sustained challenge to his rule, is in line with international laws. Moreover, Reuters reports, the recent instability in North Africa and the Middle East has done nothing to dampen Russian arms exports. Quite the contrary, in fact; this year’s totals are expected to reach $9 billion, an increase of nearly half a billion dollars from last year's sales revenue.
August 18:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has issued a public thanks to “sister Russia” following the successful delivery of more than $6 billion worth of weapons to modernize the Latin American nation's military. According to RIA-Novosti, the mammoth deal between Moscow and Caracas included 25 tanks, as well as a number of fighter jets, combat helicopters, guns, and anti-aircraft missiles. The weapons were provided pursuant to agreements signed between 2005 and 2007, and again in 2010. “These arms from Russia, now in Venezuela, will be for defending our sovereignty,” Chavez has declared.
August 22:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is conducting his first official visit to Moscow in nearly a decade, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Analysts have suggested numerous motives for the visit, including an effort by Pyongyang to acquire Russian aid as a way to decrease its dependence on China. Most important for the North Korean leader, however, is securing Moscow's support for the looming succession of his son, Kim Jong-Un. “He needs some declaration from Russia of North Korea next year as "a strong and great nation,'" notes Kim Tae-woo, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
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