August 23:
A former senior police official has been arrested for his suspected involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, five years after the investigative journalist was gunned down near her apartment in Moscow. The BBC reports that Lt. Col. Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a native Chechen, is suspected of organizing Politkovskaya's murder, including forming a group to carry out the plot and providing a firearm to the shooter. Pavlyuchenkov is believed to have been paid “by a person whose identity is still unknown,” a spokesman for the investigative committee has said. The actual gunmen in the murder, Rustam Makhmudov and his brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim, were arrested back in May.
August 27:
Russia has now tested its "Bulava" nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile sixteen times. The latest attempt, the Herald Sun reports, was carried out successfully in late August, and entailed the launch of a "Bulava" missile from the White Sea to the Pacific Ocean at a maximum range of roughly 8000 kilometers. Several more launches of the missile are planned this year, including a possible test involving multiple missiles. Despite seven failed attempts to test the "Bulava," Russian officials remain bullish that the ICBM can become a “cornerstone” of the country's nuclear forces in the future.
August 28:
The newly-elected president of Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, Alexander Ankvab, has wasted little time pledging close ties to the Kremlin. The region’s election, the Moscow Times reports, was generally unrecognized by the rest of the world, with Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and the Pacific Island of Nauru the only countries who recognize Abkhazia as an independent country. NATO officially rejected the outcome, reiterating its “support for the sovereignty of Georgia.” Ankvab, a former Soviet apparatchik and Moscow businessman, has already survived four assassination attempts.
August 30:
Russian officials remain unsatisfied with the recent suspended sentence handed down to an American adoptive mother of a Russian-born child who forced the boy to swallow hot sauce and stand in a cold shower as punishment. The case was one in a slew of child abuse cases dealing with Russian-born adopted children,Reuters reports. The Kremlin nearly ended adoptions to the United States last summer after one woman rejected her adopted son and put him alone on a plane back to Moscow. In the most recent case, the mother was given a suspended 180-day sentence, three years of probation, and court-ordered counseling. “I cannot say that this ruling completely satisfies us,” said the Kremlin children’s rights ombudsman, Pavel Astahkov, “but we must accept the verdict.”
Three months after a major oil deal with BP fell through due to unresolved disagreements, Russia’s state oil firm Rosneft has signed a major partnership agreement with Exxon Mobil. According to the Washington Post, Exxon will invest $3.2 billion in exchange for a 33 percent stake in joint operations in Russia’s Arctic Sea shelf and in the southern Black Sea. Combined, the two areas could hold reserves of up to 42 billion barrels of oil and 10.3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. In return, Rosneft will gain a stake in Exxon’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas. Prime Minister Putin, who was present at the signing of the agreements, suggested that the deals could be worth as much as $500 billion.
August 31:
Switzerland has become Russia’s latest hope to end its 18-year wait to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Since March, Bloomberg reports, the world’s second-oldest neutral nation has mediated four meetings between Russia and the biggest opponent to its bid to join the trading bloc: the nation of Georgia. Both the United States and the European Union have backed Russia’s bid to enter the WTO, but Georgia has used its veto as a bargaining tool for the last five years. A candidate for entry since 1993, Russia’s quest for entry has been dragged out even longer than that of China, who was only forced to wait fifteen years before being granted admission.
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