April 14:
Opposition protestors in Russia have found a new source of inspiration in a politician on hunger strike in southern Russia. According to the Agence France-Presse, nearly 4,000 people gathered in Astrakhan in support of the month-long hunger strike undertaken by Oleg Shein, who recently lost the city’s mayoral elections to the United Russia party candidate amid claims of voter fraud. Shein began a hunger strike in protest on March 16th, insisting that he would only eat in case of “a new honest and clean election.” Several Duma deputies subequently walked out on a speech by Vladimir Putin after the president- elect (and current prime minister) criticized Shein’s protest.
April 15:
Exxon Mobil and Russian energy titan Rosneft have signed an agreement that will enable Russian investment in American domestic oil and gas fields for the first time. As part of the pact, the New York Times reports, Exxon Mobil will gain greater access to Russia’s Arctic fields in exchange for providing Rosneft limited access to modern drilling techniques and minority shares in a number of oil and gas fields across the U.S. and Canada. Officials on both sides have hailed the agreement as a “foundation for long-term growth,” but attempts at similar partnerships between Russian and Western oil companies have so far been unsuccessful. The most recent effort, between Rosneft and BP last year, collapsed under a lawsuit from another group of Russian investors.
April 16:
The Syrian National Coordination Committee, an internal opposition bloc, is en route to Moscow for a three-day visit to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and other top Kremlin officials. A representative of the group has confirmed to reporters in comments carried by RIA-Novosti that “Opposition representatives are going to discuss the situation in crisis-hit Syria, ways out of this crisis and the role of Russia in this process.” United Nations monitors recently arrived in Syria to observe a ceasefire between the government and rebel forces, and the most recent UN Security Council resolution pledged the deployment of another two dozen monitors in the coming week. The monitoring group could eventually number 250 individuals.
April 17:
After two months, the Kremlin has agreed to lift its ban on imports of Ukrainian cheese. The ban was implemented, Reuters reports, after Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor accused Ukrainian cheese producers of using large amounts of palm oil, a cheap substitute for milk. Ukrainian officials, however, have insisted that the ban was politically motivated, and suggest that it was the result of lobbying from Russian dairy producers.
April 18:
The Kremlin has moved to stifle the latest wave of protests in Astrakhan, as activists from across the country rallied to the cause of Oleg Shein. Reuters reports that, under pressure from the demonstrations and Shein’s ongoing hunger strike, Moscow’s top election official, Vladimir Churov, has admitted that there were “real procedural violations” involved in the Astrakhan mayoral election. However, according to Churov, the violations were only in the handling of voting documents, and no voting fraud took place with regard to the pro-Kremlin candidate’s victory. Supporters of Shein, the defeated candidate, have insisted that electronic ballot boxes showed him running neck-and-neck with his opponent, while the official results showed a 30 percentage point difference.
April 19:
The Christian Science Monitor reports that, despite statements by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the contrary, the Kremlin wants NATO to remain in Afghanistan. Officials in Moscow fear that an early withdrawal could set the stage for a Taliban takeover, destabilizing the entire region and threatening Russia's borders. According to Andrei Klimov, the deputy chair of the Duma's foreign affairs committee, "Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would be a very unfavorable development for Russia. It would lead to dramatic worsening of the situation in Afghanistan, and perhaps a repeat of all the turbulence that followed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. We are watching [the coming deadline for NATO withdrawal] with deep wariness and perplexity."
Based on this rationale, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has publicly urged the Alliance to retain its forces beyond the 2014 deadline set by the Obama administration. Lavrov's appeal to NATO came only days after president - elect Vladimir Putin called NATO "a relic of the cold war."
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