January 6:
Russian security forces killed three militants in the North Caucasus region, who officials say were plotting attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas. Such incidents are increasingly frequent in the North Caucasus, Reuters reports, where Islamist insurgents have spilled over from ongoing conflicts in Chechnya. Officials claim the militants were shot after they opened fire from a van stopped at a security checkpoint in the Kabardino-Balkaria province, although there was no evidence provided over the alleged Christmas plot.
January 7:
In his annual Christmas address, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church urged Russians to compensate for the loss of American adoptive families. “How important it is that our people should gladly, with a special feeling of gratitude to God, take orphans into their families,” Patriarch Kirill said in a recorded address. “We should not have orphans in our country.” The New York Times reports that nearly 120,000 Russian children are currently awaiting adoption.
January 8:
The rapid growth of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Customs Union is beginning to put pressure on non-member Eastern European nations to choose between closer ties with the EU or its Eurasian counterpart. Experts predict that countries such as Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine will be forced to choose a side within the next year or two, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as officials from both sides ruled out the possibility of joint membership. As one EU official noted, “If Armenia were to join any customs union, this would not be compatible with concluding a bilateral Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Armenia, because a customs union has a common external-trade policy and an individual member country no longer has sovereign control over its external-trade policies.” All members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which includes nearly all of the former Soviet Union) have standing invitations to join the ECU, which is currently comprised of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
January 9:
Jailed activist Leonid Razvozzhayev was moved from his holding cell in central Russia to a remote prison in Siberia. His lawyer voiced concern at the sudden move, claiming he was only made aware of the transfer through media outlets, and that the Siberian pre-detention center “has an extremely bad reputation.” He suggested that Razvozzhayev may face pressure to implicate opposition figures as members in the alleged plot for which he was arrested, reports RIA-Novosti. Razvozzhayev echoed the concerns in a Live Journal post, claiming that the transfer was part of an effort to “force him to provide false testimony.” Razvozzhayev, along with activist Konstantin Lebedev and opposition leader Alexei Udaltsov, face up to ten years in jail if found guilty of plotting to destabilize Russia.
January 10:
The Yury Dolgoruky will join Russia’s naval exercises in the Mediterranean as the country’s newest nuclear submarine. Originally commissioned in 1995 and later postponed by the post-Soviet economic meltdown, the Associated Press reports that the Yury is the first of eight Borei-class ICBM nuclear submarines that will join the Russian navy as a part of the Kremlin’s $657 billion arms modernization program. The sub, named after a medieval prince who founded Moscow, is equipped with 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles.
January 11:
Former Defense Minister Antony Serdyukov refuses to cooperate with the corruption inquiry that led to his dismissal in November. Serdyukov appeared for the second time in court, refusing to answer questions over the alleged fraud, which cost the defense ministry nearly $132 million. Although Serdyukov previously provided written testimony for the case, Bloomberg reports, he refuses to give “further evidence,” prompting one official to suggest that “the former defense minister’s position could be interpreted as an effort to hinder the investigation...It’s perfectly feasible that Serdyukov’s status may change during the course of the inquiry.” The former defense minister is the most senior official to be dismissed on corruption charges.
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Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1814
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Russia