April 7:
One of Russia’s most influential ideologues has called for the Kremlin to invade southeastern Ukraine militarily. In an interview with the news website nakanune.ru, Alexandr Dugin – a “Eurasianist” philosopher whose ideas about the need for reconstituted Russian empire have become popular in Putin’s Russia – called for a military incursion into Ukraine in order to save “millions of Russians” from becoming “victims of genocide.” Russia is obliged to respond to the request by the regional council in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine for a temporary peacekeeping force, Dugin maintains, but requires reasonable grounds in order to do so – for example, an attempt by the new Ukrainian central government to “impose its will” on the country’s southeastern region.
Russia could soon have its own version of Disneyland, reports the Moscow Times. The Regions Group, one of Russia’s leading development firms, has announced plans to build a “Moscow version of Disneyland” in the country’s capital. The project will be under the DreamWorks Animation brand, and will be located in Moscow’s Nagatino neighborhood. Construction is slated to begin in late 2014 or early 2015, with completion projected for 2017 on what will be the first of three theme parks.
April 8:
Notwithstanding deepening tensions with the Kremlin over its recent moves in Ukraine, the Obama administration is moving forward with its arms control commitments to Russia. In a new press release, the Pentagon has unveiled a revamped U.S. strategic force posture that is designed “to comply with the New START Treaty (NST),” a bilateral arms control pact signed back in 2010. Under the terms of the Treaty, U.S. deployed and non-deployed strategic delivery vehicles must be capped at 800 – a goal that the Defense Department plans to achieve by February 5, 2018.
[EDITORS’ NOTE: The announcement has raised eyebrows in many quarters, particularly given the fact that arms control reductions were a centerpiece of the “reset” of relations with Moscow previously pursued by the White House – an approach that is widely seen as having been discredited by Russia’s recent military provocations, among other bilateral difficulties.]
April 9:
Beleaguered and concerned over further possible Russian provocations, the new Ukrainian government is banking on assistance from NATO member states. The Moscow Times reports that officials in Kyiv have stopped short of asking the Alliance for weapons, but are holding out hopes that NATO countries will pitch in to provide their military with non-lethal supplies, ranging from uniforms to aircraft fuel. The goal, according to Ukrainian Ambassador to NATO Ihor Dolhov, is “to secure daily functioning of the Ukrainian defense sector.”
Ukraine has halted energy deliveries from Russia in protest over the Kremlin’s price manipulation, Bloomberg reports. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has termed the decision by Russia’s state natural gas firm, Gazprom, to increase gas prices by 80 percent this month to be tantamount to “aggression against Ukraine.” Instead of Russian energy, officials in Kyiv are moving ahead with a plan to import fuel from Slovakia, and may in the future receive energy assistance from Poland and Hungary.
Following his criticism of the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine, a former Russian government official has found himself in the legal crosshairs. According to the Moscow Times, former deputy prime minister Alfred Kokh – one of the architects of economic privatization during the 1990s – has been targeted by an FSB investigation, which alleges the former minister was involved in “smuggling.”
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