Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1906

June 15:

The U.S. State Department has accused Russia of sending tanks and rocket launchers into Eastern Ukraine, threatening to further destabilize the fragile nation. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen have each said that the renewed Russian assistance - which Moscow denies providing - amounts to a "serious escalation" of the current crisis there. Independent Internet videos corroborate the Western claim, Qatar’s Peninsula newspaper has reported.

June 16:

Gas negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have ground to a halt, and so have supplies of natural gas. Russian state energy giant Gazprom has officially stopped its gas delivery to Ukraine as punishment for Kyiv's failure to pay $4.5 billion in accrued gas debt. Prospects for a deal between the two countries currently appear unlikely, and following Gazprom's announcement the two parties each filed lawsuits against the other at the International Council for Commercial Arbitration. The BBC reports that, if circumstances don't change, Ukraine only has enough energy reserves to last until December.

The city of Moscow has pledged $83 billion through 2020 to combating what one official calls an "unacceptable" traffic situation in Russia's capital. The Moscow Times reports that about a fifth of Muscovites spend more than three hours a day in transit, a figure City Hall hopes to improve upon. The large sum of money will go toward the construction of 80 miles of new subway lines, 250 miles of road reconstruction, and 150 miles of new railroad connections.

Eight former Kazan police officers have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 15 years for torturing suspects at a detention facility in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. The two-year torture investigation concluded that “the police officers became so brazen that they used violence as a means of receiving the desired testimony, not only in relation to suspects, but also to witnesses and even victims,” reports The Moscow Times.

June 17:

In an effort to staunch violence in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, local authorities are adding a new incentive for disarmament: cold hard cash. Russia expert Paul Goble notes in his Window on Eurasia blog that the regional government in Makhachkala has kicked off a gun buy-back program in an effort to take illegal weapons off the streets. The “price list” for illegal firearms includes a 25,000 ruble ($800) payment per sniper rifle turned in, and as much as 20,000 rubles ($600) per automatic weapon. But, Goble notes, these sums are hardly competitive. "These offers are absurdly low compared to what Daghestanis can get on the black market, and they are being paid in rubles rather than in harder currencies like the dollar." As a result, he predicts, "few Daghestanis will sell back their weapons especially since many of the republic’s residents view them as a mark of manhood, a means of defense or a fashion 'accessory.'"

Despite EU sanctions and strong fears of further Russian expansion, European countries continue to supply Russia with much-needed modern military equipment. The Washington Post reports that France, Italy, and Germany have each sold hi-tech military equipment to Russia in recent weeks, despite the ongoing crisis over Ukraine. The supplies have helped to facilitate Russia's military modernization efforts. They have also provided an economic boon to the European suppliers; France, for instance, has failed to halt export of two advanced helicopter carriers, the construction of which has contributed 1,000 jobs and $1.7 billion to France’s economic recovery.