August 31:
NATO is mobilizing in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. Citing Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, RIA Novosti reports that the Atlantic Alliance has made plans to erect five new military bases in Eastern Europe in a move aimed at shoring up European security in the face of Russian expansionism. Once created, the bases will be capable of housing some 4,000 troops, the news agency reports.
September 1:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has insisted that his government has no plans to invade Ukraine. "There will be no military intervention," The Moscow Times reports Lavrov telling students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "We call for an exclusively peaceful settlement of this severe crisis, this tragedy."
September 2:
The BBC reports that the Kremlin is lashing out at NATO for its plans to expand into Eastern Europe. "Nato's planned action... is evidence of the desire of US and Nato leaders to continue their policy of aggravating tensions with Russia," Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of Russia's National Security Council, has charged. "[T]he military infrastructure of Nato member states [is] getting closer to [Russian] borders, including via enlargement." In response, Russia plans "to alter military strategy toward Europe," Popov said - although no details have as yet been forthcoming what that doctrinal change might entail.
Russia's economy may be under escalating Western sanctions, but that isn't stopping one of the country's leading energy conglomerates from forging ahead with its development plans. Energy industry newsletter World Oil reports that Russia's Rosneft and ExxonMobil are moving forward with joint seismic exploration of two separate regions of the Laptev Sea.
September 3:
The Kremlin is mobilizing to limit the resonance of the Islamic State within its borders. Itar-TASS reports that the General Prosecutor's Office has ordered the country's communications watchdog, ROSKOMNADZOR, to block the access of Russian citizens to websites carrying a recent video posted by the Islamic State in which the terrorist group singled out Russia as a target. Additionally, according to spokeswoman Marina Gridleva, the Prosecutor's Office has sent the materials "to the Investigation Department of the Federal Security Service for the opening of a criminal case" against the movement and its supporters.
Could Russia's warming ties to the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo soon expand to include the delivery of sophisticated air defense technology? Citing Russian news reports, Israeli defense newsletter IsraelDefense notes that Russia might make batteries of its S-300 air defense system an export commodity to Egypt in the near future as part of the growing defense and military contacts between the two countries. Such a development, in turn, would have strategic implications for Israel. "If this battery will be stationed in the Suez Canal... its radar will cover half of the territory of Israel – the southern half," the newsletter points out. "If it is placed further north, in the area of Port Said, "it will cover almost the entire State of Israel."
Amid ongoing tensions with the United States and Europe over Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been working overtime to strengthen his government's international bonds to countries in Asia. Putin's latest target, Al-Jazeera reports, is neighboring Mongolia. According to the Qatari news channel, Russia's president has paid a brief visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar in an overture designed to expand economic and agricultural ties. Putin's visit included a pledge to expand bilateral trade from its current level of $1.6 billion annually to $10 billion a year by the end of the decade.
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