October 1:
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity is soaring - in China. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia’s recent foreign policy moves - and Putin’s willingness to confront the West over Ukraine - has made the Kremlin leader increasingly popular in the PRC, with at least one biography of the man many Chinese are calling “Putin the Great” now gracing the country’s bestseller list. Recent polling by Pew confirms this spike in popularity; according to the research center, Chinese perceptions of Russia have improved markedly since the start of the Ukraine crisis earlier this year, with popular support rising from 47 percent in July of 2013 to 66 percent this summer.
October 2:
Russia is poised to expand punishment of visa violators within its borders. The Moscow Times reports that Russian lawmakers are proposing new legislation to increase the penalties for expired visa holders currently residing in Russia. "We need to take a close look at this initiative because we need to support the establishment of certain legal consequences for those foreign citizens and individuals without citizenship who violate the legislation while they are on our territory, and distinguish the rules of liability, including by banning [those individuals] from entering," Dmitry Vyatkin, the deputy chairman of the State Duma's Constitutional Law Committee, has told the RIA Novosti news agency. If approved, the legislation would ban any individual who overstays his or her visa by a year or more from entering Russia for a full decade.
Worries over potential Russian aggression have prompted at least one Baltic state to expand its military expenditures. Defense News reports that, in the wake of the annexation of Crimea and the subsequent conflict in Ukraine, Lithuania has decided to institute a 32 percent hike in its military spending next year. “We need more funds for additional security measures and to meet international commitments to NATO,” Lithuania’s Defense Minister, Juozas Olekas, has confirmed. The money, according to Olekas, will be used to acquire new anti-aircraft and anti-tank capabilities, as well as to institute upgrades to joint force trainings with other NATO allies.
[EDITORS’ NOTE: The move is significant, insofar as it reflects growing unease among countries on Russia’s periphery regarding Russia’s long-term imperial intentions. By itself, however, Lithuania’s spending hike is unlikely to solve much. Even after the planned expansion, Lithuania will spend just 1.11 percent of its GDP on military and defense-related matters - far below the 2 percent of GDP that represents the Alliance’s “minimum military spending target” for member states.]
October 3:
Beleaguered Ukraine is getting a helping hand from the north. Reuters reports that Norway’s Statoil energy firm has signed an agreement to sell natural gas to Ukraine’s Naftogaz. Although Statoil officials characterize the deal as “short-term and relatively low-volume,” it represents a major boon for Ukraine - providing the former Soviet republic with an alternative source of energy in the face of a potential natural gas cut-off from Russia during the coming harsh winter months.
October 4:
Russia’s deteriorating relations with the United States have just claimed another casualty: student foreign exchanges. According to the New York Times, the Kremlin has pulled out of a longstanding bilateral agreement with the U.S. known as the Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX, under which Russian high school-age teens could spend an academic year in America. The move follows an asylum request by a homosexual Russian teen on grounds that he faced “discrimination” in his homeland because of his sexual preferences. The teen had previously befriended a homosexual couple while visiting the U.S. Officials in Moscow have accused the U.S. of “endangering the welfare of a child,” a charge that American policymakers dismiss as merely a pretext.
Officials in Washington are pointing the finger at Russia for a massive July cyberattack on financial firm JPMorgan Chase, which compromised the vital info of over 83 million people. The intrusion, which U.S. officials have termed among the largest ever on record, could have been carried out “in retaliation for the sanctions” placed on Russia by the U.S. and Europe over Ukraine, the Washington Times reports. However, American experts also suggest that ulterior motives might also be at play; “to steal if they can, or to sell whatever information they could glean.” Whatever the cause, the attack “scared the pants off many people” because of its scope and sophistication, in the words of one analyst.
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