October 29:
Western sanctions on Russia will have a significant effect on the Russian Federation's economic fortunes in the near future, but only a minor one on those of European nations. The Wall Street Journal reports that, based on this analysis, the EU has decided to maintain its current level of sanctions on Moscow at a recent ambassador-level meeting. European projections posit that Russia will take a 0.6 percent cut in growth this year, and a further decline of as much as 1.1 percent in 2015.
But the long-term consensus in Europe regarding sanctions against Russia is far from cohesive, the paper points out. Specifically, several member states - namely Hungary, Slovakia and Cyprus - have expressed misgivings that the current sanctions could be detrimental to their own economies at home. As a result, these governments could modify their positions in the future.
October 30:
At long last, Russia and Ukraine have come to terms over the supply of natural gas. The BBC reports that, after weeks of acrimonious back-and-forth over debts that Moscow believes is owed to it for past energy supplies, the Russian government has agreed to resume gas deliveries to its former republic. The agreement, brokered by the European Union, averts a crisis in Ukraine in the coming winter months. According to officials in Brussels, it also marks a step forward for European energy security writ large, stabilizing a key element of Europe's energy architecture, at least for the near term.
November 1:
Moscow, it seems, is monkeying with the nation's textbooks. The New York Times reports that in recent months, hundred of long-standing textbooks used by Russian schools for years have been deemed "unsuitable" for a variety of administrative and technical reasons. As of this Fall, more than one half of the textbooks previously in use by Russia's schoolchildren were barred by Russia's Ministry of Education. But, the paper notes, not all of Russia's publishers have been hit equally hard. "A publishing house whose newly appointed chairman was a member of President Vladimir V. Putin's inner circle, Arkady R. Rosenberg... survived the education ministry's culling almost untouched."
November 3:
Could the Kremlin hold the key to a nuclear deal with Iran? The New York Times reports that a new arrangement involving Russia could break the deadlock in the stalled nuclear talks between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 powers. "Under the proposed agreement, the Russians would convert the uranium into specialized fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's only commercial reactor," the paper outlines. "Once the uranium is converted into fuel rods, it is extremely difficult to use them to make a nuclear weapon." The development is significant, insofar as it "could go a long way toward alleviating Western concerns about Iran’s stockpile" of highly enriched uranium.
November 4:
Russia could be readying for an attack on Ukraine's east, NATO officials have warned. Germany's Deutche Welle cites NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as saying that the Alliance has observed troop movement by Russian military forces in the direction of Ukraine.
Nuclear cooperation appears to be the latest casualty of deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. According to the Associated Press, Russia failed to attend a planning meeting for the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Vienna. The move, seen as a symptom of frayed relations between Moscow and Washington, marks a major blow to one of President Obama's signature foreign policy initiatives.
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