February 23:
The fighting in Ukraine rages on despite the recently concluded ceasefire agreement in Minsk. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken has accused Russian-backed separatists of a "land grab" of the town of Debaltseve, Foreign Policy reports. As a result, Russia now faces the threat of increased pressure from the West in the form of new sanctions aimed at Russia's energy sector.
February 25:
Russia and Cyprus are expanding their strategic ties. Itar-TASS reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Cypriot counterpart, Ioannis Kasoulides, have met in Moscow and signed a new memorandum on naval cooperation, under which Cyprus "will allow Russian vessels taking part in the fight against terrorism and piracy to call at its ports." The move, TASS Reports, is part of a broader "action program" now being implemented between the two countries. Other components include boosting bilateral trade, new "scientific and technical cooperation" in the financial and educational spheres, and Russian loans to Cyprus to help weather what Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed "the aftermath of the debt crisis."
Moscow is doubling down on its Arctic footprint. Sputnik cites Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying that Russia's national security necessitates the possibility of protecting its vital interests in the Arctic through "military means." "Some developed countries that do not have direct access to the Arctic Circle are taking certain political and military steps to gain such access," Shoigu told a recent meeting of senior military commanders in Moscow - a trend that, the defense minister noted, requires a forceful response from the Kremlin.
February 26:
Russia is trying another tool of leverage in its campaign of pressure on Ukraine. According to Sputnik, Russian state natural gas giant Gazprom has announced that it is prepared to discuss the provision of gas directly to the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, skirting prior energy supply arrangements with Kyiv. "We are ready to treat our supplies to Donbas separately and deliver the volume of gas indicated by [Ukrainian state gas company] Naftohaz to the pre-agreed entry points," a spokesman for Gazprom has confirmed.
February 27:
Russia has been rocked by the murder of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov just steps from the Kremlin,the New York Times reports. Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister in the government of president Boris Yeltsin during the 1990s, had moved into the political opposition in the early 2000s, and had become more active over the past year in opposition to the Russian government's policies in Ukraine.
Although the Kremlin has formally condemned Nemtsov's killing, opposition activists see the Kremlin's hand behind the murder. "They have started to kill 'enemies of the people,'" former parliamentarian Gennady Gudkov announced on social media. "Mr. Nemtsov is dead. Who is next?"
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