April 13:
Amid ongoing conflict in Ukraine, European nations are increasing their defense spending. The Moscow Times, citing statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), reports that military spending in Eastern Europe has "surged." The trend - which follows a pledge made at the September 2014 Wales Summit for all NATO member states to increase defense expenditures to two percent of GDP annually - is most pronounced among the countries located near Russia and most fearful of Russian aggression. "Poland is set to increase defense expenditure to 38 billion zloty ($9.9 billion), or about 2.1 percent of projected 2015 GDP," the paper notes, while Estonia "is raising its military budget by 7.3 percent to $436 million in 2015" and Latvia is doing so by 14.9 percent, to $269 million. The biggest surge, however, can be seen in the Baltic nation of Lithuania, which is hiking its defense spending by 50 percent, to $450 million.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite these increases, European security remains chronically underfunded. For example, even with the budgetary hikes noted by SIPRI, the Baltic states are still spending just over one percent of GDP on their militaries - far below the target set by the Wales Summit.]
April 14:
The conflict in Ukraine has generated no shortage of conspiracy theories, but the Secretary of Russia's powerful National Security Council can now be credited with advancing one of the most bizarre. In public comments carried in Vedomosti, Nikolai Patrushev has charged that the West intends to transform Ukraine into an agrarian plantation for the development of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). "It is increasingly apparent that Western nations do not intend to restore Ukraine's economy," Patrushev told a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Moscow. Rather, "they intend to make Ukraine an agrarian nation" that generates GMOs, something that European nations "don't approve" of using their own territory to develop.
April 15:
On the heels of new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' recent visit to Moscow, ties between Greece and Russia are warming still further. Reuters reports that Greece - despite ongoing, and severe, financial woes - has expressed an interest in purchasing additional missiles for its existing S-300 systems. Athens has been in possession of the Russian anti-aircraft units since the late 1990s, and is now seeking "replacement" of its missiles, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has confirmed.
April 16:
Russia's rich are among the biggest losers of the Kremlin's ongoing conflict with the West. The Moscow Times, citing Forbes, reports that the number of billionaires in Russia has dropped from 111 to 88 over the past year as a result of economic malaise and stagnation. Among those hardest hit by Russia's financial woes have been Putin confidantes Boris Rotenberg and Yury Kovalchuk, both of whom have been sanctioned by both the United States and the European Union. Rotenberg's net worth has dropped from nearly $2 billion to $950 million as a result of Western pressure, while Kovalchuk's declined from $1.4 billion to $650 million.
April 17:
Russia's opposition political parties are seeking strength in numbers. Echo Moskvy reports that the "Progress Party" of well-known blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny is planning to run together with the RPR-PARNAS party of recently-murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in the country's next parliamentary elections, slated to get underway later this year.
"At this difficult time, we want to encourage public and civil forces, all who care about their own future and that of their children, to consolidate a common platform [based on the] rejection of lies, corruption, aggression, the suppression of economic and civil freedoms and [built on] aspirations to build in our country is a democratic state," a joint statement from the two parties has said.
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