July 13:
The collateral damage from Russia's war with Ukraine continues to accumulate. The latest victim, according to prominent Russian military analyst Alexander Goltz, is the long-standing Kremlin priority of military reform.Writing in Ezhednevnii Zhurnal, Goltz notes that instances of desertion in the Russian armed forces underscore growing discontent among soldiers with their orders. As casualties continue to mount for Russia on the Ukrainian front, "soldiers [are] again relegated to the status of slaves" who are being forced to fight in a foreign conflict against their will. This state of affairs is deeply demoralizing. "An army finds its strength in the faith placed in its commanders," Goltz notes. "But our soldiers know concretely that their commanders are lying to them" about the crisis in Ukraine today. These lies may "relieve" the responsibility of officers for the lives of their subordinates, but they also throttle the "military discipline and readiness" necessary in order to have soldiers "fulfill the orders."
July 14:
Plans to posthumously honor Boris Nemtsov have been quashed by the Moscow city council. The Moscow Times reports that the City Duma has rejected a proposal to establish a memorial for the opposition leader at the place near the Kremlin where he was gunned down earlier this year. The plan, put forward by several reform advocates, including Alexei Navalny and Mikhail Kasyanov, was turned down on the grounds that "there is no tradition in Moscow of commemorating murders."
Moscow is wasting no time trying to capitalize on the new nuclear deal between Iran and the West. IRNA reports that just hours after the agreement was struck between Iran and the P5+1 powers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said publicly that the deal should prompt the United States to reconsider its plans for missile defenses in Europe. "In his speech in Prague on April 5, 2009, US President Barack Obama stated that after the settlement of the situation surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the task of developing the European missile defense segment will lose relevance," Lavrov noted in comments carried by Russian state media. "We hope that our American colleagues remember this and will make the appropriate adjustments to their plans."
July 15:
London's Guardian newspaper reports that, in a wide-ranging interview with Russian daily Kommersant, former Russian spy chief Nicolai Patrushev, now head of Russia's powerful National Security Council and one of President Vladimir Putin's most trusted advisers, gave a glimpse into his thinking on world affairs and the U.S.-Russia relationship. Patrushev indicated that Russia would like to cooperate with the United States in fighting the Islamic State terrorist group, but noted continued points of contention between the two countries in the Middle East, such as U.S. opposition to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Any potential for tactical cooperation, however, is overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis. In the interview, Patrushev claimed that the U.S. helped to organize and fund the "Euromaidan" protests in the Fall of 2013 and the resulting overthrow of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych early in 2014. Other parts of the interview, meanwhile, bordered on the bizarre, with Patrushev claiming that the United States sees Russia's possession of resource wealth as illegitimate and seeks for the country to not exist at all.
July 16:
Russia is planning on shipping 200,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Syria from the Crimean port of Kerch, reports Reuters. The shipments would provide the beleaguered regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, a longtime Russian ally, with a much needed supply of fuel. The gas shipments will be structured in such a way as to avoid Western sanctions related to Russia's seizure of Crimea, and sent from the Russian territory to the Assad regime.
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