October 3:
Russia’s entry into the Syrian civil war has created enormous friction between Moscow and Ankara, with Turkey announcing recently that it was indefinitely suspending discussions of the “Turkish Stream” natural gas pipeline as a sign of its displeasure. Officially, however, the Kremlin is still striking a hopeful note on the project, despite these developments. According to Sputnik News, Russian officials are expecting that the two countries will sign an agreement on the pipeline early next year. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has told journalists that he expects the intergovernmental agreement to be signed following the formation of the new Turkish government after snap elections there later this Fall.
October 4:
The results of Kyrgyzstan’s recent elections have strengthened Moscow’s hand in Bishkek. The Moscow Times reports that Kyrgyzstan’s pro-Russian Social Democratic Party - which is closely tied to the country’s President, Almazbek Atambayev - has won a plurality in the national legislature, allowing it to set the country’s political agenda. Like Atambayev himself, the party advocates a policy of closer ties to Moscow as a response to rising Islamist violence and ethnic tensions.
October 5:
Russia’s military campaign in Syria is increasingly making it the target of Islamist insurgents, London’s Guardian newspaper reports. Some 41 Syrian rebel groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and the Levant Front, have vowed to attack Russian forces in retaliation for Moscow’s air campaign in Syria, according to the paper.
“The Russian military aggression on Syria is considered a blatant occupation of the country even if some claim it was done with the official request of the Assad regime. Those who lost legitimacy can’t offer it,” the groups announced in an online manifesto. “All Syrian armed revolutionary factions must realize we are in a war to push an aggressor, a war that makes unifying ranks and word a duty on all brothers. Any occupation force to our beloved country is a legitimate target.”
October 6:
The northern district of Parnas in St. Petersburg shares its name with the liberal RPR-Parnas Party, led until recently by prominent Kremlin critic and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. In the wake of Nemtsov’s assassination earlier this year, however, Radio Free Europe reports that Kremlin loyalists are attempting to engineer a regional name change as a means of reducing the party’s clout. Ahead of next year’s local elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies in the United Russia party are suggesting formally changing the name of the district, calling the name Parnas “unpleasing to the ear” and associated with “some party that doesn't win elections.”
October 7:
Worries over unintentional military clashes on its northern border has led Israel to launch “deconfliction” talks with Russia, Defense News reports. With Moscow now waging an aerial campaign in Syria, and with Israel itself carrying out sporadic air strikes there in response to threats to its territory, Israeli officials are eager to create a “joint mechanism for preventing misunderstandings” and incidents between the armed forces of the two countries. The first round of those negotiations has now been concluded, and while talks are still ongoing Israeli officials expect they will yield a mechanism “defining areas where one operates and making sure the other side won't interfere or harm you.”
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