October 29:
Reuters reports that Russian security services have raided the Ukrainian library in Moscow and arrested its director, Natalya Sharina. The police action was taken pursuant to a criminal case opened against Sharina by Russia's Investigative Committee, for potentially "denigrating human dignity" through the spread of "extremist" literature such as the writings of Ukrainian nationalists.
Ukraine's government is crying foul over the incident. The raid marks "a new round of repression against people linked to the Ukrainian language and culture," the country's Culture Ministry said in a formal statement. "For Russia's current political regime, any expression of Ukrainian identity has become a sign of 'Russophobia.' Therefore the Ukrainian language and culture and those who embody it are effectively banned in Russia."
Russia's Justice Ministry is seeking to its control over non-governmental organizations active in the country.According to The Moscow Times, the Ministry has proposed further amendments to Russia's notorious "foreign agents" law that would require all NGOs so classified "to supply the Justice Ministry with thorough accounts of their projects or events" or face closure. Such accounts should include explanations of "programs and other documents that serve as grounds for holding events that are financed through [or] conducted with the involvement of foreign sources, and a comprehensive report about their use," the Ministry has elaborated.
Russia is eyeing an expansion of its military infrastructure in Syria, Middle East Newsline reports. According to Alexander Yushchenko, A Duma Deputy from the Communist Party of Russia who recently returned from a parliamentary delegation to the war-torn state, plans are now underway "to expand the port of Tartous, airports in Latakia, Damascus and Aleppo, as well as the railway line" connecting them. The infrastructure projects, Yushchenko said, "are meant to increase the economic potential of Syria."
October 30:
In a further throwback to the Soviet-era practice of mobilizing and indoctrinating young citizens, the Kremlin is creating a new national youth organization. Radio Free Europe reports that a new decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin has mandated that the country's Federal Agency of Youth Affairs establish a new organization - formally called the All-Russian Social-State Child-Youth Organization Russian Movement of Students - for the "betterment of state policies in the realm of the upbringing of the rising generation." The decree, issued on October 29th, is rife with symbolism, as it marks the anniversary of the 1918 creation of the KOMSOMOL youth league by the Communist Party as a way of engaging the Soviet Union's young citizens.
Russia's ongoing work on sophisticated cruise missile capabilities represents a continuing violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, America's top military commander in Europe has contended. TheWashington Free Beacon reports Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, telling reporters that a September 2nd test by Russia of its new SSC-X-8 ground-launched cruise missile "looks like" a violation of the 1987 agreement between Moscow and Washington, albeit one that is "not new" but rather a repeated infraction.
November 1:
Ongoing tensions with the West over Ukraine have precipitated a major reorientation of the country's arms sales. Russia is looking more and more at the Middle East as a growth area for defense sales as part of its overall strategy, Defense News cites Anatoly Isaikin, the head of the ROSOBORONEXPORT state arms manufacturer, as telling reporters in Moscow. As part of that effort, according to Isaikin, the Arab world now accounts for nearly 40% of total Russian arms exports, and negotiations are underway for new arms contracts with Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Russia's arms "pivot" to the Middle East is comparatively recent. While Russia's contemporary contacts - and contracts - with countries such as Egypt and Algeria go back several years, this focus has intensified significantly as a result of mounting tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's Ukraine policy in the past year. Until just this year, the Middle East and North Africa represented a comparative arms backwater for the Kremlin, accounting for just 10 percent of its exports between 2010 and 2014, according to data from the prestigious Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).]
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