Russia Reform Monitor: No. 2083

July 12:

After months of acrimonious diplomatic relations, Moscow and Ankara are moving to mend political fences.According to the Turkish Weekly, in the wake of a recent summit between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Sochi, the Russian government is anticipating a political rapprochement - and closer coordination on Middle East conflicts. Normalization "will enable us to find more effective paths for solutions to crises in Syria," Lavrov has told reporters.

July 13:

In a further blow to press freedom in Russia, media group RBC has fired its top editors for reporting on issues that angered Russian officials. RBC was known as the last big media company in Russia still able and willing to write on sensitive issues without toeing the Kremlin line - that is, until government officials began putting serious pressure on Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire owner of the media group. According to Reuters, the sacked editors have been replaced by counterparts recruited from the state-owned TASS news agency, and have made a point of telling their new staff that there would be limits on what RBC could report.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is raising the alarm over Russia's updated "list of terrorists and extremists." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that the new list includes certain journalists, civil activists, and political prisoners who have criticized Moscow's annexation of Crimea. The move, observers say, is intended to have a chilling effect on press freedom in the Russian Federation - and to send a not-so-subtle signal to journalists to toe the preferred official editorial line. "Publishing this list could put the journalists at risk and jeopardize their safety," explains Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

July 14:

Just days after NATO's latest summit in Warsaw, Poland, saw a redoubled commitment from the Alliance to countering potential aggression in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, Moscow is moving to mend fences with the security bloc - however slightly. Reuters reports that Russia's envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, has informed NATO leaders that the Russian military is prepared to fly its jets "along certain trajectories" in the Baltics with their transponders on as a confidence-building measure designed to reassure countries in the vicinity. NATO leaders, for their part, have welcomed the decision, but have pointed out that Russia's current aerial activities represent part of a larger - and worrying - strategic picture of Kremlin brinksmanship.

July 15:

Moscow is moving to further militarize its newest territorial holding. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports a senior Russian military commander as saying that the Kremlin will soon deploy units of its advanced S-400 anti-missile system to Crimea. Pursuant to current plans, the system will be deployed on the Crimean peninsula, which is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, by this August.

Washington and Moscow are drawing closer on Syria, it seems. According to the New York Times, the U.S. and Russia have struck a tentative deal to coordinate their respective air campaigns against the Islamic State terrorist group and its rival, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.

Details of the arrangement, hammered out by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have not been publicly released, but the White House appears to have high hopes that it could be a game-changer for the Obama administration's ailing Syria strategy. According to Kerry, if implemented in good faith, the joint approach "has the opportunity to change the playing field significantly."