I. U.S. and Russian priorities for the bilateral agenda

Nuclear security and safety:

• The International Atomic Energy Agency will open a low-enriched uranium bank Aug. 29 in Kazakhstan, intended to forestall developing nations from building their own uranium enrichment factories by serving as a lender of last resort if the uranium market fails to supply reactor fuel. Representatives from 46 countries will gather in Astana Aug. 25-29 for the 62nd Pugwash Conference, “Confronting New Nuclear Dangers.” (BuzzFeed, 08.23.17, Latin American Herald Tribune, 08.25.17)
• All basic conditions are in place to begin remediation work at several uranium legacy sites in Kyrgyzstan following the country’s ratification of a framework agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The EU is to provide an initial contribution of €16.5 million ($19.4 million) for the work. (World Nuclear News, 08.18.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• Iran can resume production of highly enriched uranium within five days if the 2015 nuclear deal is revoked. (Reuters, 08.22.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Minsk invited seven states and a number of international organizations, including NATO, to monitor the Zapad 2017 Belarusian-Russian joint military drills. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance will send two experts to attend the wargame. Belarus invited the alliance to attend five distinguished visitor days during the war games. Russia has invited NATO to one such visitors’ day but the alliance is still studying the offer. Stoltenberg said attending visitors’ days does not constitute real monitoring and that NATO is seeking “a more thorough way of observing” Zapad. (AP, 08.24.17, TASS, 08.22.17)
• U.S. officials say the State Department has approved the sale of mobile-artillery-rocket systems and related equipment valued at $1.25 billion to Romania. (RFE/RL, 08.18.17)
• Poland’s Defense Ministry is starting a new program to boost the nation’s defenses by offering military training to university student volunteers. (AP, 08.22.17)

Missile defense:

• Russia is seriously concerned that Japan may deploy the U.S. Aegis Ashore missile-defense system on its soil to counter North Korea's missile threats, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 24 that Japanese plans to deploy U.S. missile defense systems were disproportionate to the missile threat in the region and also called on Pyongyang to exercise restraint in the face of new U.S.-South Korean military exercise, saying the war games did not help de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. (Reuters, 08.23.17, Reuters, 08.25.17)

Arms control:

• Russian specialists conducted two inspections of Swedish territory under the Open Skies Treaty, while specialists from Sweden, Germany and Ukraine sent a joint mission to inspect Russian territory under the same treaty. The U.S. conducted an inspection under the New START Treaty Aug. 12-18, according to the official infographics issued by the Russian Defense Ministry. (TASS, 08.18.17)
• In an open letter to the U.N., SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google’s Mustafa Suleiman and 114 other robotics specialists from 26 countries called for a ban on autonomous weapons, warning that a killer robot arms race could open a Pandora’s box that could devastate humankind. (Newsweek, 08.21.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• A knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage Aug. 19 in a Siberian city, wounding seven people before police shot and killed him. The Islamic State’s Aamaq news agency claimed the attacker was “an Islamic State soldier.” An IS-affiliated media outlet then published a video reportedly featuring the man sitting next to an axe and an IS flag and wearing a balaclava. He speaks in heavily accented Russian and Arabic to describe the benefits of using “primitive weapons.” (The Moscow Times, 08.22.17, AP, 08.19.17)
• A new report by the University of Maryland found that Western Europe and North America accounted for less than 1% of the 34,676 people killed in terror attacks in 2016 and for less than 2% of all attacks. The report said ISIS remains the deadliest group. Islamic State operatives carried out more than 1,400 attacks last year and killed more than 7,000 people, a roughly 20% increase over 2015. (RFE/RL, 08.24.17, Reuters, 08.21.17)
• While international attention has been focused on ISIS’ territorial losses to the U.S.-backed international coalition, ISIS has been waging another, silent campaign: to make as much money as it can, as fast as it can, and get that money out of its collapsing, self-proclaimed caliphate. (Financial Times, 08.24.17)

Conflict in Syria:

• U.S. and Russian military officials have been regularly communicating on Syria. Some contacts are helping draw a line separating U.S. - and Russian-backed forces waging parallel campaigns on Syria's shrinking battlefields. U.S. officials said that there now are about 10 to 12 calls a day on the hotline linking the former Cold War foes' Syria air operations centers, helping keep U.S. and Russian warplanes apart as they support different fighters on the ground. "The Russians have been nothing but professional, cordial and disciplined," Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said. (Reuters, 08.23.17)
• Russia on Aug. 21 hailed "a dramatic shift" in the Syria conflict, saying the Syrian army, with Moscow's help, was well on its way to pushing militants out of central Syria. Russian Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said the province of Aleppo had been entirely "liberated" with control of 50 population centers and more than 2,700 square kilometers (1042.48 square miles) of territory taken back. (Reuters, 08.21.17)
• Russian General Staff’s Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Aug. 21 that Syrian troops were advancing from three directions to encircle Deir el-Zour and break the militant siege there, the largest city in which they still have a major presence. The Syrian government now controls around half the city and a nearby air base. Russia has boosted its air campaign in Syria to help Syrian government forces drive Islamic State militants from Deir el-Zour. (AP, 08.21.17, RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• Islamic State militants pushed back Syrian government forces advancing on one of the last towns still in IS hands in the province of Raqqa, killing over two dozen soldiers and seizing vehicles. (AP, 08.25.17)
• This month alone, Russian Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Russian warplanes had flown 990 missions, destroying 40 armored vehicles, more than 100 trucks and killing about 800 militants. Those casualties include over 200 militants killed in a recent raid on an IS convoy heading toward Deir el-Zour. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• Thirty-two men from Russia’s private military company Wagner were killed in action in Syria in 2016 and another 50-60 were killed in the first half of 2017, according to an Aug. 21 report by Russia’s Fontanka news portal, which claims to have acquired Wagner’s internal company documents. According to Fontanka, Wagner owners and the Russian Defense Ministry stopped coordinating combat operations in Syria in 2017 and the Defense Ministry’s helicopters no longer airlift Wagner’s wounded fighters. The Assad government took over supplying and financing Wagner’s operations in Syria in 2017. As a result, newly-arrived operators were offered to arm themselves with North-Korean made assault rifles and machine guns made in the 1940s. (Russia Matters, 08.21.17)
• Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, has thanked Syrian troops for their success in the fight against international terrorist groups during a visit to Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Syria. (Interfax, 08.22.17)
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Aug. 20 his country had foiled Western designs to topple him, but his army had not yet won the fight to end Syria's six-year-old insurgency. He said the assistance extended by stalwart allies Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement had enabled the army to make battlefield gains and reduce the burden of war. (Reuters, 08.20.17)
• "Mr. President, with joint efforts we are defeating Islamic State, and this is a very important thing. But the bad thing is that where the defeated Islamic State group vanishes, Iran is stepping in," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Aug. 23. (Reuters, 08.23.17)
• Russian, Turkish and Iranian experts are planning consultations on a de-escalation area in Syria's Idlib in the coming days, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. (Interfax, 08.22.17)
• Russia is cooperating with Saudi Arabia to form a single Syrian opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry. (TASS, 08.21.17)
• Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Hadi has said his country would like to participate in the Astana and Geneva talks on Syria. (Interfax, 08.22.17)
• Russia has tested over 600 new weapons and military equipment items on the battlefields of Syria, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. (Newsweek, 08.24.17)
• The international meeting in Astana on the settlement in Syria may take place in mid-September, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said. (TASS, 08.22.17)
• Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country's chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. (Reuters, 08.21.17)

Cyber security:

• U.S. President Donald Trump would be required to notify U.S. lawmakers before creating a joint U.S.-Russia cyber security unit—an idea that has drawn criticism across the political spectrum—under legislation advancing in Congress. (Reuters, 08.23.17)
• U.S. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 18 he was elevating the status of the Pentagon's U.S. Cyber Command to help spur development of cyber weapons to deter attacks and punish intruders. Trump said the unit would be ranked at the level of Unified Combatant Command focused on cyberspace operations. (Reuters, 08.18.17)
• Canadian Karim Baratov pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped Russian agents in a high-profile cyberattack on Yahoo email accounts. (Reuters, 08.23.17)
• Former NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis said that the idea of a joint U.S.-Russian cyber security unit is not as ridiculous as it sounds, as long as the U.S. side isn’t gullible enough to believe everything the Russians say. “I don’t think it’s absurd, but if you expect the Russians are going to deal with that transparently, and then we’ll get answers that you can take at face value, I think that’s naive,” Inglis said. (CyberScoop, 08.23.17)
• From 2010 to the start of 2017 an average of two Russian cyber criminals were extradited to the United States each year. With a record high of seven Russians arrested or indicted on U.S. cyber crime charges this year, it appears that although U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to improve relations with Moscow, the United States has not shied away from pursuing Russians suspected of cyber crime. (Reuters, 08.25.17)

Elections interference:

• U.S. President Donald Trump privately vented his frustration over Russia-related matters with at least two other Republican senators this month,in addition to the president's public admonishments of Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Jeff Flake. (Politico, 08.23.17)
• For his probe into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia, special counsel Robert Mueller is taking a page from the playbook federal prosecutors use in criminal investigations: Follow the money. Start small and work up. See who will “flip” and testify against higher-ups by pursuing charges such as tax evasion, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. (Bloomberg, 08.23.17)
• CIA Director Mike Pompeo has issued a directive to the Counterintelligence Mission Center—an agency closely tied to the ongoing probe of possible ties between President Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election—requiring that the agency report directly to him. (The Hill, 08.25.17)
• Former CIA Director John Brennan complained late last year in an internal memo revealed Aug. 24 that some lawmakers he had briefed on his agency's assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election did not "appreciate the importance and gravity" of the matter. (The Hill, 08.24.17)

Energy exports:

• Russia held its spot as China's top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54% over a year earlier. (Reuters, 08.23.17)
• Lithuania has taken delivery of its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, a move the Baltic state hopes will further reduce its reliance on Russia. Poland last month became the first Eastern European country to receive U.S. LNG.  Shipments of U.S. LNG cost $6.29 per million British thermal units, according to S&P Global Platts data based on an average of cargo coming into Europe in the past year. Over the same period, Russian gas delivered into Germany cost an average of $4.86 per million British thermal units. (AP, 08.21.1, Wall Street Journal, 08.19.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Car rental company Hertz is exiting the Russian market, more than twenty years after it first came to the country. (The Moscow Times, 08.24.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• Russia and the United States aren't in a new Cold War despite spiraling tensions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Aug. 23. Ryabkov denounced U.S. sanctions against Russia, but emphasized that the current tension "isn't equivalent to confrontation that may spill into open conflict." He added, however, that Russia and the U.S. need to refresh their agreements on preventing incidents at sea and in the air. (AP, 08.23.17)
• Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that about 400 Russian entities and some 200 Russian citizens have been targeted by the U.S. sanctions. He reaffirmed Moscow's denial of interference in the U.S. election, dismissing the accusations as "collective madness." (AP, 08.23.17)
• The U.S. tightened its financial restrictions on North Korea, slapping sanctions on Chinese and Russian entities it accused of assisting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Aug. 22 it was preparing countermeasures in the wake of this decision. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is warning against expanding sanctions against North Korea, saying it’s necessary to focus on a political settlement. Ryabkov said that “the scope of sanctions already endorsed by the U.N. Security Council is such that any possibilities of expanding such measures have been exhausted.” (AP, 08.23.17, The Moscow Times, 08.23.17, AP, 08.23.17, AP, 08.23.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russia will not respond with reciprocal measures after the U.S. Embassy announced on Aug. 21 it would temporarily stop processing non-immigrant visa applications starting Aug. 23. Operations in Moscow would resume in September, but at other U.S. consulates would “remain suspended indefinitely.” (The Moscow Times, 08.21.17)
• The outgoing American ambassador to Russia says the U.S. move to suspend all nonimmigrant visa operations at U.S. missions across Russia is a result of forced staff cuts and “not about being vindictive.” “This is simply because we've been told by the [Russian] Foreign Ministry that we have to cut down our staff to 455,” Ambassador John Tefft said. (RFE/RL, 08.23.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 21 appointed Russia’s former Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov to be the country’s next ambassador to the United States. (The Moscow Times, 08.21.17)
• Former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak denied he was a Kremlin spy, calling the reported allegation "nonsense. “Nonsense, nonsense," he told CNN's Matthew Chance on the streets of Moscow. "You should be ashamed because CNN is the company that keeps pointing to this allegation. It's nonsense." (Code and Dagger, 08.23.17)
• In the U.S., the top 10% earns about 47% of the total income, or about 4.7 times the average, pre-tax income. In Russia, the income share of the top 10% is about 45% of the total, earning about 4.5 times the average income. (Huffington Post, 08.17.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• The cost of insuring Russian debt against default for five years using credit-default swaps dropped to 146.5 basis points on Aug. 24, a level not seen since well before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. That’s cheaper than most periphery countries in the euro area, including Italy and Portugal. (Bloomberg, 08.24.17)
• The wealth held offshore by wealthy Russians was equivalent to 75% of the country’s national income by 2015, a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research claims. (The Moscow Times, 08.23.17)
• The grain harvest in Russia will total at least 130.7 million metric tons this year on bumper wheat and corn crops. That would push production 2.6% above the previous all-time high in 1978. (Bloomberg, 08.21.17)
• Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft is due 136 billion rubles ($2.3 billion) in compensation from private conglomerate Sistema, a court ordered on Aug. 23, after ruling Sistema had stripped assets from an oil producer now controlled by Rosneft. (Financial Times, 08.23.17)
• Sberbank, Russia’s state-owned banking giant, continued to smash records by posting net profit of 185.6 billion rubles for the second quarter of 2017. The gains were an increase of 11.4% on Sberbank’s previous record, set in the previous quarter, and a 27.6% increase year-on-year. (Financial Times, 08.23.17)
• With more than 900,000 people in Russia on the official register of HIV infections, the government has budgeted only 17.5 billion rubles ($297 million) for treatment. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• A bus carrying construction workers drove off a pier in southern Russia Aug. 25, killing at least 16 people,. (AP, 08.25.17)
• A rights activist who was attacked while guarding a makeshift memorial to assassinated Russian politician Boris Nemtsov has died in the hospital. (RFE/RL, 08.25.17)
• A Moscow court put revered theater director Kirill Serebrennikov under house arrest Aug. 23 on charges of embezzling $1.1 million, the latest step in a case widely seen as part of a crackdown on freedom of expression in Russia. (AP, 08.23.17)
• Former top Russian central bank official Sergei Aleksashenko known for his criticism of Kremlin policies says he is not in Russia and is not under arrest, addressing media reports that he was detained at a Moscow airport for allegedly failing to make a customs declaration about Soviet-era medals. (RFE/RL, 08.23.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• The Russian Defense Ministry’s 12th Main Directorate maintains 12 national-level nuclear weapon storage facilities and an estimated 35 base-level facilities. (UNDIR/Russianforces.org, 08.24.17)
• Russia’s Krylov State Research Center is developing a concept for a light multi-purpose aircraft carrier to replace the Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov. (The National Interest, 08.23.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• No significant developments.

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

Russia’s general foreign policy and relations with “far abroad” countries:

• Moscow believes that Washington's bet on using force in U.S. President Donald Trump's new strategy for Afghanistan is "a dead end." Trump on Aug. 21 committed the United States to an open-ended conflict in Afghanistan. Conditions on the ground, rather than timelines will determine Afghan strategy, Trump said. (Reuters, 08.21.17, The Washington Post, 08.21.17, Reuters, 08.24.17)
• Two Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers briefly violated South Korea’s air defense identification zone on Aug. 23, prompting the country’s fighter jets to scramble to shadow the “intruders” for a few miles. According to the Russia’s Defense Ministry, during the trip the Russians were accompanied by Russian Sukhoi Su-35S fighter jets and A-50 early warning and control aircraft. The flight was also intercepted by the Japan Air Self Defense Force. Russia does not acknowledge the air defense identification zones of neighboring countries. (Aviationist, 08.24.17)
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, for taking a new job at Russian oil producer Rosneft and said she did not intend to take any posts in industry once she leaves politics. (Reuters, 08.18.17)
• A Moscow court has rejected a request by Siemens to seize its gas turbines, which have turned up in Crimea contrary to EU sanctions, and to ban their installation ahead of preliminary hearings next month. (Reuters, 08.20.17)
• Russia’s Finance Ministry announced on Aug. 22 it repaid the last of the country’s Soviet-era debt when Moscow transferred $125.2 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this month. (The Moscow Times, 08.22.17)
• Rosneft and partners including Trafigura Group finalized their $12.9 billion purchase of India’s Essar Oil Ltd. (Bloomberg, 08.21.17)
• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he expects to visit Russia soon for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP, 08.22.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, that “universal humanitarian values” form the basis for Russia’s ties with the Vatican, as well as relations between the two churches. (AP, 08.23.17)
• Russia's ambassador to Sudan, Mirgayas Shirinskiy, was found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Khartoum on Aug. 23. The ambassador is believed to have died of natural causes. Seven high-ranking Russian diplomats have died in nine months. (Reuters, 08.24.17, The Washington Post, 08.24.17)
• U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this week became the latest U.S. official to say Russia was supplying arms to the Afghan Taliban. (The Atlantic, 08.25.17)
• North Korea has opened its first official tourist agency in Russia, saying tourists are guaranteed safety by the isolated country’s nuclear arsenal. (The Moscow Times, 08.24.17)
•  Russia and Turkey have finished negotiating a contract where Moscow would sell Ankara its advanced S-400 air and missile defense system. (The National Interest, 08.23.17)
• Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation expects that Russia’s 2017 military exports will exceed $15 billion, close to 2016 figures. (TASS, 08.22.17)

China:

• No significant developments.

Ukraine:

• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine starting at the beginning of the school year on Aug. 23 and got unanimous support from Russia, Germany, France and the United States. The proposal was made late on Aug. 22 in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who all voiced their strong support for a lasting cease-fire to allow children in eastern Ukraine to attend school. The Ukrainian military and Russia-backed separatists have accused each other of already violating the cease-fire. (RFE/RL, 08.23.17, RFE/RL, 08.25.17)
•  On the 26th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from Moscow, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Russia of menacing Europe and suggested that he favors providing Ukraine with defensive lethal weapons. ''On the defensive lethal weapons, we are actively reviewing it,'' he said. ''I will go back now having seen the current situation and be able to inform the secretary of state and the president in very specific terms what I recommend for the direction ahead.'' Mattis also said the Trump administration will not accept Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. The United States has already provided $750 million in nonlethal weapons and support to Kiev, according to Mattis. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sidestepped the question of how soon he expects a White House decision on arms. He said, however, that Moscow should realize that stepping up U.S. military support for Kiev "would increase the price if Russia made the decision to attack my troops and my territory." (AP, 08.24.17, RFE/RL, 08.24.17, New York Times, 08.24.17)
• Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, said last month that the Trump administration was considering sending Kiev weapons to help government forces defend themselves against the separatists. Volker also said that he did not think arming Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons would "provoke Russia to do more than they are already doing." (RFE/RL, 08.24.17)
• U.S. envoy Kurt Volker met with Vladislav Surkov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's point man for the conflict in eastern Ukraine, behind closed doors in Minsk Aug. 21."The meeting was useful and constructive," Surkov told Russian reporters afterward. "The two sides proposed fresh ideas and novel approaches" for implementing the February 2015 Minsk agreement. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• French national Gilbert Chikli, who was sentenced in absentia for a scam that tricked dozens of French banks and businesses out of millions of euros, has been arrested in Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 08.20.17)
• U.S. company XCoal Energy & Resources has delivered a first shipment of anthracite coal for Ukraine's Centrenergo power company. (Interfax, 08.22.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the city of Sevastopol on Aug. 18 violates the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. (Interfax, 08.21.17)

 Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Citizens of a CIS country recruited by an international terrorist organization have been detained in Kyrgyzstan. (Interfax, 08.22.17)
• Kazakh authorities say they have detained eight Syrian nationals caught using doctored Bulgarian passports when entering and leaving Kazakhstan. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has accepted Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov's resignation and dismissed the government. Atambaev appointed Deputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkalyi Abulgaziev as interim prime minister. Jeenbekov announced his resignation on Aug. 21, saying that he was stepping down to run for president even though he was not required by law to do so. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)
• Russia has denied reports that it has transferred a lake popular with tourists to neighboring Kazakhstan. (RFE/RL, 08.21.17)
• Kentucky-based Papa John’s International restaurant chain says it has signed development agreements for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. (RFE/RL, 08.24.17)
• The Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office has asked Russian authorities to freeze real estate in Russia that belongs to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the late autocratic Uzbek President Islam Karimov. (RFE/RL, 08.24.17)
• Moldovan President Igor Dodon has urged supporters in the ex-Soviet nation's autonomous Gagauzia region to fight against those he says are plotting to "destroy" Moldova's statehood by uniting it with neighboring Romania. (RFE/RL, 08.20.17)
• Russia's government has approved a $700 million state loan for Belarus. (Reuters, 08.22.17)
• Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetian has said that his government remains “very determined” to sign an agreement on deepening Armenia’s links with the European Union. (RFE/RL, 08.22.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.