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

Nuclear security:

• “Nuclear security is too important to be a party policy, for our nation and for the world. Although we no longer live in the daily dread of nuclear confrontation, the dangers we face today require a bipartisan spirit,'” outgoing U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned. (The Dawn, 01.16.17)
• “If I was in [Trump's] position, I would start off on some easy cases, where we have mutual interests, like preventing nuclear terrorism, because a bomb could be set off in Moscow as easily as Washington,” former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 01.17.17)
• U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) recently sent a public letter to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump expressing concern over the continuity of government operations for national security positions in the National Nuclear Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense. (Homeland Preparedness News, 01.20.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• No significant developments.

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has called NATO “obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror” and said member organizations aren’t paying their “fair share.” Trump also said that the “U.K. was so smart in getting out” of the EU, which he described as “a vehicle for Germany.” Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Jan. 16 that Trump's comments had aroused concern across the 28-member alliance. NATO reacted on Jan. 16 to Trump's statement by saying it has full confidence in the U.S. security commitment to Europe. In contrast, Moscow has welcomed Trump calling NATO "obsolete.” Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Jan. 16 that "NATO is indeed a vestige [of the past] and we agree with that." (AP, 01.15.17, Reuters, 01.17.17, RFE/RL, 01.16.17, Slate, 01.16.17)
• "We have to think about changing the [NATO] treaty to front face the 21st and 22nd centuries," incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisor Anthony Scaramucci said, adding that the focus should now be on finding common cause with Russia. “Let’s try to find a way to get along better [with Russia]. We need to focus less on combatting Communism and more on rejecting radical Islam," he said. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• On Jan. 18, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pushed hard against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s comments that the Western military alliance is “obsolete,” saying that the defense organization is constantly evolving to meet modern security threats, including terrorism. (AP, 01.18.17)
• A top NATO general said Jan. 17 that aspects of the alliance were “obsolete,” echoing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s language and saying that the Western military alliance needs to adapt for a changing world. “When I look at the threats we are facing now, we see that we may have focused too much, until the Ukraine crisis, we may have focused too much on expeditionary operations, especially in Afghanistan, and doing that, NATO has a bit failed to look at the change in the strategic background,” said French air force Gen. Denis Mercier, the senior NATO commander based in the United States. (The Washington Post, 01.17.18)
• Departing U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the U.S. should continue to seek opportunities to cooperate with Russia. Days before the inauguration of incoming President Donald Trump, who has vowed to seek improved relations with Putin, Carter said that option is “still possible” where U.S. and Russian interests overlap, such as blocking North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and preventing Iran from having one. Yet such cooperation has “decidedly not been the case” in fighting Islamic State terrorists in Syria, he said. (Bloomberg, 01.17.17)
• Lithuania on Jan. 17 signed an agreement with the United States formalizing the presence of U.S. troops in the small Baltic country bordering Russia and Belarus. (AP, 01.17.17)
• Following a Russian military buildup in Kaliningrad over the past few months, Lithuania announced on Jan. 16 that it would build an 80-mile-long fence equipped with surveillance cameras on the border with Kaliningrad, scheduled to be finished later this year. (The Washington Post, 01.17.17)
• Polish leaders welcomed U.S. troops to their country Jan. 14, with the defense minister expressing gratitude for their arrival and calling it the fulfillment of a dream Poles have had for decades. The first of 3,500 American troops began rolling into Poland for a nine-month-long mission starting on Jan. 8, 2017. (AP, 01.14.17, The National Interest, 01,15.17)
• The U.S. Marine Corps has touched down in Norway. The first 300 Marines en route to Vaernes military base in the Scandinavian country have arrived as part of a temporary, six month stay. (Foreign Policy, 01.17.17)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump said: "They have sanctions on Russia—let's see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that's part of it." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov questioned whether Trump had really suggested he would be ready to drop U.S. sanctions on Moscow in exchange for nuclear arms cuts, but said Moscow wanted to start talks with the United States on nuclear weapons and on the balance of military power between the two former Cold War foes anyway. Lavrov said that specific topics of discussion could include hypersonic weapons, the missile shield the United States is building in Europe, space weapons and nuclear testing. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia never raises the issue of sanctions in talks with its foreign counterparts and doesn’t intend to do so because it’s not up to Moscow to scrap them. (The Washington Post, 01.17.17, The Moscow Times, 01.17.17, AP, 01.16.17, Reuters, 01.17.17, RFE/RL, 01.17.17)
• In his final press conference, outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama said that Donald Trump may be able to negotiate a deal to further reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, and he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the deterioration of relations between the two countries in his second term. “If President-elect Trump is able to restart those talks in a serious way, I think there remains a lot of room for our two countries to reduce our stockpiles,” Obama said at the press conference. (Whitehouse.gov, 01.18.17, Bloomberg, 01.19.17)
• The Kremlin on Jan. 19 disputed a statement by outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama on nuclear arms cuts, saying Russia had always been ready to consider making proportional cuts to its arsenal. "The Russian side always favored a proportional and fair process of nuclear disarmament," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "It can't be disproportional." (Reuters, 01.19.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• John Brennan, outgoing CIA director, said he spent the morning of Jan. 16 making farewell phone calls to about a dozen foreign counterparts, including Alexander Bortnikov, the director of Russia's Federal Security Service, with whom he has had a relationship the past four years. While that relationship has grown "very tense" of late, Brennan said the final call was reassuring. "What I told him this morning was, despite the unpleasantness that we've had and despite the differences in a number of the policies of our government, that I very much hope that the CIA and the Russian intelligence services can work together in the future," Brennan said, particularly on counterterrorism. (Wall Street Journal, 01.16.17)
• "I think certain possibilities for constructive cooperation with the United States will present themselves in such areas as counter-terrorism efforts, information security and in a number of other spheres," secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said. (TASS, 01.15.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Jan. 20 that Moscow is ready to advance a constructive dialogue with the United States in the interests of jointly combating terrorism. On Jan. 17, Lavrov said that if other countries are unable or unwilling to fight the Islamic State, the Russian Army is prepared to battle them alone. He also claimed that U.S. troops only began to fight the Islamic State after Russian troops arrived in the region. (RFE/RL, 01.20.17, The Moscow Times, 01.17.17)
• The Iraqi army on Jan. 17 released a video which features passports belonging to Islamic State fighters from Russia. The documents were discovered in the recently recaptured University of Mosul. Among the Russian passports that can be seen in the video, one belongs to Andrei Katsuk, who was reported missing in July 2013 after he left Krasnoyarsk for Turkey. (The Moscow Times, 01.17.17)
• Chechen and Russian security personnel have launched the largest sweep operations to date to round up suspected members of a group of fighters said to be planning large-scale terrorist attacks at the behest of the Islamic State. However, details of how many men have been apprehended or killed, and what their precise intentions were, remain unclear. Since Jan. 10, at least four, and possibly as many as 10 men have been killed and up to 100 apprehended. (RFE/RL, 01.17.17)
• Turkish officials on Jan. 17 confirmed the arrest of a suspect accused of fatally shooting 39 people at a New Year’s Eve party in an Istanbul nightclub. Officials say that he is Uzbek national Abdulkadir Masharipov, who is linked to the Islamic State (IS) militant group and had received training in Afghanistan. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• The United States say the last remaining Russian citizen being held in the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been released. The Defense Department announced on Jan. 19 that former Red Army ballet dancer Ravil Mingazov has been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, along with two other Guantanamo inmates. (RFE/RL, 01.20.17)
• Osama Bin Laden wrote on Egypt: “The [leader] might be Bouteflika or the Arab Zionists’ elder Hosni Mubarak or his son, the expected leader; he may be any of those, but subordination is to be controlled [by someone else]. Occupation is taking over the country, government, ministries, police, wild security forces, prisons, detention centers, army against us [the citizens] and an actual leader administering from his office in the embassy, which most likely is American or perhaps Russian, French or even Israeli.” (DNI.gov, 01.19.17)

 Conflict in Syria:

• The Russian military says it has teamed up with Turkey to conduct joint airstrikes against an Islamic State group’s stronghold in northern Syria. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said on Jan. 18 nine Russian warplanes and eight Turkish jets have taken part in the strikes on the outskirts of the town of al-Bab in the province of Aleppo. (AP, 01.18.17)
• Pentagon officials have sought to publicly play down the mounting indications of Turkish-Russian military collaboration. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters last week that he had been assured by his Turkish counterpart that the Turks were not cooperating with the Russians. (New York Times, 01.18.17)
• Russia wants incoming U.S. President Donald Trump to send officials to planned Syria talks in Kazakhstan on Jan. 23 in what would be the first formal contact with the new administration, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Lavrov voiced hope that Russian and U.S. experts could start discussions on fighting terrorism in Syria during that meeting. Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Jan. 15 urged the Trump administration to accept an invitation from Russia to attend the talks. (Bloomberg, 01.17.17, AP, 01.17.17, AP, 01.15.17, Reuters, 01.17.17)
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he believed peace talks in Kazakhstan would lead to local "reconciliation" deals with rebels, a sign of his confidence in a process launched by his Russian allies after the opposition's defeat in Aleppo. On Jan. 20, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said his country has to be “realistic” and can no longer insist on any settlement for Syria’s long-running war without Assad. (AP, 01.20.17, Reuters, 01.19.17)
• Iran opposes the United States’ participation in the Russia-backed Syrian peace talks to be launched in Kazakhstan next week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Jan. 17. (AP, 01.17.17)
• Representatives of some Syrian rebel groups said Jan. 16 they will attend talks sponsored by Russia and Turkey scheduled for Jan. 23 in Kazakhstan, despite mounting violations of a cease-fire across war-ravaged Syria. But one of Syria's most powerful rebel groups, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, said it will not attend peace talks. (AP, 01.16.17, (RFE/RL, 01.19.17)
• Moscow and Damascus have signed an agreement to expand and modernize Russia's naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, a Russian government document shows. (RFE/RL, 01.20.17)
• The Syrian capital of Damascus was two to three weeks away from falling to terrorists when Russia intervened in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference on Jan. 17. (Reuters, 01.17.17)

Cyber security and alleged Russia interference in the U.S. electoral campaign:

• Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump criticized U.S. intelligence officials for their role in compiling a memo that suggested Russia might have compromising information on him. Trump backed away from a suggestion on Twitter this week that CIA Director John Brennan might have leaked the salacious allegations about him to the media, saying he accepted Brennan’s denial. “But it came out of someplace,” Trump said. (The Washington Post, 01.18.17)
• The FBI and five other intelligence and law enforcement agencies are working together on an investigation into whether Russia’s government secretly helped incoming U.S. President Donald Trump win the election, according to a new report. The collaborative probe is partially focused on whether any covert money from the Kremlin financed hacking operations to benefit Trump’s campaign, McClatchy reported Jan. 18. (The Hill, 01.18.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 17 accused the outgoing U.S. administration of trying to undermine incoming U.S. President Donald Trump by spreading fake allegations and said those who are doing it are “worse than prostitutes.” (AP, 01.17.17)
• Russia has dismissed as a fabrication a dossier written by a former officer in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, which suggested Moscow had collected compromising information about incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the dossier's author, Christopher Steele, as "a fugitive charlatan from MI6” during his annual press conference on Jan. 17. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• “You think we are living in 2016. No, we are living in 1948. And do you know why? Because in 1949, the Soviet Union had its first atomic bomb test. And if until that moment, the Soviet Union was trying to reach agreement with [President Harry] Truman to ban nuclear weapons, and the Americans were not taking us seriously, in 1949 everything changed and they started talking to us on an equal footing,” Andrey Krutskikh, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser on cyber issues, said at a Russian national information security forum in 2016. Krutskikh continued, “I’m warning you: We are at the verge of having ‘something’ in the information arena, which will allow us to talk to the Americans as equals.” (The Washington Post, 01.18.17)
• “The conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard about the DNC emails that were leaked,” outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama told his final press conference. (Whitehouse.gov, 01.18.17)
• U.S. surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has been given permission to stay in Russia for several more years, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced Jan. 18. (The Moscow Times, 01.18.17)
• Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who is serving 35 years in prison for leaking classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. (RFE/RL, 01.18.17)
• More than half of Americans believe that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential elections, according to the results of a poll conducted by U.S. television channel NBC and the Wall Street Journal newspaper. (The Moscow Times, 01.18.17)
• A power blackout in Ukraine's capital last month was caused by a cyberattack and investigators are trying to trace other potentially infected computers and establish the source of the breach, utility Ukrenergo told Reuters on Jan. 18. (Reuters, 01.18.17)
• Russian Presidential aide Vladislav Surkov's personal chief of staff resigned. Two sources close to the presidential administration told Russian newspaper Vedomosti that Alexander Pavlov resigned in December over the leak of his boss' emails, which had been published online by Ukrainian hackers two months earlier. (The Moscow Times, 01.20.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says any claims that Moscow is staging cyberattacks to interfere in European elections are "dreamt-up." (RFE/RL, 01.17.17)
• Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Russian Security Council, says the country recently has seen a marked increase in attempted cyberattacks from overseas. Russia suffers "hundreds and thousands" of cyberattacks emanating from the West daily, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. (TASS, 01.20.17, AP, 01.15.17)
• Russia’s Kommersant has reported that Andrei Gerasimov, who has been head of the Russian Federal Security Service’s Information Security Center, responsible for the its cybersecurity, since 2009, may soon be dismissed, according to an unnamed source at the bureau. (Foreign Policy, 01.13.17)
• A Russian programmer has been arrested in Spain on the orders of U.S. intelligence agencies. Stanislav Lisov was detained in the Barcelona airport on Jan. 13 as part of an FBI search for “Russian hackers,” his wife Darya Lisova said. Spanish police say the programmer is one of that country’s most important hackers and is wanted by the United States for suspected financial fraud amounting to some $5 million (5 million euros). (The Moscow Times, 01.19.17, AP, 01.20.17)
• Russian researcher Andrei Leonov has been awarded a record $40,000 by U.S. social media site Facebook for spotting a vital security flaw. (The Moscow Times, 01.20.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• OPEC, which is cutting oil output alongside independent producer Russia for the first time in years, wants a lasting partnership with Moscow, the energy minister for top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia said on Jan. 19. (Reuters, 01.19.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Twelve months ago, the mood of the Russian delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was distinctly gloomy, with oil prices near 12-year lows below $30 per barrel and Western sanctions depressing their economy and financial markets. Since then, however, Russian stock and bond markets have risen about 50%, boosted by rebounding oil and—more recently—expectations that the new U.S. presidency of Donald Trump will ease the sanctions imposed over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Russian magnates and American investors alike are anticipating a Trump administration that removes punishing sanctions, frees up access to capital and encourages U.S. businesses pursuing profits in Russia’s vast market—regardless of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies. (Reuters, 01.18.17, AP, 01.19.17)
• Anthony Scaramucci, aide to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump and founder of SkyBridge Capital, discussed possible joint investments in a Davos, Switzerland meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that the U.S. sanctioned in 2015, the fund’s press service said. (Bloomberg, 01.17.17)
• "We have uncertainties again about the U.S. Who knows what the new administration will do?" Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, president of United Co. Rusal PLC, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the gathering at the World Economic Forum. (Wall Street Journal, 01.20.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• Top aides to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump have denied a published report that he plans to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Iceland as his first foreign trip in office. Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the report is "not true—[the] report is 100% false." But two Russian officials said Moscow was working on a plan to organize the meeting of two presidents in Reykjavik. “The first meeting should take place neither in Russia nor in the U.S. but in a neutral third country,” an official in the Russian presidential administration told Financial Times. “It certainly won’t be London, and it won’t be Germany, because they’re both too hostile to Russia. It can’t be France—that would be seen as inappropriate because they have an election campaign going on. What about Iceland?” (Financial Times, 01.15.17, RFE/RL, 01.15.17)
• In a move that appears designed to make it harder for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to roll back sanctions after President Barack Obama leaves office, on Jan. 13 Obama extended  all U.S. sanctions on Russia through March 2018 over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its backing of separatists in the eastern part of the country. (RFE/RL, 01.14.17, RFE/RL, 01.15.17)
• Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will keep U.S. sanctions against Russia in place "at least for a period of time," he has said in an interview, adding that he would consider lifting the sanctions once Russian President Vladimir Putin proves he can be an ally. "If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?" Trump said. (RFE/RL, 01.15.17)
• In a series of interviews in March 2014, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump singled out Russia as the United States' "biggest problem" and greatest geopolitical foe. In these interviews reviewed by CNN, which occurred on NBC News and Fox News, Trump goes as far as to suggest imposing sanctions to hurt Russia economically and then later says he supports such sanctions. Trump also expressed his agreement with former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's 2012 assessment that Russia is the United States' number one "geopolitical foe." (CNN, 01.17.17)
• Moscow hopes for better relations with the United States based on respect for mutual interests once Donald Trump takes office, in contrast with the “messianic” approach of the outgoing administration that has ravaged ties, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his annual press conference on Tuesday. “They don’t want to have double standards, and they don’t intend to use the fight against terrorism as a cover for personal interests,” Lavrov said. "By concentrating on a pragmatic search for mutual interests we can solve a lot of problems,” he said. Lavrov also dismissed reports that U.S. senators are preparing new sanctions against Moscow. “The new administration will seek to understand the interests of their partners without any moralizing," he said. (The Moscow Times, 01.17.17, AP, 01.17.17, Reuters, 01.17.17)
• Russian officials and lawmakers lauded incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, hoping it will herald a period of better ties with the United States, while revelers in Moscow and elsewhere gathered for celebrations as bar and club owners sought to cash in on public excitement. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that while Trump’s policy toward Russia is unclear yet, “we are hoping that reason will prevail.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he considers it a big mistake to think Trump is "our" man. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Jan. 17 that Moscow hopes for better relations with the United States based on respect for mutual interests once Trump takes office, in contrast with the “messianic” approach of the outgoing administration that has ravaged ties. “They don’t want to have double standards, and they don’t intend to use the fight against terrorism as a cover for personal interests,” Lavrov said. "By concentrating on a pragmatic search for mutual interests we can solve a lot of problems.” Lavrov also dismissed reports that U.S. senators are preparing new sanctions against Moscow. “The new administration will seek to understand the interests of their partners without any moralizing," he said. (The Moscow Times, 01.17.17, AP, 01.17.17, Reuters, 01.17.17, AP, 01.20.17, RBTH/TASS, 01.20.17)
• “I think it is in America's interest and the world's interest that we have a constructive relationship with Russia … Where our interests have overlapped, we've worked together,” outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama told his final press conference. (Whitehouse.gov, 01.18.17)
• The U.S. must confront Russian aggression just as it took on fascism and Communism in earlier decades, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said in a farewell address. (Bloomberg, 01.17.17)
• Outgoing U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in his last major speech before leaving office, described Russia on Jan. 18 as the biggest threat to the international liberal order and said Washington must work with Europe to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters, 01.18.17)
• John Brennan, the outgoing CIA director, charged on Jan. 15 that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States. “Mr. Trump has to understand that absolving Russia of various actions it has taken in the past number of years is a road that he, I think, needs to be very, very careful about moving down,” Brennan said. Brennan also rejected Trump's suggestions that he may have leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on the president. (Foreign Policy, 01.17.17, AP, 01.15.17, Wall Street Journal, 01.16.17)
• The U.S. Treasury will enforce all sanctions against Russia unless a deal were reached between Washington and Moscow, Steven Mnuchin, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to run the department said on Jan. 19. Asked during a Senate confirmation hearing if he was committed to enforcing existing sanctions against Russia, Mnuchin said: "100 percent so.” (Reuters, 01.19.17)
• Adam Szubin, the U.S. Treasury Department’s top official for terrorism and financial intelligence, is among 50 senior Obama administration appointees to remain in their posts after his inauguration to ensure continuity in government. The Obama administration picked Szubin in January 2016 to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of being corrupt. Szubin also travelled to Europe in late 2016 to discuss enforcement of sanctions on Russia. (Indian Express, 01.19.17, Reuters, 01.25.17, research by Russia Matters’ staff, Wall Street Journal, 01.20.17)
• During her confirmation hearing for the post of U.S. ambassador to the U.N., South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley voiced heavy skepticism about Russia and optimism about NATO, both deviations from some of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements. “Russia is trying to show their muscle right now. It’s what they do,” Haley said. “I don’t think that we can trust them,” she added. “We have to continue to be very strong back and show them what this new administration is going to be.” (The Washington Post, 01.18.17)
• During his annual press conference Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized U.S. spy agencies for what he described as numerous efforts to recruit Russian diplomats under pressure. U.S. intelligence agencies tried to use vital medicines as leverage to recruit a Russian diplomat as a spy, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed on Jan. 15. Lavrov also pointed out that the U.S. diplomats more than once acted in disguise, particularly, men dressed as women. (The Washington Post, 01.17.17, TASS, 01.17.17, The Moscow Times, 01.16.17)
• Russia's Foreign Ministry plans to ask the new U.S. presidential administration to halt what it calls "illegal abductions" of Russian citizens from third countries. (The Moscow Times, 01.18.17)
• Russia’s ban on U.S. citizens adopting Russian children breaks human rights law, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. The court ordered Moscow to pay damages to American families who were abruptly prevented from adopting Russian children, characterizing the ban as discriminatory. The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said Jan. 18 that Moscow is willing to open discussions about rescinding the ban on Americans adopting Russian children. (AP, 01.18.17, The Moscow Times, 01.17.17, New York Times, 01.17.17)
• Russian authorities warned that they could retaliate against U.S.-based media and social networks if state-backed Russian channel RT's access to social networks is restricted, a threat that came amid what the network called a "war" targeting its digital reach. (RFE/RL, 01.19.17)
• The CIA published 12 million pages of declassified documents online Jan. 17. Around 33,000 of the documents are intelligence files pertaining to Russian territory. Another 150,000 relate to other Soviet Republics. One document tells the story of Operation Gold, a joint scheme concocted in the 1950s by the CIA and British security services to tap into communications of the Soviet army in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. (The Moscow Times, 01.19.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Russia's economy could grow by 2% in 2017 as long as there are no external shocks such as a renewed fall in oil prices, Russia’s Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Oil—a crucial source of revenue—has bounced back above $50 and Russian manufacturing expanded in December at its fastest pace since 2011, a sign the economy is starting to grow again. (Reuters, 01.18.17, Reuters, 01.20.17)
• A recent poll by Russia’s Public Opinion Foundation found that 45% of Russians are dissatisfied with the general situation in the country. Nearly half the population expressed dissatisfaction with the authorities in the realms of healthcare, the economy and the social safety net. (The Moscow Times, 01.19.17)
• Russia could start building up its depleted fiscal reserves while keeping the ruble from firming if prices for Urals crude oil URL-E average $55 a barrel this year, documents seen by Reuters showed on Jan. 19. (Reuters, 01.19.17)
• South Korea topped the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index published on Jan. 17. Russia dropped to 26th place from 12th place in early 2016. (RBTH, 01.18.17)
• Russian state-owned bank VTB lent over $11 billion to Qatar and commodities trader Glencore four days after they signed a deal to buy a stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft for the same amount of money. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has pushed back a program to build a BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor, dubbed the “breakthrough” program, over the country’s dire economic straits, Russian media reported. (Bellona, 01.19.17)
• The Kremlin is planning to build an exclusive health clinic for Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior officials, according to documents seen by Reuters and to medical sources familiar with the project. (Reuters, 01.19.17)

Defense and Aerospace:

• On Jan. 16, 2017, the Strategic Rocket Forces carried out a successful flight test of a silo-based Topol-M (SS-27) missile. The missile was launched from a silo at the Plesetsk test site north of Moscow, and the warhead was said to have reached its target at the Kura site in Kamchatka. (Russianforces, 01.16.16)
• Flight tests of Russia’s new Barguzin rail-mobile ICBM are said to begin in 2019. (Russianforces.org, 01.19.17)
• Russia’s Sarmat program that is expected to produce a new "heavy" ICBM, appears to have hit some kind of a bump. The first sign was the delay with the first ejection tests—they were moved from 2015 to the end of 2016 and now to 2017. (Russianforces.org, 01.19.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russia's Constitutional Court has dismissed a landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to pay 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in compensation to the former shareholders of defunct Russian oil company Yukos. The Russian court ruled that the ECHR decision violated Russia's constitution and that the Kremlin did not need to honor the pay-out. (The Moscow Times, 01.19.17)
• Lawyers for the Russian government and former shareholders of defunct Russian oil giant Yukos are back in court in what could be the final stages of a $50 billion battle over ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s once-massive energy company. (RFE/RL, 01.17.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would “strive to build a new model of major-country relations with the United States,” as well as “a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Russia” and other relationships, without giving specific details. (AP, 01.18.17)
• Russia is an important international partner and world leaders should consider inviting it back to the annual summit of major industrialized nations, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said on Jan. 17. (Reuters, 01.20.17)
• There is no reason to speculate about a return to the Group of Eight (G8) meetings that included Russia, a spokesman for the German government said on Jan. 20. (Reuters, 01.20.17)
• Russia is working with China to try to get talks on North Korea restarted, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Jan. 17, also describing Russo-Chinese relations as probably the best they have ever been in history. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• China bought more than $1 billion in food products from Russia last year, replacing Turkey as the top importer of Russian foodstuffs. Overall trade between the two countries stood at $56 billion in January-October, sharply down from the nearly $100 billion seen in 2014, according to China's Customs Administration. Still, both countries say they are on track to achieve their goal of $200 billion of trade by 2020. (Wall Street Journal, 01.17.17)
• The first train on an inaugural China-Britain freight service arrived in London on Jan. 18. The train pulled in to Barking in East London after an 18-day journey from Yiwu, a wholesale market town in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It had passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France, finally crossing under the English Channel into Britain. (Reuters, 01.18.17)
• The Obama administration tried to keep Japan from improving ties with Russia and receiving Russia President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Jan. 17. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• Rumen Radev, a 53-year-old, U.S.-trained general, took an oath of office on Jan. 19 in Sofia as the president of Bulgaria. After campaigning to improve ties with the Kremlin and lift European Union and U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and support of separatist rebels in Ukraine, he’ll replace Rosen Plevneliev, an outspoken advocate of the penalties. (Bloomberg, 01.19.17)
• After three days of reconciliation talks in Moscow, the main Palestinian parties on Jan. 17 announced a deal to form a national unity government prior to holding elections. (Times of Israel, 01.17.17).
• Turkish authorities have arrested two suspects, including a police officer, in connection with the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. (RFE/RL, 01.19.17)

Ukraine:

• When asked whether U.S. would ever recognize annexation of Crimea by Russia, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state Rex Tillerson said during his recent confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate: “The only way that that could ever happen is if there were some broader agreement that was satisfactory to the Ukrainian people. So absent that, no, we would never recognize that.” (Senate.gov, 01.11.17)
•  “The reason we imposed the sanctions [on Russia], recall, was not because of nuclear weapons issues. It was because the independence and sovereignty of a country, Ukraine, had been encroached upon, by force, by Russia … And Russia continues to occupy Ukrainian territory and meddle in Ukrainian affairs and support military surrogates who have violated basic international law and international norms,” outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama told his final press conference. “What I’ve said to the Russians is, as soon as you’ve stop doing that the sanctions will be removed,” he said. (Whitehouse.gov, 01.18.17)
• “I expect Russia and Ukraine to have a strong relationship. They are, historically, bound together in all sorts of cultural and social ways. But Ukraine is an independent country,” outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama told his final press conference. (Whitehouse.gov, 01.18.17)
• Czech Gen. Petr Pavel, the chairman of NATO's military committee, said on Jan. 18 that he didn't expect "a change of course towards Ukraine" by the U.S. He said NATO was continuing to provide assistance to Ukraine to help reorganize and improve its military forces. (Wall Street Journal, 01.19.17)
• Making his final visit to Kiev after eight years as U.S. vice president, Joe Biden urged the international community to stand against what he called Russian aggression and urged the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to be a strong supporter of Ukraine. Biden also urged Ukraine to keep demonstrating its commitment to the rule of law and fighting corruption. (RFE/RL, 01.16.17)
• “When invaded Ukraine in 2014, the United States could have responded as we had six years earlier, when Russian intervention in Georgia was largely met with rhetoric alone,” wrote outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. (New York Times, 01.19.17)
• Ukraine’s leader Petro Poroshenko dismissed talk that Donald Trump’s presidency will damage U.S. backing for Ukraine and said he expects to receive the next slice of a $17.5 billion bailout within weeks. Poroshenko said he was one of the first world leaders Trump called after his victory in November. “We had quite a promising conversation,” Poroshenko said. “We agreed the date of my visit to Washington D.C. immediately after the inauguration and the agenda of our negotiations will be quite big.” Poroshenko warned against lifting sanctions against Russia—something Trump has suggested he might do—saying it would be "dangerous" for the security of the West. (Bloomberg, 01.17.17, RFE/RL, 01.19.17).
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has warned that Ukrainians may become disillusioned with their pro-European path if the European Union further delays closer integration with Kiev. (RFE/RL, 01.17.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that last month, 22 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and cited some 1,500 violations of a cease-fire agreement. (Wall Street Journal, 01.18.17)
• Ukraine has filed a case against Russia at the United Nations’ highest court, accusing Moscow of illegally annexing Crimea and illicitly funding separatist rebel groups in eastern Ukraine. (AP, 01.17.17)
• Ukrainian parliamentarian and former prisoner of war Nadiya Savchenko has sparked controversy with a suggestion that her country give up its territorial claim to Crimea in exchange for Russia leaving the Donbas region. (The Moscow Times, 01.18.17)
• “In theory, the state can produce nuclear weapons. If North Korea can make them, Ukraine can do it as well. If we had money and appropriate conditions, I would look at how the world would react to this,” first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk said. (Unian, 01.20.17)
• Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Jan. 17 that it had charged Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz with a $5.3 billion bill for gas it did not buy under a take-or-pay clause. (Reuters, 01.17.17)
• The Russian government has confirmed that its 2010 agreement with Ukraine on building a third and fourth reactor at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant has been cancelled. (World Nuclear News, 01.16.17)
• The Roshen company, owned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, has announced it plans to close its confectionery factory in Russia's Lipetsk region, the Interfax news agency has reported. (The Moscow Times, 01.20.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Moldova’s new president Igor Dodon, who is visiting Russia on his first trip abroad, voiced hope Jan. 17 for rebuilding “strategic” ties with Moscow and hinted that the ex-Soviet nation could eventually shelve a trade pact with the European Union. Dodon said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moldova “got nothing” from the agreement while losing the lucrative Russian market. Moldova’s Prime Minister Pavel Filip on Jan. 18 reacted angrily to Dodon’s suggestion. (AP, 01.17.17, AP, 01.18.17)
• The elder daughter of Uzbekistan's late President Islam Karimov was questioned while under house arrest in Tashkent over money-laundering accusations by Swiss prosecutors, according to a lawyer who attended the meetings. (Wall Street Journal, 01.15.16)
• Belarusian prosecutors have ruled to extradite Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin to Azerbaijan, where he is accused of separatism. Azerbaijani prosecutors accuse him of illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh. (RFE/RL, 01.20.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• “Bashar’s best-case scenario is to control Damascus,” said Firas Tlass, a former regime insider and powerful Syrian business tycoon who fled in 2012. “But he [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] knows he doesn’t really control the coast, Tartus and Latakia—half of that belongs to Russia.” (Financial Times, 01.19.17)
• "Look at his behavior," Sen. John McCain said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Look at what he has done. He has made no bones about what he wants to do. And he's done it. He's played a very weak hand in the most clever fashion. He's got the world's 15th-largest economy and yet he's now a major player in the Middle East.” (MSNBC/Newsmax, 01.17.17)
• "I think the sanctions had in some ways an opposite effect because of Russian culture. I think the Russians would eat snow if they had to survive. And so for me, the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nation's president,” said Anthony Scaramucci, advisor for business communications to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. (RBTH/TASS, 01.17.17)
• “Perhaps, the most exact description of today’s Davos is the feeling of horror from a global political catastrophe,” Anatoly Chubais, the chief executive of Russia’s hi-tech corporation Rusnano, said in response to a question about the attitude of World Economic Forum participants to Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. (TASS, 01.20.17)