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

Nuclear security:

• In its feedback on the version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 sitting in the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Trump administration said it “strongly objects to continued construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility.” “The alternative, known as dilute and dispose, is a proven approach that is significantly less risky and expensive, and it can be implemented decades sooner than the MOX approach,” according to a statement posted on the White House’s website on Sept. 7. (Russia Matters, 09.08.17)
• The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, America’s only underground nuclear waste repository, doesn’t have enough space for radioactive tools, clothing and other debris left over from decades of bomb-making and research, much less tons of weapons-grade plutonium that the nation has agreed to eliminate as part of a pact with Russia. (AP, 09.07.17)
• Joint Ukrainian-American response exercises to a radiation accident emergency ran from Sept. 5 to Sept. 8 at Energoatam’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. (Interfax, 09.05.17)
• Some trains transporting nuclear weapons to Russia from Ukraine after the latter agreed to give up nuclear arms in the 1990s would get stuck for up to 10 days on railway stations, according to the Russian Defense Ministry’s "Red Star" daily account. (Russia Matters, 09.08.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The United States might find Iran in violation of the 2015 nuclear agreement next month, but that does not mean Washington is withdrawing from the agreement, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said Sept. 5. (RFE/RL, 09.06.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he sees no "imminent threat" from Russia's upcoming military maneuvers with Belarus, but criticized Moscow for not being more open about the drills. The Zapad 2017 exercise, which Moscow says will involve some 12,700 troops, has caused concern in Poland and the Baltic states. Lithuania and Estonia say that as many as 100,000 soldiers could take part, though Russia insists the event is "purely defensive" in nature. (RFE/RL, 09.06.17)
• Germany said Sept. 7 that Russia was planning to send more than 100,000 troops to the Zapad 2017 wargames, disputing Moscow’s version that only 13,000 Russian and Belarussian servicemen would participate. In a sign of efforts to contain tensions, NATO general Petr Pavel held his first face-to face meeting in more than two years with Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, in Azerbaijan on Sept. 7. (Reuters, 09.07.17)
• The French and German defense ministers have condemned Russia's upcoming military maneuvers with Belarus, saying Moscow is seeking to show off military might on EU and NATO borders. "It is particularly important in this context that we reaffirm our presence in the face of ... this demonstration the Russians are making which is a strategy of intimidation," French Defense Minister Florence Parly said. (RFE/RL, 09.07.17)
• Responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent comments that whoever leads the world in artificial intelligence “will become ruler of the world,” Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Sept. 4 that World War III would likely be triggered by competition for AI. (The Moscow Times, 09.05.17)

Missile defense:

• The U.S. military has completed adding more launchers to a contentious U.S. missile-defense system in South Korea to better cope with North Korean threats. (AP, 09.07.17)
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sept. 4 that Moscow would need to react to the expansion of a U.S. anti-missile defense system in South Korea. “It inevitably will raise the question about our reaction, about our military balances,” Ryabkov said. (Reuters, 09.04.17)

Nuclear arms control:

• In its feedback on the version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 sitting in the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Trump administration voiced objection to the proposal to establish a program of record to develop a road-mobile, ground-launched missile system. At the same time, the Trump administration would “support broad authorization of research and development on missile systems, including those prohibited by the [INF] treaty, to determine candidate systems that could become programs of record,” according to a statement posted on the White House’s website on Sept. 7. (Russia Matters, 09.08.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• German authorities have deported an 18-year-old Russian citizen who grew up in Germany but is deemed to pose a significant risk of carrying out an attack. (AP, 09.05.17)

Conflict in Syria:

• Russia’s President Vladimir Putin congratulated his counterpart Bashar al-Assad after Syrian state media said the Syrian Army broke an Islamic State siege on the eastern town of Deir Ezzor for the first time since the militants surrounded it three years ago. Russia provided air support for the operation. (RFE/RL, 09.05.17, Independent, 09.05.17, Gazeta.ru, 09.05.17)
• “As soon as the Deir Ezzor operation is over—it will mean that terrorists have faced a serious defeat, while the Assad government and its armed forces have gained advantage—the need will arise to take the next step to ensure the ceasefire, strengthen de-escalation zones and launch a political process,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said. (TASS, 09.05.17)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sept. 8 it has killed four Islamic State group leaders in an airstrike outside the eastern Syria city of Deir Ezzor, including IS leaders Abu Muhammad al-Shimali and Gulmurod Khalimov. The other two were not named in the statement. (AP, 09.08.17)
• On Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the real danger to Russian interests is increasing Iranian power there, especially as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime regains control of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria. To counter the Iranians, Tillerson supports a quick move by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to capture the lower Euphrates Valley. (The Washington Post, 09.07.17)
• Russian frigate Admiral Essen fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Islamic State targets near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor on Sept. 5 to help a Syrian army offensive in the area. The strike, which was launched from the Mediterranean, destroyed command and communications posts, as well as ammunition depots, a facility to repair armored vehicles and a large group of militants. (Reuters, 09.05.17)
• Two Russian soldiers have been killed by mortar fire from the Islamic State in Syria's Deir Ezzor, where the army is battling jihadists. The servicemen were traveling with a convoy that was hit by "mortar fire from IS terrorists," according to the ministry. (RFE/RL, 09.04.17)
• According to the results of a Levada Center poll published Sept. 5, 49% of Russians said the Kremlin’s intervention in the Syrian conflict should end while 30% were in favor of Russia’s continued involvement. (The Moscow Times, 09.05.17)
• Eight children and four women—originating from Russia and Kazakhstan—who had been left behind in areas liberated from Islamic State militants have been flown out of Iraq and Syria and have arrived in Russia. (RFE/RL, 09.02.17)
• Israeli warplanes struck a military position near the Mediterranean coast in western Syria on Sept. 7, killing two soldiers near the town of Masyaf, in Hama. The area is the stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and is also heavily protected by the Russians and Iranians. The Sept. 7 air raid was seen as a message to both Russia and Iran that Israel can strike anywhere in Syria. (AP, 09.07.17)

Cyber security:

• Hackers are lying in wait in the operational systems of U.S. and European energy companies, able to switch off the power and sabotage computer networks, according to a report by cyber security company Symantec. The group of hackers, known as Dragonfly, Energetic Bear or Berserk Bear, infiltrated energy companies by tricking employees into opening Microsoft Word documents that harvest usernames and passwords, with the number of attacks rising in recent months. (Financial Times, 09.06.17)
• European Union defense ministers will hold a cyber war game for the first time on Sept. 7 to test their ability to respond to a potential attack by computer hackers. (Reuters, 09.07.17)
• Hackers could tamper with Germany’s election results because the country is relying on poorly protected software, according to German tech watchdog Chaos Computer Club. (Bloomberg, 09.07.17)
• A Moscow court has sentenced hackers Konstantin Teplyakov and Aleksandr Filinov to three years in prison each for breaking into the e-mail accounts of top Russian officials and leaking them. Both were members of the Shaltai-Boltai collective believed to be behind the hacking of high-profile accounts, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Twitter account. (RFE/RL, 09.06.17)

Elections interference:

• Providing new evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Facebook disclosed on Sept. 6 that it had identified more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on hot-button issues purchased by a shadowy Russian company linked to the Kremlin. Most of the 3,000 ads did not refer to particular candidates but instead focused on divisive social issues such as race, gay rights, gun control and immigration, according to Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos. (New York Times, 09.06.17)
  • The Kremlin has nothing to do with the hundreds of fake Facebook accounts that reportedly bought political ads during the U.S. presidential election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. (The Moscow Times, 09.08.17)
  • Legislation or regulation may be needed to require Facebook and other social-media companies to prevent foreign adversaries from manipulating the feeds viewed by U.S. citizens, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said. (Bloomberg, 09.07.17)
  • On Twitter, as on Facebook, Russian fingerprints are on hundreds or thousands of fake accounts that regularly posted anti-Clinton messages. Many were automated Twitter accounts, called bots, that sometimes fired off identical messages seconds apart—and in the exact alphabetical order of their made-up names. On Election Day, one group of Twitter bots sent out the hashtag #WarAgainstDemocrats over 1,700 times. Twitter is expected to soon brief U.S. congressional investigators on whether Russia used its advertising platform to promote divisive social and political messages during the 2016 election. (Reuters, 09.07.17, New York Times, 09.07.17)
• Donald Trump Jr. discussed details of his meeting with several Russians during the presidential campaign in a five-hour, closed-door meeting Sept. 7 with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump Jr. said in a prepared statement that he set up the meeting because he was interested in potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton, but that nothing came of it. He said he’d always intended to seek legal advice before making any use of such material, and that he didn’t conspire with Russians. Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet military officer and Washington lobbyist who attended the meeting, has denied working for Russian military intelligence, but said he saw documents with damaging information about Hillary Clinton at the meeting. (Bloomberg, 09.08.17)
• FBI Director Chris Wray said Sept. 6 he had not detected "any whiff of interference" by White House officials or any other individuals in the federal investigation into Russian election meddling. (Wall Street Journal, 09.07.17)
• Special counsel Robert Mueller will submit a list of his expenditures to the Justice Department soon after Sept. 30, which may provide insight into the scope of his investigation. The department is expected to make the document public. (Bloomberg, 09.05.17)
• The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas for documents related to a dossier claiming Russia collected compromising information about U.S. President Donald Trump. (RFE/RL, 09.06.17)
• An analysis by surveillance organization Alliance for Securing Democracy of the German Marshall Fund states that Russia has meddled in the affairs of at least 27 European and North American countries since 2004 with interference that ranges from cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns. (USA Today, 09.07.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• Russia would benefit from extending the accord with OPEC to limit oil production, said Russia’s finance minister. (Bloomberg, 09.07.17)
• It is premature to decide on extending the global deal to reduce oil production as the oil market has been rebalancing, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. (Reuters, 09.07.17)
• Kazakhstan is aiming for a standalone deal with leading global oil producers on restraining its crude production due to a need to raise output at its Kashagan field. (Reuters, 09.07.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Technical and funding challenges will force the U.S. Defense Department to rely on Russian-manufactured rocket RD-180 engines at least through the middle of the next decade, several years longer than originally anticipated. (Wall Street Journal, 09.04.17)
• Russia may resolve a tax dispute with U.S. energy major Exxon Mobil Corp over the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in September, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier on Sept. 7 the Russian government would soon announce resolving the dispute. (Reuters, 09.07.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• Russia has complied with a U.S. order to vacate its consulate in San Francisco as well as diplomatic properties housing trade missions in New York and Washington, D.C. Russian embassy personnel and State Department officials together walked through the properties to secure them and ensure that Russia had vacated the sites by the Sept. 2 deadline. U.S. officials did not break down doors or conduct searches at seized Russian diplomatic properties, contrary to Moscow’s claims, a U.S. State Department official said. On Sept. 1, black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco and workers began hauling boxes out of the stately building in a historic area of the city. (Wall Street Journal, 09.03.17, The Moscow Times, 09.06.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin called the confiscation of the consulate building in San Francisco “unprecedented” and “a violation of Russia's property rights.” He said he would instruct Russia’s Foreign Ministry to take the matter to court. “Let’s see how effective the widely praised American judicial system is,” Putin said. While the Kremlin had ordered the U.S. to cut its embassy staff numbers to 455 to achieve parity, it “reserves the right” to demand further reductions, he said. "It is hard to conduct a dialogue with people who confuse Austria with Australia, but there is nothing we can do about this. It seems to be the level of political culture in a certain part of the U.S. establishment," he said. Putin also said it would be misplaced to talk of “disappointment” in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump, because the two leaders are not married. "He is not my bride, neither am I his bride or groom.” (Bloomberg, 09.05.17, The Moscow Times, 09.05.17, The Washington Post, 09.05.17, The Moscow Times, 09.05.17)
  • Russia’s Foreign Ministry is consulting with “experts” about the possibility of bringing a lawsuit against the United States for confiscating consular properties in San Francisco, Washington D.C. and New York. “We’ve reached out to several of people who understand how these things are organized,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. (The Moscow Times, 09.06.17)
  • Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Washington’s actions towards Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States could be described as “state hooliganism.” (Reuters, 09.04.17)
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “it could be worth remembering” that “not all American presidents have reached the end of their term.” (The Moscow Times, 09.05.17)
• U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appears to have fallen in with “bad company,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, lamenting U.S. policy toward his country. (Bloomberg, 09.07.17)
• In its feedback on the version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 sitting in the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Trump administration said it is “ currently developing an integrated diplomatic, military and economic response strategy to maximize pressure on Russia.” (Russia Matters, 09.08.17)
• Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s newly installed ambassador to Washington, said Sept. 8 that he had a warm and constructive meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We, together with his colleagues, his staff, agreed to continue our cooperation,” he said.“I said that I look forward to working with the U.S government in the area of Russian-American mutual interests. And I said that, as far as Russia is concerned, we are ready to do that, we’re ready to take concrete steps.” (Reuters, 09.08.17)
• In response to suggestions that frayed bilateral relations could be improved through the Russian diaspora, Sergei Kislyak said that Russians in America are “not very interested in participating in political life” in the U.S. (The Moscow Times, 09.07.17)
• NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson has returned to Earth after completing a record-breaking nine-month mission aboard the International Space Station. (RFE/RL, 09.03.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Shares in Russian industrial conglomerate Sistema jumped 15% on Sept. 5 after President Vladimir Putin said he hoped it would reach an out-of-court settlement in its dispute with state oil giant Rosneft. (Reuters, 09.05.17)
• If Western sanctions aimed to cripple Russian business, nobody told the country’s fish farmers. Russian Aquaculture produced 664% more fish in the first half of 2017 compared with last year, and a new 1,500 ton fish farm recently opened as part of plans to double fish stocks over the next year. Business is so good that the company is preparing for a secondary share listing “in the near future.” Meanwhile, sales at Rusagro, the country’s largest agriculture company, rose 16% in 2016 compared with the year before, including a 49% increase in sales of crops such as wheat and corn. Wheat production at Steppe, a company owned by conglomerate Sistema, grew 80% last year. (Financial Times, 09.03.17)
• Russia’s finance ministry wants to regulate the circulation of crypto-currencies involving Russian citizens and firms. (Reuters, 09.08.17)
• In Irkutsk, energy and aluminum giant En+ Group has entered the data-storage market, feeding on industrial-scale power plants for equipment that runs hot and needs to be kept cool. En+, which is considering an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, is also looking at export potential. The company is in talks with Chinese, South Korean and Japanese companies to store their data, according to Aleksandr Sgrebny, who heads the En+ data-center drive. Rosenergoatom, the state nuclear-power generator, said it is planning to open a data center at its Kalinin Nuclear Power Station, northwest of Moscow, in 2018. (Wall Street Journal, 09.05.17)
• Rosenergoatom has announced that it has completed testing on the passive heat removal system at unit 1 of the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant under construction in western Russia.  Also, testing of the hermetic enclosure system of the reactor containment building has been completed at unit 4 of Russia’s Rostov nuclear power plant. (World Nuclear News, 09.01.17, World Nuclear News, 09.05.17)
• The Moscow City Prosecutor's Office is suing the Sova anti-extremism monitoring think-tank under Russia’s infamous 2015 “undesirable organization” law, the non-governmental organization said in a post on its website on Sept. 7. (The Moscow Times, 09.07.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that embezzlement charges against Kirill Serebrennikov were an attempt to silence the high-profile theater director. If authorities wanted to suppress Serebrennikov’s work, “they would simply not give him any state money,” Putin said. “That's the end of it.” A Russian court has rejected Serebrennikov’s bid for release on bail but slightly softened the conditions of his house arrest. (The Moscow Times, 09.05.17, RFE/RL, 09.04.17)
• The car of prominent opposition journalist Yulia Latynina was set on fire in what she said on Sept. 7 was a possible assassination attempt. (The Moscow Times, 09.07.17)
• The last Russian activist imprisoned following clashes at a protest on the eve of President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration in 2012 has left the country after serving his 30-month sentence. Ivan Nepomnyashchikh, 27, had landed in Prague on Sept. 7 and planned to travel on to the United States, where he intends to study. (RFE/RL, 09.08.17)
• Moscow officials are planning to remove a plaque installed in honor of slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. (The Moscow Times, 09.08.17)
• On Sept. 5, city leaders in Kirov, about 500 hundreds miles east of Moscow, unveiled a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik revolutionary and the founder of the Cheka, the dreaded Soviet secret police, later known as the KGB. (Wall Street Journal, 09.05.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• No significant developments.

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• A Russian court was told on Sept. 5 that President Vladimir Putin’s close ally Igor Sechin personally handed the country’s then-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev $2 million in cash inside a lockable brown bag as part of an elaborate bribery sting. (Reuters, 09.05.17)
• Nikita Belykh, the liberal former governor of Russia’s Kirov region, pleaded not guilty to a bribe-taking charge as his trial got under way in Moscow on Sept. 5. (RFE/RL, 09.05.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sept. 4 that even though North Korea possesses a nuclear arsenal, sanctions against Pyongyang were useless. He rejected U.S. calls for new sanctions after North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test. Speaking at the BRICS summit in China, Putin condemned what he described as a policy of whipping up war hysteria, which he said could lead to a “global catastrophe and a huge number” of human casualties. “There’s no other path except for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem,” he said. Putin then said on Sept. 7 that he thought the North Korea crisis would not escalate into a large-scale conflict involving nuclear weapons, predicting that common sense would prevail. But he said he believed North Korea’s leadership feared any freeze of its nuclear program would be followed by what amounted to “an invitation to the cemetery.” Putin also told his South Korean counterpart that cutting off oil exports to North Korea would violate humanitarian norms and noted that Russian oil supplies to North Korea were negligible, responding to heightened international scrutiny of the ties between Moscow and the leadership in Pyongyang. “Our principled position is that we don’t recognize the nuclear status of North Korea,” Putin told journalists after talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Putin also said that he believes U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is willing to defuse tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sept. 8 that it was too early to draw conclusions about the final form of the United Nations resolution on North Korea. (Reuters, 09.05.17, The Moscow Times, 09.05.17, Bloomberg, 09.05.17, Reuters, 09.07.17, The Moscow Times, 09.06.17, AP, 09.07.17, Reuters, 09.08.17)
• Russia’s principal proposal to resolve the North Korean standoff, which would involve trading a freeze in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the United States and South Korea paring down military exercises, is a non-starter for both Washington and Seoul. (The Washington Post, 09.06.17)
• President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the two leaders “decisively condemned” North Korean weapons tests. Putin also spoke of plans to build a bridge connecting Russia to Japan in a bid to resolve tensions over a chain of disputed Pacific islands, the state-run news agency TASS reported on Sept. 7. Speaking at a joint-forum, Abe said the two countries had “a duty to draw a line under this abnormal situation, when there is still no peace agreement.” (Reuters, 09.07.17, The Moscow Times, 09.07.17)
• South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Sept. 6 that he and President Vladimir Putin shared an understanding that resolving the North Korea nuclear issue is a top priority for development in East Asia. Moon, making the comments at a joint media conference with Putin after a meeting in Russia, said the Russian president expressed his full support for South Korea’s efforts to handle issues related to North Korea. South Korea’s defense minister said on Sept. 4 that it was worth reviewing the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula to guard against the North, a step that analysts warn would sharply increase the risk of an accidental conflict. (Reuters, 09.06.17, The Washington Post, 09.05.17)
• The European Union will prolong its asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials and Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine for another six months, with Russia’s new ambassador to the United States likely to remain on the list, diplomats said. Ambassadors from the 28 EU member states decided to renew the measures at a meeting on Sept. 6 in Brussels, according to several diplomats who were close to the talks but were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision. EU justice ministers are expected to give the final confirmation on Sept. 14, one day before they are due to expire, the diplomats said. (RFE/RL, 09.06.17)
• Sweden is to start on Sept. 11 its biggest military exercise in 23 years, with the help of a strikingly large contingent of U.S. troops in response to the rising threat from Russia. The three-week exercise, which comes at the same time as the large-scale Zapad war games by Russia and Belarus, will involve attacks on Stockholm and the crucial island of Gotland, which one U.S. general calls “an unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the middle of the Baltic Sea. (Financial Times, 09.08.17)
• Two alleged Russian secret service operatives were labeled the main organizers of a foiled bid to overthrow the pro-Western Montenegrin government in October, as the trial of 14 suspected coup plotters opened in the small Balkan country on Sept. 6. (AP, 09.06.17)
• President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 4 addressed unrest in Myanmar following a series of demonstrations in solidarity with the Asian country’s Muslim population. On the sidelines of the BRICS summit in China, Putin condemned the violence in Myanmar, “including violence against Muslims,” and he called on its government to seize control of the situation. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who called on Russians to protest in videos posted to social media this week, thanked Putin for condemning the violence against the Muslim minority. (The Moscow Times, 09.05.17)
• The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin will not attend the United Nations General Assembly later in September. The general debate at the assembly is set to kick off Sept. 19, when U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to deliver his first address to the 193-member body. (RFE/RL, 09.02.17)
• Julia Kloeckner, vice chairman of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said her website had been hit by thousands of cyber-attacks – many from Russian IP addresses – before the televised election debate on Sept. 3. (Reuters, 09.04.17)
• Egypt has finalized a deal to build a nuclear power plant with funding from Moscow after nearly two years of negotiations, according to Russian media reports on Sept. 4. The news came after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, where they were attending a summit. (AP, 09.04.17)
• There are signs that Russia and Saudi Arabia, long at odds over Syria, are now cooperating over a settlement that would leave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in place for the time being. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is headed to Riyadh Sept. 9 for more talks before an expected visit to Moscow by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. (Bloomberg, 09.08.17)
• Russia hopes to agree on debt repayment with Venezuela by the end of 2017. (Reuters, 09.08.17)
• The Canadian government, working with a Toronto-based nonprofit, has quietly allowed gay men and lesbians from the Chechen Republic in Russia to seek safety in Canada over the past three months. (New York Times, 09.04.17)

China:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sept. 3, calling for enhancing mutual support and strategic coordination. The two leaders also agreed to appropriately deal with the latest nuclear test conducted by North Korea. Xi also called on enhancing military cooperation as well as coordination on multilateral arenas. Putin said Russia stands ready for closer cooperation with China in such areas as investment, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and aerospace and aviation. (China.org, 09.04.17)
• The BRICS group on Sept. 4 called for reform of the United Nations and tougher measures against terrorist groups, while denouncing North Korea’s latest nuclear test at a summit in China that seeks to enlarge the organization’s presence on the world stage. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged BRICS nations to deepen coordination on global matters and push for a more “just” world order by boosting representation for emerging and developing countries in international bodies. A new development bank established by Russia, China, India and Brazil provided three of those countries with $1.4 billion in loans ahead of the BRICS summit. (Reuters, 09.04.17, AP, 09.04.17, RFE/RL, 09.02.17)
• CEFC China Energy will buy a 14.16% stake in Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft in a major strengthening of rapidly-developing energy ties between Beijing and Moscow. The company will purchase the shares in Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly-traded oil producer, from a consortium of commodity trader Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority. (Financial Times, 09.08.17)

Ukraine:

• Russia will ask the U.N. Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the front line in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sept. 5, a development greeted by Germany as a new opportunity for detente. Russia’s foreign ministry will file a formal request with the U.N. Security Council, Putin said. (AP, 09.05.17)
• On Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson supports Russia’s proposal to send U.N. peacekeepers to police what Putin claims are Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s assaults on Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine. (The Washington Post,  09.07.17)
• The United States cautiously welcomed a Russian proposal to send U.N. peacekeepers into eastern Ukraine, but insisted that the force should be deployed throughout embattled eastern Ukraine and not just on the line of conflict. “Any such force should have a broad mandate for peace and security throughout the occupied territory in Ukraine,” said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. (AP, 09.06.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that the purpose of a proposed U.N.-mandated peacekeeping mission in war-torn eastern Ukrainian must be to foster peace, not to cement what he called "Russia's occupation" of a chunk of his country. Poroshenko and other senior officials in Kiev have long called for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed in eastern Ukraine. In February 2015, Poroshenko said such a force would help guarantee security “in a situation where the promise of peace is not being kept.” (RFE/RL, 09.07.17, RFE/RL, 09.06.17)
• Kiev does not accept talks with representatives of certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the introduction of a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Donbass and the involvement of Russian citizens in the peacekeeping contingent, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. (Interfax, 09.05.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sept. 5 that any decision by the United States to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In comments likely to be interpreted as a veiled threat, Putin suggested that pro-Russian separatists were likely to respond by expanding their own campaign. “It’s hard to imagine how the self-declared republics would respond. Perhaps they would deploy weapons to other conflict zones.” (Reuters, 09.05.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree introducing the collection of biometric data from all foreign nationals, including Russians, who cross the country’s border starting Jan. 1, 2018. (TASS, 09.01.17)
• In comments left out of U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone’s recent documentary on the Russian leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the debunked claims of a purported "Spanish air-traffic controller" at a Kiev airport, which was exposed as a fake almost immediately after that Twitter persona claimed Ukrainian warplanes were flying near Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 before it was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. (RFE/RL, 09.01.17)
• Ukraine’s Armed Forces will conduct strategic maneuvers Sept. 12-15 simultaneously with the Zapad 2017 exercises, Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, said. (TASS, 09.01.17)
• In the summer of 2017, 55 Ukrainian servicemen were killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, while 269 were wounded, according to data from the Information and Analytical Center of National Security. (UNIAN, 09.04.17)
• From Aug. 29 to Sept. 5, a total of two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action in the Donbas, the press center of Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has reported. (UNIAN, 09.03.17, 09.04.17)
• More than 2,300 incidents of shelling during 2017 in the Luhansk region have killed 34 Ukrainian servicemen. (Interfax, 09.05.17)
• Ukrainian teenager Pavlo Hryb who was allegedly lured into Belarus by the Russian security services is being held in Russia on suspicion of terrorism-related crimes. (RFE/RL, 09.08.17)
• The Chief of Ukraine's Security Service, Vasyl Hrytsak, has asked the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service, Aleksandr Bortnikov, to curtail special operations in Ukraine aimed at destabilizing the situation in Ukraine and Russia. (Interfax, 09.04.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law "On Amnesty in 2016," providing amnesty for those who defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in eastern Ukraine and did not commit serious crimes. (Interfax, 09.04.17)
• Representatives of the United States and Ukraine will make an observation flight over Russia and Belarus in accordance with the Treaty on Open Skies. (TASS, 09.04.17)
• A ship loaded with 62,000 tons of steam coal last week departed from the port of Baltimore and should arrive in the port of Yuzhny in Ukraine by mid-September. "According to the terms of the contract, it's worth expecting the delivery of 700,000 tons of anthracite steam coal from the United States by the end of the year,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly said. (Interfax, 09.02.17)
• Ukraine is preparing to issue its first dollar-denominated debt since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. (Financial Times, 09.05.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine would struggle badly if it ditched its International Monetary Fund aid program, urging lawmakers to pass anti-corruption and pension reforms that the Fund has called for. (Reuters, 09.07.17)
• Ukraine says it will review a request from Georgia to arrest and extradite former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, one of the most colorful and divisive figures in the politics of both countries, if he re-enters Ukraine in the next few days. (Reuters, 09.05.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Azerbaijan's ruling elite operated a secret $2.8 billion slush fund for two years to pay off European politicians and make luxury purchases, an investigation suggests. The money was allegedly channeled through four U.K.-based opaque companies and paid out to European politicians who adopted a favorable attitude to the government. The investigation, nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, was carried out by a consortium of European newspapers and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. The report alleges that there is evidence of a link between the fund and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. (BBC, 09.05.17)
• A French court was set to begin hearing a lawsuit by Azerbaijan’s government against two French journalists it accuses of defamation, in a case described by the defendants and media freedom activists as an attempt by Azerbaijani authorities to export censorship beyond the country’s borders. (RFE/RL, 09.05.17)
• Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev traveled to Kyrgyzstan on Sept. 5-6 for the first official visit to the neighboring country by a president of Uzbekistan in 17 years. During talks, Mirziyoev called Kyrgyzstan his country's "strategic partner," adding that Uzbekistan's "priority now is improving ties with its neighbors." (RFE/RL, 09.04.17, RFE/RL, 09.05.17)
• Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has fired Defense Minister Qobul Berdiev, a holdover from the previous administration, and appointed ally Abdusalom Azizov to the position, the president's office said without explaining the reasons for the reshuffle. (RFE/RL, 09.05.17)
• Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump by phone Sept. 1 and the two discussed mutual relations and regional affairs. (RFE/RL, 09.02.17)
• Russia’s foreign minister has criticized a move by Moldova to call for the removal of Russian troops from a pro-Russia separatist region at an upcoming U.N. meeting. (AP, 09.02.17)
• Moldova’s pro-Russian President Igor Dodon has blocked government plans to send troops to Ukraine to participate in military exercises starting this week and which coincide with Russian drills across the border in Belarus. (Reuters, 09.06.17)
• The big bang has arrived for Uzbekistan’s financial system, with the government lifting decades-old currency restrictions that had choked entrepreneurship and enabled the black market to thrive. At the opening of business hours on Sept. 5, the Central Bank publicized the new official exchange rate for the national currency, called the sum: From 4,200 sums to the dollar a day earlier, the rate on Sept. 5 dropped suddenly to 8,100, even more than the going black market rate of 7,700. (Eurasianet, 09.05.17)
• With an economy reliant on migrants’ remittances, a president in power for a quarter century and a business plan hinging on power exports to Afghanistan, Tajikistan’s $500 million bond placement this week may prove even riskier than the usual frontier market offering. (Reuters, 09.08.17)
• Georgian troops have joined counterparts from the United States and other countries for the start of the Agile Spirit 2017 military drills—the seventh time the maneuvers have been held. The exercises were launched Sept. 3 at the Orpolo firing range near Akhaltsikhe. Armenia says it never confirmed its participation in the drill. (RFE/RL, 09.04.17, RFE/RL, 09.04.17)
• A Tbilisi court has convicted Archpriest Giorgia Mamaladze of planning to kill Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II's personal secretary by poisoning her with cyanide and sentenced him to nine years in prison. (RFE/RL, 09.05.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• “They will eat grass, but will not stop their [nuclear] program until they guarantee safety for themselves,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, describing Pyongyang’s resolve. (The Moscow Times, 09.06.17) 
• “Russia will feed the world. No doubt. We have arable land, water, technology and infrastructure already in place,” said Andrei Guryev, chief executive of major Russian fertilizer company PhosAgro. “It is quite simple. Countries will simply be faced with a scarcity of food. So they will look at Russia, and invest in Russia, to protect themselves.” (Financial Times, 09.03.17)