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

Nuclear security:

• No significant developments.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said diplomacy continues to lead efforts to compel North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to abandon his nuclear ambitions. Russia’s embrace of a “spoiler role,” including clandestine fuel shipments and transportation between Russia and North Korea to circumvent sanctions, has further complicated the dynamic. (The Washington Post, 09.26.17)
• “The Americans won’t strike because they know for sure—rather than suspect—that [North Korea] has atomic bombs,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Lavrov said Russia would welcome any efforts at mediation with North Korea, saying “the mediators could be one of the neutral European countries.” He added that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has talked about mediation and said if he received such a request “he would try to fulfill that.” (The Moscow Times, 09.25.17, AP, 09.22.17)
• Moscow is prepared to work with Pyongyang to try to find a peaceful resolution to the North Korean missile crisis, the Russian Foreign ministry said after a meeting between Russian ambassador-at-large Oleg Burmistrov and Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North American department of North Korea’s foreign ministry in Moscow. (Reuters, 09.29.17)
• John Tefft, America’s outgoing ambassador to Russia told Kommersant daily that there has been an excellent series of talks on North Korea between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov. (Russia Matters, 09.28.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley slammed a bid by Russia to shield Iran from inspections by IAEA. (Reuters, 09.28.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sept. 25 to discuss the Iranian nuclear program and the Syrian conflict. (Interfax, 09.26.17)
• Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has displayed the country’s sophisticated Russian-made S-300 air defense system in central Tehran. (AP, 09.24.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• U.S. officials are now considering reviving a Russian proposal from March to strengthen military-to-military contacts. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held two bilateral meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Much of what Tillerson told Lavrov remains unknown, but one diplomatic source said Tillerson expressed his support for meetings between U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford and their Russian counterparts. (BuzzFeed, 09.26.17, 09.26.17)
• The Zapad military exercise showed off a force that was marshaling itself “probably more quickly, more efficiently, with this underlying message that if you thought we were in decay, we’re not,” NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, British Gen. James Everard, said. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief Viktor Muzhenko claimed that Russia has left troops behind after staging war games in Belarus despite promising not to. The claim contradicts a statement by the Belarusian Defense Ministry saying that the last Russian troops left Belarus Sept. 28. (Reuters, 09.29.17, RFE/RL, 09.29.17, The Washington Post, 09.23.17)
• The U.S. Army has published the Russian New Generation Warfare Handbook that examines Russian hybrid military tactics and how the U.S. military can counter them. The Russian Embassy in the United States said it is alarmed by the “handbook.” (The National Interest, 09.22.17, The Moscow Times, 09.26.17)
• British Prime Minister Theresa May pledged that Britain will defend its allies from an increasing Russian threat even after Brexit. (Bloomberg, 09.28.17)
• The Dragon-17 exercise in northern Poland, which runs through Sept. 29, involves some 17,000 land, air force and navy troops and 3,500 units of equipment from 12 NATO and partner nations. (AP, 09.26.17)
• Top Macedonian officials say the Balkan nation will show why it should become the next country to join NATO. (RFE/RL, 09.27.17)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Arms control:

• U.S. officials plan to limit foreign flights over Hawaii and accesss to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia or Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, under the Treaty on Open Skies. The move protests Russia's imposition of limits on Open Skies flights over Kaliningrad.. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sept. 27 that Russia will retaliate. Russian officials claim that several countries party to Open Skies—including Canada, Georgia, Turkey and the U.S.—have placed limits on access to their territories under the treaty. (Reuters, 09.26.17, Wall Street Journal, 09.28.17, New York Times, 09.28.17, Wall Street Journal, 09.26.17)
• Remarks by Trump administration officials suggest the New START treaty will remain in force and the door remains open to pursuing an extension of the accord set to expire in 2021. (Reuters, 09.22.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• No significant developments.

Conflict in Syria:

• After meeting Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sept. 28 that the de facto conditions needed to end Syria’s civil war had been achieved. Erdogan said the talks focused on the specifics of securing a de-escalation zone in Syria’s northern Idlib province. Erdogan has earlier said his country is “achieving a result’’ by working with Russia in Syria. (TASS, 09.25.17, Bloomberg, 09.20.17, AP, 09.28.17, Reuters, 09.28.17)
• Russian Lt. Gen. Valery Asapov, killed near the city of Deir el-Zour, had been seconded to the Syrian government as a military commander, Russia’s military chief of staff said Sept. 27. "The death of the Russian commander is the price, the bloody price for the two-faced American policy in Syria," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said. The U.S. played no role in the death of the Russian general and does not assist Islamic State in Syria, the U.S. State Department said. (The Moscow Times, 09.26.17, RFE/RL, 09.25.17, Reuters, 09.28.17)
• The Russian Defense Ministry denied assertions from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that Russian air strikes had killed six civilians in Syria’s Idlib province. Russian and Syrian jets escalated strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Hama provinces several days after jihadist rebels struck government-held parts of northwestern Syria. (Reuters, 09.26.17, Reuters, 09.24.17)
• U.S.-backed Syrian militias said Russian warplanes struck their positions in the Deir el-Zour province Sept. 25, near a major natural gas field recently seized from Islamic State. The Russian Defense Ministry denied these allegations. (Reuters, 09.25.17, Reuters, 09.25.17)
• Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers have fired cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria’s Deir el-Zour and Idlib provinces, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sept. 26. (Reuters, 09.26.17)
• The Russian military has built a bridge across the Euphrates river near Deir el-Zour to move troops and vehicles to the other side to support a Syrian army offensive. (Reuters, 09.25.17) 
• Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Sept. 25 to discuss the Iranian nuclear program and the Syrian conflict. (Interfax, 09.26.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed in a phone conversation that the Astana talks have contributed to the Syrian settlement. (TASS, 09.25.17)

Cyber security:

• Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik, who is wanted in the United States in a $4 billion bitcoin fraud case, denied the charges against him Sept. 29 during an appearance in a Greek court to fight an extradition request. (AP, 09.29.17)
• The European Union on Sept. 28 held its first exercise to test its crisis response in countering hybrid and cyber threats. (RFE/RL, 09.28.17)
• Russia could ban Facebook next year if it fails to comply with a 2015 law requiring companies to store Russian citizens’ personal data on local servers. (The Moscow Times, 09.26.17)
• Russia’s Federal Security Service has demanded encryption keys to the popular Telegram messaging app, its founder Pavel Durov said. (The Moscow Times, 09.27.17, RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has used a private email account to conduct and discuss official White House business dozens of times. (The Washington Post, 09.24.17)

Elections interference:

• Russia didn’t carry out a particularly sophisticated operation in last year’s presidential campaign, and some of what it accomplished was probably accidental, said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. “Someone over there had a really good idea and it worked,” Evanina said. “Putin’s intent has been accomplished.” According to Evanina, national security agencies are certain Russia will try to influence future elections, but they don’t know how to stop it. (Bloomberg, 09.29.17)
• John Tefft, America’s outgoing ambassador to Russia, told Kommersant daily that cyberattacks carried out against the United States have had a terrible impact on U.S-Russian relations. He said that America wants Russia to acknowledge that it actually carried out these attacks, and to clearly state that it would never do so again. (Russia Matters, 09.28.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there has been a lengthy campaign claiming Russia interfered in the U.S. election to ensure victory for U.S. President Donald Trump—“but we do not see any facts.” When he asked U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson how Russia could confirm his words that Moscow interfered in the American election process, Lavrov said Tillerson replied: “I cannot show you anything because this is confidential information.” (AP, 09.22.17)
• The U.S. government on Sept. 22 notified 21 states that their voting systems were targeted by hackers in last year's presidential election, and several of the most closely contested states said the hackers were linked to the Russian government, including battleground states Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado and Minnesota. However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reversed course Sept. 26 and told Wisconsin officials that the Russian government did not scan the state's voter registration system, then later said it still believed Wisconsin was one of 21 targeted states. (RFE/RL, 09.23.17, AP, 09.26.17)
• Facebook, Twitter and Google are set to face intense public scrutiny from U.S. House and Senate intelligence panels as investigators focus on social media’s role in Russian election interference. Executives from all three companies were asked to appear before the Senate committee Nov. 1, while the House panel requested them next month. (Bloomberg, 09.27.17)
• Twitter said Russian-backed news site RT, which a U.S. intelligence report said aimed to meddle in the election, spent $274,100 on Twitter ads last year. Facebook said Russian actors spent $152,000 on its site. Twitter disabled 22 accounts after reviewing information from Facebook. The Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the past month, were associated with 470 accounts and pages that Facebook this month said came from the Internet Research Agency, a Russia-connected troll farm. (Wall Street Journal, 09.28.17, Bloomberg, 09.28.17, The Washington Post, 09.28.17)
  • Before Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had even secured nominations for president, Kremlin-funded media outlet RT was plotting to promote its election coverage in the United States. RT hoped to take over at least two Twitter accounts or handles for its media coverage: @NotHillary and @NotTrump. (Foreign Policy, 09.21.17)
  • Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, said its purchase of advertisements on Twitter was standard commercial practice that was being falsely presented as Russian meddling in U.S. affairs. (Reuters, 09.29.17)
• U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has criticized both Twitter and Facebook for failing to do more to investigate manipulation of their platforms and share more information with Congress. Warner also said Facebook has only been able to identify which ads were paid for in rubles, which he said isn’t sufficient because Russians could have purchased ads using other currencies. Facebook is expected to deliver to the House committee an estimated 3,000 documents next week. (Bloomberg, 09.29.17, Bloomberg, 09.27.17)
• Special counsel Robert Mueller has made Facebook a focus of his investigation. (Bloomberg, 09.27.17)
• Days after Facebook agreed to cooperate with Congress on its investigation of Russian election meddling, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the social network for being “anti-Trump.” (AP, 09.27.17)
• Nine days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as “crazy” the idea that fake news on his company’s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, former U.S. President Barak Obama made a personal appeal to Zuckerberg to take the threat of fake news and political disinformation seriously, although Facebook representatives say the president did not single out Russia specifically. (The Washington Post, 09.24.17)
• The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African American rights groups, including Black Lives Matter, and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat. A social media campaign calling itself "Blacktivist" and allegedly linked to the Russian government used both Facebook and Twitter in an apparent attempt to amplify racial tensions during the U.S. presidential election. (The Washington Post, 09.26.17, CNN, 09.28.17)
• Buzzfeed is seeking to force testimony by top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, about their knowledge of an unproven dossier on U.S. President Donald Trump’s purported activities involving Russia and allegations of Russian election interference. (AP, 09.28.17)
• The Senate Judiciary Committee has reached an agreement to subpoena documents from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as part of its ongoing probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. (AP, 09.26.17)
• Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, told members of the House Intelligence Committee on Sept. 26 that he had no involvement in what U.S. officials have called a Russian campaign of interference and disinformation during the 2016 presidential election. (Wall Street Journal, 09.26.17)
• Former Trump campaign adviser and White House communications official Boris Epshteyn interviewed behind closed doors with the House intelligence committee on Sept. 28. Epshteyn has drawn attention for his apparent dismissal of the intelligence community's assessment that Moscow tried to influence the 2016 presidential election. (The Hill, 09.28.17)
• Russian internet trolls are exploiting controversy over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to stir up divisions in the United States, a Republican on the Senate intelligence committee said. (AP, 09.27.17)
• After witnessing the role fake news and Russian interference played in the U.S. presidential election, many analysts worried a similar phenomenon would also plague the Sept. 24 German federal elections. Facebook said it launched a major effort in Germany to combat fake news during the election campaign, deploying new methods it has developed since U.S. President Donald Trump’s election in November 2016. (Bloomberg, 09.27.17)
• Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, said: “I wonder why the ‘imminent Russian interference’ in the German elections thesis, which was actively promoted by Berlin and other Western capitals during the first stage of the campaign, completely disappeared from the screens in the last couple of months?” (The Moscow Times, 09.25.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• No significant developments.

Bilateral economic ties:

• Russia’s antitrust watchdog has described U.S. company Schlumberger’s bid to take control of Russia’s largest oil and gas driller, Eurasia Drilling Company, as “a risk to the country” amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow. (Financial Times, 09.28.17)
• Starbucks is helping a European farming cooperative skirt Russia’s countersanctions by exporting milk in ready-made coffee drinks. (The Moscow Times, 09.28.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• The Trump administration is required by Oct. 1 to provide Congress with details on the implementation of Russia sanctions the president signed into law in August. (BuzzFeed, 09.26.17)
• Jon Huntsman has been confirmed as Washington’s ambassador to Moscow, following the departure of John Tefft on Sept. 28. The Senate also confirmed A. Wess Mitchell as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. (The Moscow Times, 09.29.17,  Politico, 09.28.17) 
• U.S. and Russian space agencies have announced a new collaboration to build a space station orbiting the moon. NASA and Roscosmos released statements Sept. 27 saying they had signed an agreement to work together on a project that will eventually serve as a "gateway to deep space and the lunar surface.” (RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin filed court papers in Texas denying claims by Exxon Mobil Corp. that a $2 million fine assessed against the energy company in July, over alleged “egregious” violations of sanctions against Russia three years ago, was unconstitutional. (Bloomberg, 09.26.17)
• Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, on Sept. 29 accused CNN International of violating Russian media law. A day earlier, the Russian foreign ministry accused Washington of putting unwarranted pressure on the U.S operations of Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, and warned that Moscow could take tit-for-tat measures. (Reuters, 09.29.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Almost 70% of Russia’s banking sector is now under state control, and the proportion across the broader economy has doubled in the past decade or so. (Financial Times, 09.27.17)
• Russia’s sovereign rating would be one notch higher than its current BBB- level if not for the latest round of U.S. sanctions. (Reuters, 09.28.17)
• Russia has the fastest-growing number of dollar millionaires in the world, the consulting company Capgemini said. In 2016, the number of people with assets worth $1 million or more in Russia rose by 19.7% (The Moscow Times, 09.29.17)
• HSBC Bank’s annual list of the world’s best places to live for expats this year ranks Russia 32 out of 46 countries. (The Moscow Times, 09.27.17)
• The Russian government is offering simplified Russian citizenship in exchange for a $10 million investment in the Far East. (The Moscow Times, 09.28.17)
• Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been named the new chairman of Russian state oil giant Rosneft. (AP, 09.29.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed several governors this week, including the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Valery Shantsev and head of the Samara Oblast, Nikolai Merkushkin. The governor of Krasnoyarsy Krai, Viktor Tolokonsky, and the governor of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, have also been relieved of their duties this week. (RFE/RL, 09.26.17, Gazeta.ru, 09.29.17)
• Former Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak on Sept. 27 formally assumed his duties representing Russia's Republic of Mordovia in the upper chamber of the legislature. (RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been released after about 10 hours in custody after being detained outside his home in Moscow, a move he said was aimed at preventing him from speaking at a rally in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. (RFE/RL, 09.29.17)
• The Kremlin and a slew of Russian government agencies are including political channels hosted on the Telegram messaging app in their regular media monitoring diet. (The Moscow Times, 09.25.17)
• The blockbuster film "Matilda," about the romance between Russia's last czar and a ballerina, has inflamed a simmering culture war between artists and conservative activists, testing the Kremlin's ability to promote conservative values without unleashing a reactionary pogrom. (The Washington Post, 09.25.17)
• A Russian court has ruled that doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov should be arrested if he returns to his home country. (AP, 09.28.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of the last of Russia’s chemical weapons on Sept. 27 in a televised broadcast in which he slammed the United States for failing to decommission its chemical stockpile. (The Moscow Times, 09.28.17)
• Russia has conducted a massive drill of its road mobile intercontinental ballistic missile force. The drills involved all major Russian mobile ICBMs, including the Topol, Topol-M and the Yars. “More than 600 piece[s] of hardware including launchers, were operated to ensure combat patrol en route,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. (The National Interest, 09.28.17)
• Special forces from Russia and Pakistan have begun a two-week joint training exercise in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia. (RFE/RL, 09.25.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• The grave of terrorist leader Doku Umarov assassinated by Russian forces in 2013 has been discovered in the mountains of the republic of Ingushetia. (The Moscow Times, 09.28.17)
• Moscow is adding facial-recognition technology to its network of 170,000 surveillance cameras across the city in a move to identify criminals and boost security. (Bloomberg, 09.27.17)
• Two top figures at Russia’s 10th largest airline, VIM Airlines, have been detained after thousands of people were left stranded and investigators opened a fraud case. (The Moscow Times, 09.28.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc won the election by slightly over 33%, with turnout estimated at three-quarters of Germany’s 82-million population. Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov attributed the ruling bloc’s smallest share of the vote since the 1940s to “a syndrome of fatigue with Merkel.” (The Moscow Times, 09.25.17)
• Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said Sept. 26 that Kurds had voted “yes” to independence in a referendum held in defiance of Baghdad and which had angered their neighbors and U.S. allies. Russia on Sept. 27 warned Iraq and the Kurds against taking any steps that might destabilize the Middle East, encouraging both sides to hold talks to find a solution within the framework of a single Iraqi state. (Reuters, 09.27.17, Reuters, 09.26.17)
• Russia has received an advance payment from Turkey for S-400 surface-to-air missile systems which Ankara is buying from Moscow and would like to take delivery of before 2019. (Reuters, 09.29.17)
• Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s biggest oil exporter, is in talks with Sibur Holding PJSC, Russia’s largest petrochemical producer, about forming a joint venture to make synthetic rubber in Saudi Arabia. (Bloomberg, 09.26.17)

China:

• No significant developments.

Ukraine:

• U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee said he recommended that the United States provide lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine to help the country "protect [its] sovereignty." (RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• John Tefft, America’s outgoing ambassador to Russia, told Kommersant daily that the proposed U.N. peacekeeping forces in Ukraine should be given a broad mandate allowing them to work on the entire territory affected by the conflict. This includes international control on the Ukrainian side of the Ukraine-Russia border, so that deepening or institutionalizing the dividing lines within Ukraine can be avoided. If there’s progress in implementation of the Minsk II deal, then the U.S. will be ready to ease some sanctions on Russia. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has earlier said that Russia’s involvement in the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Ukraine is “absolutely impossible.” (Russia Matters, 09.28.17, TASS, 09.26.17)
• Ukraine’s president on Sept. 25 signed a controversial law restructuring Ukraine’s education system and specifying that Ukrainian will be the main language used in schools, rolling back the option for lessons to be taught in other languages. Russia, Moldova, Hungary and Romania have expressed concerns that the bill would infringe on the rights of ethnic minorities. In response, Hungary has pledged to block Ukraine's further integration with Europe, and Romania’s president canceled an upcoming visit to Ukraine in protest. A number of the new legislation’s provisions are inappropriate, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. (AP, 09.26.17, AP, 09.20.17, Interfax, 09.26.17, RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• Russia is helping Ukrainian rebels sell coal on international markets to raise cash for pensions and social needs, evading a blockade imposed by Kiev as efforts to implement a peace deal remain stalled. The separatists are sending nearly 1 million tons of coal per month to Russia as of August. (Bloomberg, 09.28.17)
• The U.N. human rights office said in a report on Sept. 25 that Russia is violating international law in Crimea, including by imposing Russian citizenship on its people and deliberately transferring hundreds of prisoners and detainees to prisons in Russia. Moscow considers these allegations to be “groundless,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said. (Reuters, 09.27.17, AP, 09.25.17)
• The international journalist organization Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project has claimed Ukraine is involved in a network that is illegally re-exporting arms from EU countries to Africa and the Middle East. (Interfax, 09.26.17)
• Explosions at two large Ukrainian military depots this year have caused losses of ammunition so high that they represent the biggest blow to Ukraine's combat capability since the start of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in 2014, said Mykola Chechotkin, chief of Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations. (RFE/RL, 09.28.17)
• Russia’s Federal Security Service says a Russian soldier has been detained, along with a "female acquaintance," on suspicion of spying for Kiev in Crimea. (RFE/RL, 09.29.17)
• A Belarusian court has sentenced Belarusian national Alyaksey Yarshou to a two-year suspended sentence for fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 09.26.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Moldova's pro-Russian president, Igor Dodon, has warned his country's pro-Western government against impeaching him, saying it could trigger a revolution. (RFE/RL, 09.27.17)
• The European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have signed a joint commitment on coordinating efforts to achieve the safe and sustainable environmental remediation of uranium legacy sites in Central Asia under a newly published strategic master plan. (World Nuclear News, 09.25.17)
• Swedish prosecutors have charged three former executives from the Telia Company with corruption a day after the telecom giant agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in penalties to help settle a years-long corruption probe involving bribes paid in Uzbekistan. (RFE/RL, 09.22.17)
• Uzbekistan's government says private citizens will be allowed to purchase foreign cash as of Oct. 1 for the first time since the Soviet breakup of 1991. (RFE/RL, 09.25.17)
• Kyrgyz authorities say they have thwarted a terrorist plot by unidentified “members of banned extremist groups” targeting the ongoing presidential election campaign. (RFE/RL, 09.23.17)
• Rights groups and activists on Sept. 28 said dozens of gay people have been jailed in Azerbaijan in recent weeks, and called for their release. (RFE/RL, 09.28.17)
• After nine months of bitter public debate, on Sept. 26 Georgia’s majority Georgian Dream party adopted controversial constitutional amendments seen by opposition parties as unfair and intended to enable Georgian Dream to remain in power indefinitely. (RFE/RL, 09.29.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.