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

Nuclear security and safety:

• The National Nuclear Security Administration’s review of its 2017 accomplishments refers to the agency’s partnership with the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Kazakhstan to remove its remaining Russian-origin highly-enriched uranium (HEU). The NNSA has helped remove or down-blend 200 kilograms of HEU from the INP, enough for eight nuclear weapons, according to the review. (Russia Matters, 01.02.18)
• The Russian navy’s Caspian Flotilla underwent training to respond to radioactive contamination, according to a Jan. 3 statement posted on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website. The overall goal of the exercise was to prepare for responding to the use of weapons of mass destruction. (Russia Matters, 01.03.18)
• The $11 billion Ostrovets nuclear power project in Belarus, 30 miles from Lithuania's capital, is fueling fears in the Baltic republic. Lithuanians say they don't think Moscow would trigger a nuclear accident, but they do worry about a panic-inducing warning of a leak—real or not. (Wall Street Journal, 12.24.17)
• U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s reorganization of the department won’t impact the duties of the undersecretary for nuclear security, who also leads the $12.9 billion National Nuclear Security Administration. (Sciencemag, 12.21.17)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• “We have a nuclear menace out there, which is no good for China, and it's not good for Russia. It's no good for anybody,” U.S. President Donald Trump said (New York Times, 12.28.17) 
• According to the U.S. State Department, in a Dec. 26 phone call, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed on the need for a diplomatic solution to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. But according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov complained that "Washington's aggressive rhetoric about Pyongyang" and "war preparations" were escalating tensions in the region. Lavrov said he is "united in opinion" with Tillerson on the issue, but that they differ on how to resolve the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.  (Wall Street Journal, 12.29.17, RFE/RL, 12.26.17)
• Russia could host talks between the United States and North Korea if Moscow is asked to do so. (Reuters, 12.29.17)
• Russia welcomes North and South Korea’s readiness to resume dialogue, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry source. (Reuters, 01.05.18)
• Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, providing an economic lifeline to North Korea. (Reuters, 12.29.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The U.N. Security Council has gone into a Russia-sought closed-door session before a scheduled emergency meeting called by the United States to discuss the deadly antigovernment protests in Iran. Russia opposed the U.S. call for the Jan. 5 Security Council meeting and requested the closed-door consultations ahead of that session. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Jan. 5 that U.S. calls for the emergency meeting interfere with Iran’s sovereignty. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has earlier castigated the United States for supporting anti-government protests in Iran, after the U.S. envoy to the U.N. pledged to support the protesters. At least 21 people have reportedly died in nationwide demonstrations. (RFE/RL, 01.05.18, Reuters, 01.05.18, The Moscow Times, 01.03.18)
• Russia is going “to pay a huge price” for supporting Iran’s regime and its vision for the Middle East, White House’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has said. (Newsweek, 01.05.17)
• Some Iranian protesters have been using Telegram, a smartphone messaging app that people have used to share information about demonstrations and videos of gatherings. Telegram's chief executive, Pavel Durov, said in a statement over the weekend that the government was blocking access to Telegram for the majority of Iranians. (Wall Street Journal, 01.02.18)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• “I hope I'm wrong, but there's a war coming,” Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert Neller told a U.S. Marine rotational force near Trondheim, about 300 miles north of Oslo. The general had also told the troops none of the four countries he had referenced—Russia, China, Iran and North Korea—wanted to go to war. (The Washington Post, 12.23.17)
• “We … have to deter further conflict with Russia,” White House adviser H.R. McMaster said. “What we’d like to do is find areas where we can cooperate with Russia in areas where our interests overlap,” he said. “One of those areas we’ve been talking about is in North Korea and other is in Iran.” (RFE/RL, 01.03.18)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the U.S. security strategy unveiled by President Donald Trump as "aggressive," saying Moscow would take that into account in its own actions. Speaking at the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on Dec. 22, Putin claimed the United States and NATO were engaged in a military buildup in Europe that Putin said was of an "offensive, aggressive character." (RFE/RL, 12.22.17)
• Moscow will limit the scope of U.S. military observation flights over Russia from Jan. 1 in retaliation for U.S. curbs on similar Russian flights over the United States. (Reuters, 12.27.17).
• Russia has proposed restarting working groups of military officials to tackle technical issues, including air safety and defensive exercises. NATO officials say any experts-level talks would look too much like a return to the old level of engagement before 2014. (Wall Street Journal, 12.27.17)
• Russian submarines have dramatically stepped up activity around undersea data cables in the North Atlantic, part of a more aggressive naval posture that has driven NATO to revive a Cold War-era command. (The Washington Post, 12.22.17)
• British ships and a helicopter were dispatched over the Christmas holiday weekend to track an “upsurge” of Russian naval vessels passing near British waters. At least four Russian ships, including a warship and an intelligence-gathering ship, passed near British waters. (The Washington Post, 12.26.17)
• Turkey and Russia on Dec. 29 signed an accord for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries. (Reuters, 12.29.17)
• Bridges, tunnels, roads, railways and ports in Western Europe constructed in the past 25 years are not built to carry large numbers of heavy U.S. military vehicles. (Financial Times, 01.02.18)
• A new report in the German newspaper Bild, citing anonymous Western intelligence sources, claims that Russia’s Zapad-2017 exercise in September was a dress rehearsal for a massive invasion of NATO territory. While it may be general knowledge that Zapad is historically an exercise aimed at a contingency with NATO, much of what Bild claimed is not only untrue, it simply does not make military sense, according to Michael Kofman, a senior research scientist at the U.S. Navy-funded Center for Naval Analysis  (The National Interest, 12.22.17, Russian Military Analysis, 12.22.17)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated retired military officer Andrea L. Thompson as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. (AllGov, 12.26.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Dec.30 that it had indicted on terrorism charges a suspect who allegedly organized and carried out a bombing that injured 13 people in a St. Petersburg supermarket this week. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the blast, but did not provide evidence to support its assertion. (Reuters, 12.31.17)

Conflict in Syria:

• “While we are on guard against Russian aggression, we recognize the need to work with Russia where mutual interests intersect. Nowhere is that more evident than in Syria. Now that President Vladimir Putin has committed to the United Nations-backed Geneva political process for providing a new future for Syria, we expect Russia to follow through,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote in an op-ed. (New York Times, 12.27.17)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry denied a report in the daily newspaper Kommersant that seven Russian planes had been destroyed by rebel shelling at Syria’s Hmeimim air base on Dec. 31. According to the report, more than 10 servicemen were wounded and at least four Su-24 bombers, two Su-35S fighters and an An-72 transport plane, as well as an ammunition depot, were destroyed in the attack by “radical Islamists.” However, Russian military journalist Roman Saponkov has published photos of the damaged Russian warplanes on social media site vKontakte, listing the losses as: six Su-24s, one Su-35S, one An-72, one An-30 spy plane and one Mi-8 helicopter. Only one Su-24 and the Su-35S had later been put back into service, he added. (Reuters, 01.05.18, BBC, 01.05.18)
• The Russian military says one of its helicopters crashed during an emergency landing in Syria’s west, killing both pilots onboard on Dec. 31. (AP, 01.03.18)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 29 signed a law ratifying an agreement that allows Russia to expand operations at its naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus. Russia has already started establishing a permanent military presence at Tartus as well as at the Hmeimim air base. (RFE/RL, 12.29.17, Reuters, 12.26.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Russian soldiers on Dec. 28 for their actions in Syria, saying the Russian campaign there has demonstrated the might of the nation’s revamped military to the world. Putin also told his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad that Russia would “continue to render every assistance to Syria in the protection of state sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, in the promotion of a political settlement process, as well as in efforts to restore the national economy.” (AP, 12.28.17, Reuters, 12.30.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Dec. 27 the main part of the battle with Islamic State in Syria was over. According to Lavrov, the key task in Syria now is to “destroy Jabhat al-Nusra,” referring to the al Qaeda-linked group known in English as Nusra Front. (Reuters, 12.27.17)
• Syrian rebel groups on Dec. 25 rejected Russia’s planned Sochi conference on Syria, saying Moscow was seeking to bypass a U.N.-based Geneva peace process and blaming Russia for committing war crimes in the war-torn country. Russia has promised that the autonomous region controlled by Kurds in northern Syria will be represented at the Sochi conference. (Reuters, 12.27.17, Reuters, 12.25.17)
• The chief of the Russian General Staff has accused the United States of training former Islamic State fighters at Tanf in Syria to try to destabilize the country. The United States says the Tanf facility is a temporary base used to train partner forces to fight Islamic State. (Reuters, 12.27.17)
• Fewer than 1,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, a third of the estimated figure only three weeks ago. Despite saying that the Syrian government is not doing enough to stop Islamic State militants from moving through its territory, the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group does not intend to target militants in those areas. (Reuters, 12.27.17, Reuters, 12.27.17)
• Moscow says that U.S. bombers and reconnaissance aircraft "reacted nervously" when Russia's advanced S-300V4 air defense systems tracked them at ranges of 200 to 300 kilometers (125 to 186 miles) over Syria, said Lt. Gen. Alexander Leonov, chief of Russia's air defense Forces. (The National Interest, 01.03.18)
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 27 called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a terrorist and said it was impossible for Syrian peace efforts to continue with Assad. (Reuters, 12.27.17)

Cyber security:

• While the U.S. government hasn’t offered conclusive evidence about Kaspersky Labs’ possible ties to Russian intelligence, Wall Street Journal interviews with current and former U.S. government officials reveal what is driving their suspicions. (Wall Street Journal, 01.05.18)

Elections interference:

• In a forthcoming book about the Trump White House, Steve Bannon calls meetings between Trump’s family members and Russian operatives “treasonous,” among other statements. He also said that Mueller will “crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV” over his meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said of Bannon. (Bloomberg, 01.04.18)
• “And by the way, I didn't deal with Russia. I won because I was a better candidate by a lot,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats. There was no collusion with respect to my campaign,” he said. (New York Times, 12.28.17)
• U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 5 accused the “Fake News Media” of hitting him “at every new front imaginable” about a new tell-all book out of frustration that claims of collusion with Russia are a “total hoax.” “Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable,” Trump said in a tweet. (New York Post, 01.05.18)
• U.S. President Donald Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Department's investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. Two Republican House members are calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, criticizing his Justice Department for not cooperating with Congress and for leaks related to its Russia investigation. (AP, 01.04.18, AP, 01.04.18)
• During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain, Alexander Downer: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. About three weeks earlier, Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign. (New York Times, 12.30.17)
• With the 2018 elections fast approaching, the debate over how to deal with Russia continues. Many in the Trump White House, including the president, play down the effects of Russian interference and complain that the U.S. intelligence report on the 2016 election has been weaponized by Democrats seeking to undermine Trump. (The Washington Post, 12.25.17)
• Top White House adviser H.R. McMaster says one of the most important tasks in defending U.S. national security is to reveal Russia’s “insidious” interference in elections worldwide to prevent Moscow from meddling again in the democratic process. (RFE/RL, 01.03.18)
• Top federal law enforcement officials met with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Jan. 3 to discuss a request from congressional investigators for documents related to a dossier alleging connections between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia. Hours later, a deal was apparently reached. The meeting took place hours before a deadline set by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes for the FBI and Justice Department to turn over documents related to the agencies’ use of information in a now-famous dossier as part of an investigation into alleged ties between Trump's campaign and Russian officials. (The Washington Post, 01.04.18)
• Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham recommended Jan. 5 that the Justice Department investigate for possible criminal charges the author of the now-famous dossier alleging the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the 2016 election. The move marks a major escalation in conservatives’ challenges to the FBI’s credibility. (The Washington Post, 01.05.18)
• The chairmen of the two Republican-run investigations—being conducted by the House and Senate intelligence committees—have expressed confidence in recent interviews that they are in the home stretch of the Russia inquiries. But Democrats on the House panel complain they are being denied the ability to call key witnesses and obtain documents. (Wall Street Journal, 01.01.18)
  • House Republicans are stepping up their defense of the rigor of their probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, detailing for the first time the full extent of the Intelligence Committee's year-long inquiry, while Democrats warn the committee's work may be coming to a premature end. Democrats have been so frustrated in their attempts to convince Republicans to call key witnesses to appear that they may soon make those specific requests public, "so that the public can see in very graphic terms what the majority has deemed unworthy of investigation." (NBC, 01.04.18)
• U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington agreed on Jan. 4 that information sought by the House Intelligence Committee from Fusion GPS is pertinent to its Russia probe. The judge rejected Fusion GPS’s argument that disclosure of the data could reveal secrets about the firm’s clients and devastate its business. (Bloomberg, 01.04.18)
• U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, once sidelined by an ethics inquiry from leading the House Intelligence Committee's Russia probe, is reasserting the full authority of his position as chairman just as the GOP appears poised to challenge special counsel Robert  Mueller 's investigation. (The Washington Post, 12.31.17)
• Paul Manafort has filed a lawsuit challenging the legal authority of special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia probe. (AP, 01.04.18)

Energy exports from CIS:

• Russia’s oil industry continued its long-term expansion last year, with production hitting a record. The nation’s oil output increased to an average 10.98 million barrels a day in 2017, up 0.1 percent from the previous year—the ninth consecutive annual increase to the highest level since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. (Bloomberg, 01.02.18)
• Russia’s output of natural gas jumped 7.9 percent to 690.5 billion cubic meters in 2017, beating the previous record, set in 2011, by 2.9 percent. (Bloomberg, 01.02.18)
• Russia's gas exports to Europe rose 8.1 percent last year to a record level of 193.9 billion cubic meters, despite rising competition and concerns about the country’s dominance of supply. (Financial Times, 01.03.18)
• Russia is already China’s biggest oil supplier, and will probably boost exports to the country by 200,000 barrels a day in 2018 from a year earlier. China is set to top Japan as world's biggest natural gas importer in 2018. (Bloomberg, 01.03.18, Reuters, 01.03.18)

Bilateral economic ties:

• No significant developments.

Analysis and recommendations:

• No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

• Herman Gref, chief executive of Sberbank, says potentially far-ranging new U.S. sanctions would “make the Cold War look like child’s play” if implemented early in 2018. Worsening relations between the U.S. and Russia has added to fears that exclusion from the Swift payment system may now be on the cards. The U.S. Treasury is due to deliver a report to Congress by early February on oligarchs and “parastatal entities” close to Russian President Vladimir Putin that is likely to be used as basis for further action. (Financial Times, 12.24.17)
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to scrap penalties on funds repatriated from abroad is an attempt to protect Russian businesses from the “brutal infringements” they face in the West, the Kremlin said. (Reuters, 12.26.17)
  • Russian businessman Grigory Berezkin was among those who floated the idea of issuing a special treasury bond to repatriate funds back to Russia to mitigate against the risk of new U.S. sanctions. (Reuters, 12.29.17)
  • Many foreign investors appeared to be using the last days of 2017 to pull money out of Russia amid concern that new U.S. sanctions in 2018 may target Russian oligarchs and state corporations close to the Kremlin. Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects Russia to experience an overall drop of nearly $1 billion in foreign investment in 2017 as a result of the year-end exodus. (RFE/RL, 12.27.17)
  • ''When it comes to state-sensitive types of activities, this instrument suits us very well,'' one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's aides, Sergei Glazyev, said in a December conversation about the crypto ruble. ''We can settle payments with our business partners all over the world regardless of sanctions.'' (New York Times, 01.03.18)
• In a New Year telegram to U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a constructive dialogue between the two nations is essential for global stability. The timing of the next meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet been discussed. (RFE/RL, 12.30.17, Reuters, 12.25.17)
• Facebook says it blocked the social-media accounts of Ramzan Kadyrov because the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader had become subject to financial and travel sanctions imposed by the U.S. government. (RFE/RL, 12.29.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Volunteers began to collect signatures in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 2018 presidential candidate in several districts of Moscow, Vladislav Martsalenko, head of the Moscow headquarters of the Volunteers of Victory said Jan. 5. Russian President Vladimir Putin presented his vision for modernizing Russia on Dec. 24, while some of his challengers in March’s presidential vote were formally nominated for the race. “Russia is a country with a 1,000-year history, but we mustn’t treat her like our grandmother, just giving her pills to relieve her pain,” he said. (AP, 12.23.17, TASS, 01.05.18)
• Russian authorities will investigate whether opposition leader Alexei Navalny is breaking the law with his campaign for boycotting next year’s presidential election, the Kremlin said Dec. 28. Navalny was formally barred from the ballot, but has appealed the Russian Supreme Court ruling that bars him from registering as a 2018 presidential candidate. (AP, 12.28.17, The Moscow Times, 01.03.18)
• The world's richest people got $1 trillion richer in 2017, according to a new report from Bloomberg News. Russia's 27 richest residents added $29 billion to grow to $275 billion. (The Washington Post, 12.27.17)
• Russia's latest nuclear power reactor, Rostov 4, reached criticality and minimum controlled power on Dec. 29. (World Nuclear News, 01.02.18)
• Russia plans to start construction in 2018 of a nuclear fuel fabrication facility for its lead-cooled fast-neutron Brest-OD-300 reactor, Siberian Chemical Combine said on Dec. 27. (World Nuclear News, 12.29.17)
• The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, has approved amendments to the law governing Rosatom, which give the state nuclear corporation's supervisory board the power to approve the development and financing of nuclear power projects. (World Nuclear News, 12.26.17)
• Russia looks likely to fall from 11th to 17th place among the world’s largest economies by 2032 in dollar terms, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research consultancy’s 2018 World Economic League Table. (Reuters, 12.25.17)
• A group of Russian legislators have suggested expanding the country’s law on NGOs so that individuals, not just organizations, can be labeled as foreign agents, recent reports from Ekho Moskvy independent radio indicate. (Bellona, 01.04.18)

Defense and aerospace:

• In November, Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, confirmed that Moscow planned to reassign some deterrence missions from nuclear to conventional assets at an undefined future time. (The National Interest, 12.25.17)
• In December 2017, the Russian air force started combat operations at three early-warning radars—in Barnaul, Yeniseysk and Orsk. (Russianforces.org, 12.30.17)
• Sources in the military or defense industry tell Russian press that the first ejection test of the Sarmat missile did take place in Plesetsk. (Russianforces.org, 12.29.17)
• The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces continue their tradition of conducting about half the launches they say they plan to conduct. The 2017 plan included "more than ten" missile launches. The actual number was six. (Russianforces.org, 12.29.17)
• Russia’s contribution to the fifth generation of air combat super-fighters moved ahead tangibly in early December with the successful flight of the first Sukhoi Su-57 using its new, upgraded Izdeliye-30 turbofan engine. (Aviatonist, 12.22.17)
• Russia has started development of a new unmanned strike aircraft in the same general class as the General Atomics Avenger. (The National Interest, 01.04.18)
• The number of people in Russia's armed forces has decreased by almost 300 to just over 1.9 million men and women. (The Moscow Times, 01.01.18)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Andrei Rudomakha, leader of a prominent Russian environmental group, Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus, has been brutally beaten by unknown attackers. (AP, 12.29.17)
• Authorities in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya say they killed a man after he allegedly shot and killed a police officer. (RFE/RL, 01.04.18)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• French President Emmanuel Macron plans to attend the St. Petersburg International Financial Congress in May. France is the largest foreign investor in Russia, and French companies are the largest foreign employer, with nearly 170,000 staff. (Wall Street Journal, 12.29.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree restoring Russian flights to the Egyptian capital, two years after flights were suspended following a deadly terrorist attack on a passenger jet bound for Russia. (The Moscow Times, 01.04.18)
• Turkey has arrested the organizer of an exhibition in Ankara where a gunman assassinated the Russian ambassador in December 2016. (RFE/RL, 12.28.17)
• Russian journalist Olga Kurlayeva says authorities in Latvia have given her 24 hours to leave the country, accusing her of being a threat to national security. Kurlayeva’s husband, Russian TVTs reporter Anatoly Kurlayev, was detained and deported after he arrived in Riga on Jan. 1. (RFE/RL, 01.05.18)

China:

• Russia's central bank says it is considering introducing a digital currency within the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and the so-called BRICS countries. (RFE/RL, 12.28.17)
• The state-owned Chinese shipping giant, known as COSCO, became the 49 percent owner this past summer of a patch of frost-covered asphalt bisected by railway tracks and lined with warehouses in landlocked Kazakhstan. The Khorgos Gateway is to become a “dry port” for handling cargo for trains rather than ships. It takes 45 to 50 days to send goods from Chinese factories to Europe by sea, but less than half that time by train through Central Asia.  (New York Times, 01.01.18)
• “People really are worried about the Chinese buying everything here. They build huge hotels. They tear down and change the façades,” said Viktor Sinkov, head of the legal department in the municipal government of Listvyanka, located on shores of Siberia’s Lake Baikal. He said that Chinese tour groups made a point of telling visitors that Lake Baikal was part of China during the Tang and Han dynasties. (Financial Times, 01.04.18)

Ukraine:

• U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the U.S. role in Ukraine is not changing and Russia has no cause for concern about a U.S. decision to supply new weapons to Kiev. The United States has not specified what new weapons it will provide to Ukraine, but U.S. media reports have said they could include Javelin antitank missiles, which Ukraine has urged the United States to supply. "As long as no one wants to invade Ukraine, hopefully it won't have any big impact. They're defensive weapons," Mattis said on Dec. 29, in his first remarks since the U.S. State Department announced approval of "enhanced defensive capabilities" for Ukraine on Dec. 22. “The United States has crossed a line by announcing its intention to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Dec. 30 in reference to the sale. (RFE/RL, 12.30.17)
• U.S. plans to arm Ukraine infuriated Russia and aggravated deteriorating relations, but a bigger worry is the weapons falling into enemy hands—as has happened before. Separatist forces overwhelmed the government troops near Debaltseve in 2014. After that, pro-Kremlin media triumphantly published pictures of the components of one of the U.S.-delivered short-range radar systems in their boxes. (Wall Street Journal, 01.04.18)
• Ukraine’s foreign minister says his country will use U.S.-supplied lethal weapons only for defense. (AP, 01.03.18)
• “Absent a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine situation, which must begin with Russia's adherence to the Minsk agreements, there cannot be business as usual with Russia,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote in an op-ed. (New York Times, 12.27.17)
• U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a call to Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, urged Russia to moderate its stance toward Ukraine, the U.S. State Department said on Dec 27. Tillerson urged Russia on the call to rejoin the joint Ukrainian-Russian monitoring effort. Tillerson also discussed the recent increase in violence during a phone call Dec. 22 with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (Wall Street Journal, 12.29.17, The Washington Post, 12.23.17)
• When in Kiev, Germany's foreign minister called for the establishment of an armed U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine before Russia's March presidential election. (RFE/RL, 01.04.18)
• Ukraine and pro-Russian separatist rebels conducted the largest exchange of prisoners since conflict broke out in 2014, sending hundreds of captives home to their families on Dec. 27 ahead of New Year and Orthodox Christmas. According to the terms of the deal, Kiev was meant to hand over 306 prisoners to the rebels and receive 74 prisoners in return. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has also ordered his government to "immediately" resume talks with Moscow on the release of Ukrainian citizens from Russian custody following the swap. (Reuters, 12.27.17, RFE/RL, 12.28.17)
• A classified GRU report obtained by The Washington Post provides a unique window into one GRU team’s effort across six days in 2014. Starting the day after Viktor Yanukovych’s fall, the military spies created a slew of fake personas on Facebook and its Russian equivalent VKontakte. The personas were meant to represent ordinary people from across Ukraine who were disillusioned with opposition protests at Kiev’s central square. The GRU also used paid ads on Facebook to increase the groups’ popularity. (The Washington Post, 12.25.17)
• Interpreter Stanislav Yezhov, who accompanied Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman in private talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia. (The Washington Post, 12.23.17)
• The Ukrainian police reported seizing about 2,500 hand grenades this year, compared with 100 in 2013. (New York Times, 12.24.17)
• The National Police office of the Kiev region says activist attorney Iryna Nozdrovska died of multiple stab wounds in what was described as a “violent death.” Nozdrovska was reported missing on Dec. 29 after she helped to make sure the man convicted of causing the death of her sister was not released from prison. (RFE/RL, 01.03.18)
• Ukraine’s trade with Russia is rebounding, seeing a 28.6 percent rise through November. Imports jumped by 38.6 percent, while Ukraine’s exports east rose 11.9 percent, the National Bank of Ukraine reports. To the west, Ukraine’s exports to the EU jumped by almost one third. (Ukraine Business Journal, 01.03.17)
• Transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine’s gas transportation system increased by 13 percent in 2017, hitting 93 billion cubic meters, the highest level since 2011, Naftogaz reports. (Ukraine Business Journal, 01.03.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has vowed to pursue reforms and called on officials across the Central Asian country to improve communications with ordinary people. Mirziyoev spoke on Dec. 22 in a broadcasted end-of-year address to parliament that was billed by his office as Uzbekistan's first-ever state-of-the-nation speech. (RFE/RL, 12.22.17)
• Uzbekistan's Finance Ministry has dismissed 562 employees after President Shavkat Mirziyoev harshly criticized the ministry's performance and ordered it to get rid of inefficient officials, whom he called "rats." (RFE/RL, 12.27.17)
• Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s press service says he has reached an agreement with Kazakh Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintaev to work within the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union to resolve bilateral disputes. (RFE/RL, 12.26.17)
• A direct bus-service link between the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, and the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent has resumed after a 17-year pause. (RFE/RL, 01.05.18) 
• The Tbilisi city court has found former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili guilty of abuse of power in connection with a 2006 murder case and sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison. (RFE/RL, 01.05.18)
• Moldova's pro-Moscow president, Igor Dodon, has rejected a Constitutional Court decision to temporarily suspend his powers amid a standoff over ministerial appointments with his opponents in Chisinau's pro-Western government. (RFE/RL, 01.02.18)
• Moldova's top court has suspended pro-Russian President Igor Dodon after he vetoed a bill aimed at banning so-called "media propaganda" from Russia. Moldova's Constitutional Court also ruled that the government does not need Dodon’s signature in order to enact the law. It is the third time that the court has suspended Dodon in three months. (RFE/RL, 01.05.18, BBC, 01.05.18)
• Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka has signed a decree legalizing transactions in cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. (RFE/RL, 12.22.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• Meetings with Russians at NATO, one Western official said, are "like talking to the radio." (Wall Street Journal, 12.27.17)