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

Nuclear security:

• NNSA and the International Atomic Energy Agency hosted training last month on State Systems of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. (NNSA, 06.08.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• China supports Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization security bloc, jointly led by China and Russia, and the subject will be discussed at the group's summit this week, a senior diplomat said on May 29. (Reuters, 06.04.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that he once raised the possibility of Russia joining NATO with then-President Bill Clinton, and that Clinton said he had "no objection.” Putin delivered this account in a series of interviews with U.S. film director Oliver Stone set to air later this month on the U.S. television network Showtime. The Russian leader recalled one of his final meetings with Clinton, who left office in January 2001. "During the meeting I said, 'we would consider an option that Russia might join NATO,'" Putin says. "Clinton answered, 'I have no objection.' But the entire U.S. delegation got very nervous." (RFE/RL, 06.03.17)
• About 25,000 military forces from the United States and 23 other countries will take part in a large-scale military exercise called "Saber Guardian" planned in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania next month. (Reuters, 06.07.17)
• Montenegro became the 29th member of NATO on June 5 and was praised by the United States for sticking to its path of joining the Western military alliance in spite of Russian pressure. Russia warned of retaliation against Montenegro's "hostile course" and condemned the country's "anti-Russian hysteria." (Reuters, 06.05.17)
• The Russian defense ministry said in a statement on June 6 that it had to scramble a Su-27 aircraft to the area over the Baltic Sea on the morning of June 6 to escort a U.S. B-52 bomber until it flew further away from the border. In a separate incident, a Russian MiG-31 was dispatched early on the afternoon of June 6 to intercept Norwegian maritime surveillance aircraft flying over the Barents Sea near the Russian border, the Russian defense ministry said. (AP, 06.06.17)
• European Union leaders urged the EU on June 9 to raise its defense spending for its own sake, not because of pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump or Britain’s looming departure from the bloc. The EU unveiled a new defense fund on June 7, providing a total of 500 million euros ($563 million) in EU money in 2019 and 2020 to help buy and develop military equipment. (AP, 06.09.17)

Missile defense:

• “As of today a missile shield would not protect the territory of the United States,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told film director Oliver Stone. (Bloomberg, 06.06.17)
• Russia’s defense industry has proposed a rational missile defense option to Russia’s defense ministry, which would allow for the opening of an anti-missile umbrella over the country’s whole territory, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on June 7. (TASS, 06.07.17)
• After a successful May test, the Pentagon has upgraded its assessment of its ability to defend the United States against incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles, like the ones North Korea is attempting to develop, according to a memo seen by Reuters on June 7. (Reuters, 06.07.17)

Nuclear arms control:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin says in a documentary set to air on U.S. television that "nobody would survive" a war between the nuclear-armed countries. Asked by the film’s director if the United States would be "dominant" in a "hot war" with Russia, Putin replies, "Nobody would survive." (RFE/RL, 06.07.17)
• The first official government estimate of the program to remake America's atomic weapons, prepared by the Congressional Budget Office and due to be published in the coming weeks, will put the cost at more than $1.2 trillion—20% more than the figure envisioned by the Obama administration. (New York Times, 06.04.17)
• Rob Soofer, the Pentagon's newly installed deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee June 7 the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review would support the need for all three legs of the U.S. triad. (Insidedefense.com, 06.07.17)
• U.N. talks will begin June 15 on the recently released draft text of the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. (IPFM, 06.02.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• "I believe you have watched the first NATO summit attended by [U.S. President Donald] Trump, same as I have. I believe no comment would be necessary. … We share the opinion on international terrorism, which poses the principal threat to the entire international community," Russian Security Council Assistant Secretary Alexander Venediktov said. (Interfax, 06.06.17)
• Only fair and meaningful cooperation between various countries may help defeat terrorism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. The Russian president stressed that the role of the SCO’s counterterrorism agency was increasing. (TASS, 06.09.17)

Conflict in Syria:

• After months of hard fighting while pushing south toward the Islamic State’s home base of Raqqa, U.S.-backed Syrian Arab and Kurdish forces have finally kicked off their assault on the city, U.S. military officials said on June 6. (Foreign Policy, 06.06.17)
• U.S. aircraft shot down an Iranian-made drone that fired on coalition forces patrolling with partner forces in southern Syria, a coalition spokesman told reporters on June 8. This is the first time that pro-Syrian regime forces—which the U.S. says includes Iranian-backed Shia militias—have fired on the U.S.-led coalition. The incident occurred after the military alliance fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatened on June 7 to hit U.S. positions in Syria, warning its "self-restraint" over U.S. air strikes would end if Washington crossed "red lines." The threat marks an escalation of tensions between the United States and the Syrian government and its backers over control of Syria's southeastern frontier with Iraq, where Washington has been training Syrian rebels at a base inside Syrian territory as part of its campaign against Islamic State. The area is seen as crucial to Assad's Iranian allies and could open an overland supply route from Tehran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon—the "Shi'ite crescent" of Iranian influence that is a major concern to U.S.-allies in the region. (CNN, 06.08.17, Reuters, 06.07.17)
• Despite pledges to account for every U.S. weapon sent to Syrian fighters battling the Islamic State, the Pentagon's current plan to ensure they don't fall in the wrong hands is problematic. The weapons include Kalashnikov rifles, RPG-7s and other Soviet-style light weapons that have flooded the Middle East in past decades. (The Washington Post, 06.02.17)
• Moscow is calling on the U.S.-led international coalition fighting against the Islamic State terrorist group to be more careful when planning airstrikes on extremists in Syria to avoid civilian deaths, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, TASS reports. (RBTH, 06.08.17)
• Retired Russian Col. Andrei Troshev was hospitalized in St. Petersburg after becoming dangerously intoxicated. In his possession were 5 million rubles in cash, 5 thousand dollars in cash and maps of Syria. Troshev is said to be a "close associate" of Dmitri Utkin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group fighting in Syria. (The Moscow Times, 06.07.17)
• The Russian navy command does not plan to reduce the attack capacity of the task force permanently deployed in the Mediterranean in the near future. The Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen frigates and the Krasnodar submarine of the Black Sea Fleet carrying Kalibr-NK/PL missiles are the core of the task forces' fire power. (Interfax, 06.06.17)
• The Black Sea Fleet's Smetlivy destroyer has completed a remote deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and is returning to Sevastopol. (Interfax, 06.05.17)
• The U.N. envoy for Syria visited Russia on June 8 for talks focusing on future peace negotiations. The envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov comes at a “delicate, important moment” in Syria’s six-year-old civil war. (AP, 06.08.17)

Cyber security:

• Russian hackers attacked at least one U.S. voting software supplier days before the 2016 presidential election, according to a government intelligence report leaked June 5 that suggests election-related hacking penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than previously known. The classified National Security Agency report says Russian military intelligence attacked a U.S. voting software company and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials at the end of October or beginning of November. The Kremlin has denied the claims. (AP, 06.06.17, AP, 06.06.17)
• Espionage charges against Reality Leigh Winner, 25, who worked for government contractor Pluribus International Corp., were announced by the U.S. Justice Department on June 5, shortly after the online news outlet The Intercept published what it said was a National Security Agency report detailing Russian hacking efforts in the days before the 2016 election. Winner was then denied bail by a magistrate judge who said the woman had taken other classified information that could still be passed to enemies of the U.S. (Bloomberg, 06.05.17, Bloomberg, 06.07.17)
• On former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Russian President Vladimir Putin told film director Oliver Stone that “our first contact with Mr. Snowden was in China,” as he explained that Russia offered asylum because “we were told back then that this was a person who wanted to fight against violations of human rights.” (Bloomberg, 06.06.17)
• Hackers at Turla, a group believed to be linked to Moscow, are using Instagram comments on pop singer Britney Spears’s photos to control their hacking operation, said researchers at Slovakian security firm ESET in a report on June 6. (Vox, 06.08.17)

Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections:

• James B. Comey, the recently fired FBI director, said June 8 in an extraordinary Senate hearing that he believed U.S. President Donald Trump had tried to derail an investigation into national security adviser Michael Flynn, and accused the president of lying and defaming him and the FBI. Comey said he had given all of his memos about his interactions with the president to Justice Department special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who he believed would look into the possibility of obstruction. It was the first public suggestion that prosecutors would investigate the president. And when Republicans asked why he had not told the president he was out of line for asking Comey to “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Comey said perhaps he should have. (New York Times, 06.08.17)
  • The testimony that ex-FBI director James Comey had prepared for the June 8 Senate hearing was published on June 7. According to the document, in Comey’s nine one-on-one conversations with Trump, Trump pressured Comey for loyalty, sought forbearance for Michael Flynn and asked him to lift the “cloud” of a Russia investigation hanging over the administration, according to the text of the testimony. (Wall Street Journal, 06.08.17, Bloomberg, 06.07.17)
  • Trump broke his public silence morning of June 9 on Comey’s testimony to Congress in the Russia probe, accusing Comey in a tweet of lying under oath and calling him a “leaker.” A day after he had allowed surrogates to respond for him, Trump took to Twitter to attack Comey directly, writing: “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication … and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” (The Washington Post, 06.09.17)
  • Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, denied Comey’s allegations, and in turn accused Comey of “unauthorized disclosures” of “privileged communications” he had with the president. Trump “never, in form or substance” directed Comey to halt the probe into Michael Flynn, Kasowitz said. (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)
  • Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican in the House of Representatives, said it was "obviously" inappropriate for Trump to demand loyalty from Comey. "This is nowhere near the end of the investigation," the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Republican chairman, Richard Burr, told reporters after the hearing concluded. (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)
• Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers refused to say whether they were asked by U.S. President Donald Trump to help impede an FBI investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election. And they suggested any response in a closed hearing would require consultations with White House lawyers on whether executive privilege should be invoked. (Bloomberg, 06.07.17)
• Former FBI director James B. Comey said in his June 8 testimony at the Senate that the bureau had information about Attorney General Jeff Sessions—before he recused himself from overseeing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election—that would have made it “problematic” for him to be involved in the probe. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump “absolutely” has confidence in Sessions, affirming support for a cabinet member Trump’s team had declined to publicly back earlier this week.  Trump has no intention to fire Sessions despite his frustration with Sessions for the handling of the administration’s failed travel ban and for recusing himself from the Russia probe, according to two White House officials. (The Washington Post, 06.08.17, Bloomberg, 06.07.17, Bloomberg, 06.08.17)
• Nearly a month after firing previous director James Comey, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that former assistant attorney general Christopher Wray is his pick for the next FBI director. Wray’s law firm—King & Spalding—represents Rosneft and Gazprom, two of Russia’s largest state-controlled oil companies. (The Washington Post, 06.08.17, USA Today, 06.08.17)
• A majority of Americans report grave suspicions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey and his conduct during investigations of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. A 56% majority of U.S. adults say Trump is interfering with such investigations rather than cooperating, while 61% say Trump fired Comey to protect himself rather than for the good of the country. (The Washington Post, 06.07.17)
• James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, said June 7 that Watergate "pales" in comparison to the controversy surrounding the Trump administration and Russia. (CNN, 06.07.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly denied that the Russian government has interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign in his remarks at the economic forum in St. Petersburg and in his interview to NBC’s Megyn Kelly last week:
  • “They have been misled,” Putin responded when it was said that American intelligence agencies had concluded that Russia interfered in the campaign with the goal of electing Trump. Putin even suggested that former U.S. President Barack Obama “started having doubts” when they spoke about it. The pair met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru in November, weeks after Trump’s upset election win. (Bloomberg, 06.04.17, The Washington Post, 06.04.17)
  • “It reminds me of anti-Semitism,” Putin said. “A stupid man who can’t do anything right would blame everything on the Jews.” Pressed by Kelly to explain the Russian “fingerprints” described by the combined U.S. intelligence agencies’ declassified report, Putin sneered that the Internet addresses that the document attributed to Russian hackers could have been rigged by anyone to blame Russia. “What fingerprints?” Putin said. “Hoof prints? Horn prints? Experts in information technology can invent anything.” (The Washington Post, 06.02.17)
  • “I can tell you, that hackers may be anywhere. They may be in Russia, in Asia, in America, in Latin America. There may be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very craftily and professionally passed the buck to Russia. Can't you imagine such a scenario?” The Russian president also accused the U.S. of “actively interfering in electoral campaigns of other countries.” (Kremlin.ru, 06.05.17, Bloomberg, 06.04.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had “no relationship whatsoever” with U.S. President Donald Trump. “Yes, he visited Moscow in his day,” Putin said. “But, you know, I never met him.” The idea of a damaging Russian file on Trump “is just another piece of nonsense,” Putin said. Putin said many chief executives of major U.S. companies visit Russia and “do you think we are gathering dirt on all of them now?” (Bloomberg, 06.04.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said he’s unaware of any proposal from Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, to set up a secret line of communications between the incoming administration and the Russian government. (Bloomberg, 06.04.17)
• Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information policy committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, late on June 8 dismissed former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony as a “big bubble,” adding that it “will not help Trump’s adversaries to start impeachment proceedings.” (AP, 06.09.17)
• Special counsel Robert Mueller has recruited the Justice Department’s top criminal law expert to help with his investigation of ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials. Deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben, who has argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and oversees the Justice Department’s criminal appellate docket, will be assisting Mueller on a part-time basis, according to sources familiar with the arrangement. The move signals that Mueller is seeking advice on the complexities that have arisen already in the investigations, including what constitutes obstruction of justice. (National Law Journal, 06.09.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• Poland and Ukraine say they are taking steps toward developing a regional gas hub that would end Central and Eastern Europe’s dependence on Russian supplies and keep prices in line with European standards. (AP, 06.06.17)
• Azerbaijan plans to suspend natural gas exports from its major Shah Deniz offshore field in August for a month, due to repair works on the export pipeline which runs via Georgia to Turkey, Georgia's deputy energy minister said. (Reuters, 06.08.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Russia has sent a U.S. satellite into space atop a Proton rocket, in the first launch of one of the workhorses of Moscow's space program in a year following a series of setbacks. (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• A group of leading senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is negotiating a way to pass more stringent sanctions against Russia in the coming week by piggybacking on an upcoming measure cracking down on ballistic missile tests in Iran. The talks, which involve the heads of at least the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees, plus Senate leaders and a handful of Congress' most outspoken Russia critics, are geared toward attaching Russia sanctions by amendment to an Iran sanctions bill the Senate took up earlier this week. The Senate voted June 7 to advance the Iran measure, S. 722. (The Washington Post, 06.07.17)
  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supported the effort to add the Russia sanctions before final passage. McConnell spokesman David Popp said votes on a Russia sanctions amendment and final passage of the bill will probably occur next week. (Bloomberg, 06.07.17, The Washington Post, 06.06.17)
  • The Senate Banking Committee on June 1 announced a bipartisan agreement for legislation that would strengthen and expand punitive sanctions against Moscow over its seizure of Crimea, its support for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine and its military backing for the Syrian regime. The bill would authorize penalties against Russia’s mining, metals and railway industries. (Foreign Policy, 06.02.17)
  • Moscow possesses intelligence indicating that the United States is planning to increase the sanction pressure on Russia, including on its energy sector, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin said. “The United States is trying to persuade its partners that it would be reasonable to reduce the volumes of Russian oil and coal purchases, further restrict Russia’s access to modern technologies and equipment for extracting hydrocarbons and block Russian energy projects abroad,” Naryshkin said. (Interfax, 06.07.17)
• U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said June 6 that U.S. President Donald Trump has asked him to rebuild the U.S. relationship with Russia and not allow the political turmoil over possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign to impede him. Trump "has been very clear with me that Russia is an important global player, and today our relationships with Russia are at a very low point and they've been deteriorating," Tillerson said. "So the president asked me to begin a reengagement process with Russia to see if we can first stabilize that relationship, so it does not deteriorate further, and then can we identify areas of mutual interest where perhaps we can begin to rebuild some level of trust and some level of confidence that there are areas where we can work together," he said. "And that's the process that's under way today.” (RFE/RL, 06.06.17, AP, 06.06.17)
• U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon will head to Russia on June 23 to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov, part of an ongoing dialogue meant to solve “irritants” in the relationship between the two countries. “The goal of the meeting is to resolve a laundry list of smaller grievances between the two countries,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s senior adviser RC Hammond said. (ABC, 06.08.17)
• The Trump administration is considering returning to Russia access to two diplomatic compounds in the U.S. Russia may seize U.S. diplomatic property in Moscow and complicate life for an Anglo-American school unless Washington hands back two diplomatic compounds in the United States before July, the daily Kommersant newspaper reported on June 9. (Reuters, 06.09.17, ABC, 06.08.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed NBC’s Megyn Kelly’s questions about repression and the killing of journalists in Russia by saying it was another example of American moralizing. “I’m not asking you about how things stand in terms of democracy in the United States. Especially so that the electoral legislation is far from being perfect in the U.S. Why do you believe you are entitled to put such questions to us and, mind you, do it all the time, to moralize and to teach us how we should live?” (The Washington Post, 06.04.17, Kremlin.ru, 06.05.17)
• Film director Oliver Stone asked Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Is Wall Street actively working to destroy the Russian economy in the interests of the United States?” Putin demurs, saying only that the U.S. administration views Russia as “a competitor.” (Bloomberg, 06.06.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has said U.S. Republican Sen. John McCain, known for his anti-Kremlin rhetoric, lives in the "Old World" and that Russia and the United States must work together on common challenges. In an interview with U.S. film director Oliver Stone, excerpts of which were released on June 8 ahead of its June 12 broadcast by U.S. TV network Showtime, Putin praised the senator's "patriotism." (Reuters, 06.08.17)
• Russia could dedicate a new parliamentary commission to stopping Western nations from influencing the country’s 2018 presidential elections. (The Moscow Times, 06.06.17)
• Russian officials have protested strongly against comments by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in which he mentioned Russia as a threat to global stability on par with Iran. (RFE/RL, 06.06.17)
• Jon Huntsman is going to be ambassador to Russia. But as with so many of U.S. President Donald Trump's diplomatic picks, Huntsman's nomination has not been formally submitted to the Senate for confirmation. (The Washington Post, 06.06.17)
• Deutsche Bank AG told U.S. Democratic lawmakers that the German lender can't disclose details requested about its banking relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, citing customer privacy rules, according to a letter from bank lawyers posted on its website. Deutsche Bank also declined to provide lawmakers details of internal reviews into certain Russian trades and clients, saying the bank has settled several investigations into its trading and compliance practices and continues to cooperate with authorities looking into the matters. (Wall Street Journal, 06.09.17)
• U.S. prosecutors on June 7 arrested and charged more than two dozen alleged members of what it called a "Russian organized crime syndicate" working out of New York City with what a statement said was a "dizzying array of criminal schemes." (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• As a result of a “plunge” in birth rates in the 1990s, Russia’s working-age population will drop by an average of 600,000 annually over the next six years, according to Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin. It fell to 84.2 million last year from 85.4 million in 2015. (Bloomberg, 06.07.17)
• Russia's Economy Ministry will revise a set of its macroeconomic forecasts after the recent extension of the global oil output cut agreement, Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev has said. Oil prices are expected to fall to $40 per barrel after the expiration of the current oil output deal, Kolychev said. (Reuters, 06.05.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a keynote address to the St. Petersburg international economic forum, said foreign direct investment in Russia totaled $7 billion in the first quarter of this year, its highest level in three years. (Reuters, 06.03.17)
• Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturov says a level “optimal” for every part of the economy engaged in “import substitution” puts the ruble at 62 against the dollar, about 8 % weaker than where the Russian currency is currently trading. Appreciation to 53-55 could already result in “stagnation” for some of the projects, he said in an interview in St. Petersburg. (Bloomberg, 06.09.17)
• New car sales in Russia increased by 15% in May compared to the same period last year, Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on June 7. (Reuters, 06.07.17)
• Ethereum, the world’s largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, has caught the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a potential tool to help Russia diversify its economy beyond oil and gas. (Bloomberg, 06.06.17)
• Valentina Cherevatenko, a human rights activist in southern Russia's Rostov region, has become the first person to face criminal prosecution under the country's controversial "foreign agent" law. (RFE/RL, 06.02.17)
• Russian opposition-leaning magazine The New Times announced June 4 it will close its print edition due to financial problems. (The Moscow Times, 06.05.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russia has reportedly carried out a test of Zircon, a hypersonic missile system, one year ahead of schedule. The system, which could possibly render Western anti-aircraft defense “obsolete,” can travel up to 4,600 mph, according to the state-controlled Sputnik news agency. (Newsweek, 06.05.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russian authorities say they have detained a man suspected of shooting dead nine people in a drunken dispute in a village outside Moscow. (RFE/RL, 06.04.17)
• The headquarters of the Church of Scientology in St. Petersburg has been raided by Russia's Federal Security Service on June 6 according to the MediaZona news site. (The Moscow Times, 06.06.17)
• Vasily Zubkov, the deputy governor of Russia's Kursk Oblast, has been arrested on suspicion of corruption. (RFE/RL, 06.05.17)
• According to the United Nations' UNAIDS program, Russia had the third-highest number of new HIV infections globally in 2015, behind South Africa and Nigeria. Russian government statistics show that more than half of new infections are transmitted through intravenous drug use. (CNN, 06.08.17)
• Police have detained at least three people as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Russian parliament during a vote on a controversial plan to raze thousands of Soviet-era apartment blocs in Moscow. Deputies in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, passed the bill in the second of three readings on June 9. (RFE/RL, 06.09.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• Trade between Russia and North Korea increased by 73% during the first two months of 2017 compared to the same period the year before, boosted mostly by increased coal deliveries from Russia, according to Russian state-owned news site Sputnik. While Russia’s trade with North Korea appears to be rising, at $130 million annually it is still tiny compared to China’s $6.6 billion in annual trade, said Marcus Noland, director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. (USA Today, 06.05.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan, in a phone call on June 5, have called for a dialogue and compromise in a row over Qatar, the Kremlin said. Russia sees no cause for alarm from the energy point of view after the decision by a number of Arab nations to sever diplomatic relations with Qatar, a Russian source familiar with the situation told Reuters on June 5. (Reuters, 06.05.17, Reuters, 06.05.17)
• Russian officials on June 7 angrily rejected allegations that Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news story that led to a split between Qatar and the other Arab nations. (AP, 06.07.17)
• Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will hold a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit to Moscow on June 10, Russian news agencies cited a Russian diplomatic source as saying on June 8. (Reuters, 06.08.17)
• Russia and India have signed a framework agreement enabling construction of the “third stage” of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, including an intergovernmental credit protocol for implementation of the project. (World Nuclear News, 06.02.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there are no plans to "unilaterally abolish" visas for Europeans traveling to Russia. Lavrov's comments come on the heels of Ukraine's mulling the creation of a visa regime for Russians traveling to the country. (The Moscow Times, 06.07.17)
• Montenegro’s higher court on June 8 confirmed prosecution indictments against 14 people, including two Russians charged with masterminding a coup attempt aimed at preventing Montenegro from joining NATO. (AP, 06.08.17)
• Lithuania has started building a fence on its border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. (AP, 06.05.17)
• Russia rejected on June 8 Polish accusations that it mishandled the remains of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other Polish dignitaries who died in a 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed all 96 on board. (Reuters, 06.08.17)
• Germany has begun granting gays from Chechnya special visas on humanitarian grounds following reports that gay people are being tortured and killed in the Russian republic. (AP, 06.08.17)
• Over the past year, @RussianEmbassy has overtaken the U.S. and Israeli embassy twitter accounts to become the most-followed diplomatic mission in London, with 56,000 followers. (Financial Times, 06.09.17)

China:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Kazakhstan's capital on June 8. Putin and Xi are in Astana for a June 8-9 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security grouping that is dominated by China and Russia. Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov said earlier that Xi and Putin would discuss issues including the tension on the Korean Peninsula. Xi said that Moscow-Beijing ties are being developed "very well," adding: "Our mutual cooperation and interaction have a big significance for the world in a global scale." (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)
• Pakistan and India have become full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), expanding the regional security grouping into South Asia. The presidents of the SCO member-states—China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan—signed a document granting Pakistan and India membership at a summit on June 9. The presidents signed several other documents at the meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, including a convention on joint efforts against extremism. (RFE/RL, 06.09.17)
• Chinese President Xi Jinping has held talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana, where a June 8-9 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is taking place. Nazarbayev told Xi on June 8 that China had become a "‘major partner’ of the Central Asian country in recent years." According to Nazarbayev, Astana is working to transfer 51 industrial facilities from China to Kazakhstan. "Every year, China gets closer to the place in the world it deserves, and we will always be next to you," Nazarbayev said. (RFE/RL, 06.08.17)

Ukraine:

• Ukraine’s parliament set NATO membership as a key foreign-policy goal, replacing the non-aligned status adopted by ousted Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych in a move that’s likely to further sour relations with Russia. June 8’s move formalizes Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO after having a fast-track application rejected in 2008. (Bloomberg, 06.08.17)
• A team of open-source researchers investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has published reports linking the movements of Russian military equipment to the plane’s downing. The reports, released on June 5 by Bellingcat, track the locations of vehicles including the Buk missile launcher that the British-based research group says was involved in the July 2014 downing of MH17. (RFE/RL, 06.05.17)
• The ambassadors of the European Union member states decided on June 6 to prolong the bloc's investment ban against Crimea for another year, punishing Russia for its armed takeover of the Ukrainian region. EU foreign ministers are likely to confirm the decision by the ambassadors when they meet in Luxembourg on June 19. (RFE/RL, 06.06.17)
• Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz is prepared to attend talks with Russian gas giant Gazprom provided negotiations are not held in Russia, Naftogaz said on June 8. (Reuters, 06.08.17)
• Natalya Sharina, former director of Moscow's State Library of Ukrainian Literature, was handed down a four- year suspended sentence on June 5 for embezzlement and distributing extremist materials. (The Moscow Times, 06.05.17)
• Adam Osmayev, a Chechen accused by Russian authorities of plotting to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot and wounded in Kiev on June 1. Osmayev's wife, Amina Okuyeva, returned fire, wounding the alleged attacker, who she says was posing as a journalist. (RFE/RL, 06.02.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have launched joint military drills near the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The drills began on June 5 at Georgia’s Vaziani military base and will end on June 14, the Georgian Defense Ministry said. (RFE/RL, 06.05.17)
• A lawyer for Azerbaijani journalist Nicat Amiraslanov says he believes his client was tortured in custody and had all of his teeth forcibly removed from his mouth. (RFE/RL, 06.05.17)
• The European Union has urged Azerbaijan to release detained opposition figures, in an apparent reference to the alleged abduction and arrest of journalist Afqan Muxtarli and the detention of opposition politician Gozal Bayramli. (RFE/RL, 06.05.17)
• Rustam Azimov was once seen as a potential future president of Uzbekistan, but after several months of being made a scapegoat for the country's economic problems, he has reportedly been removed from his post as deputy prime minister. (RFE/RL, 06.06.17)
• Belarusian authorities have deported Chechen man Murad Amriyev to Russia. Amriyev has been seeking to avoid being returned to Chechnya, where he says he has been tortured by police in the past. (RFE/RL, 06.08.17, Gazeta.ru, 06.09.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• “Whether or not they agree with Putin or came to the conclusion independently, Russians think that the Americans have gone insane over Russian meddling,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center. (The Washington Post, 06.08.17)