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

Nuclear security:

• No significant developments.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• Russia and China called for restraint on North Korea on Oct. 9 after President Trump warned over the weekend that “only one thing will work” in dealing with Pyongyang, hinting that military action was on his mind. (Reuters, 10.09.17)
• The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, said she will discuss the issue of North Korea's missile and nuclear program with parliamentary delegations from both Seoul and Pyongyang. (New York Times, 10.13.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Iran by the end of this year. Putin plans to take part in a meeting with his counterparts from Iran and Azerbaijan during the visit. (Reuters, 10.12.17)
• U.S. President Donald Trump on Oct. 13 chose not to certify that Tehran is complying with the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and warned he might ultimately terminate the deal. While Trump did not pull the U.S. out of the agreement, he gave Congress 60 days to decide whether to re-impose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Iran has suggested to six world powers that it may be open to talks about its ballistic missile arsenal, seeking to reduce tension over the disputed program, Iranian and Western officials familiar with the overtures told Reuters. Russia has warned the Trump administration not to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying America's withdrawal would harm “predictability, security, stability and non-proliferation around the world.” (Reuters, 10.13.17, Reuters, 10.06.17, Independent, 10.13.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• NATO launched a new multinational force in Romania on Oct. 9 to counter Russia along its eastern flank and to check a growing Russian presence in the Black Sea. Still, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “Russia is our neighbor. ... We don’t want to isolate Russia. We don’t want a new Cold War.” (AP, 10.09.17, Reuters, 10.09.17)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 12 that the U.S. military presence in the Baltic states contradicts the Russia-NATO agreement, RIA news agency reported. The head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, retired Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, said Moscow could deploy more state-of-the-art Iskander missiles in its westernmost region in response to the U.S. military buildup in Poland. (AP, 10.12.17, Reuters, 10.12.17)
• No new dates have been set for the next NATO-Russia Council meeting, but its work “has returned to the routine stage,” so the dates will be determined via regular contacts in Brussels, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said on Oct. 9. (TASS, 10.09.17)
• Amid heightened tensions with Russia, officials in Baltic and Nordic countries say they are trying to counter and adapt to Moscow’s new generation of war capabilities by increasingly investing in brainpower as much as firepower. (Foreign Policy, 10.12.17)
• Denmark’s center-right, minority government wants to boost the NATO country’s defense budget by 20 percent over the next six years to allow for more troops and hardware, including tanks and artillery, in reaction to Russia’s military buildup in the Baltic Sea region. Norway also plans to buy more tanks and artillery to respond to growing threats, and is planning to send an armored battalion near its arctic border with Russia. (AP, 10.11.17, Reuters, 10.13.17)

Missile defense:

• The deployment by Washington of its global missile-defense shield poses a threat to strategic stability in the world and may create prerequisites for a powerful preventive strike, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Russian senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a statement on his Facebook page. (Interfax, 10.13.17)

Nuclear arms control:

• The Pentagon has no current plans to increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, but is planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a top-to-bottom modernization or replacement of the three major categories of nuclear weapons — as well as their command and control systems — in coming decades. Asked whether he sought a big increase in the size of the nuclear force, President Trump replied: “No, I never discussed increasing it. … I want it in perfect shape.” (AP, 10.12.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• No significant developments.

Conflict in Syria:

• Russia’s air force destroyed an Islamic State unit including mercenaries from CIS countries, Tunisia and Egypt south of the Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Oct. 7. On Oct. 9 Konashenkov said the Russian air force had killed about 120 IS fighters from Tajikistan, Iraq and the North Caucasus, including influential IS field commanders from the latter, as well as a detachment of 60 foreign mercenaries. He also said on Oct. 10 that Russian drones had spotted an IS stronghold near the eastern town of Mayadeen and Su-34 bombers targeted it with a series of strikes, killing over 70 militants and destroying seven tanks and other armored vehicles and weapons. According to Konashekov, Russia’s air force in Syria has conducted 182 strikes against IS fighters who had crossed into Deir el-Zour province from western Iraq. Russia’s air force also carries out up to 150 strikes per day on forces joining IS militants near Mayadeen, he said. (Interfax, 10.07.17, TASS, 10.10.17, TASS, 10.10.17, AP, 10.10.17, AP, 10.06.17, AP, 10.05.17)
  • Syrian government forces supported by Russian combat aircraft have reduced the territory under Islamic State control from 90 percent to 10 percent in two years, Konashenkov said. (TASS, 10.09.17)
• A Russian fighter-bomber skidded off the runway in Syria, killing its crew on Oct. 10. (The Moscow Times, 10.10.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke by phone Oct. 9 to discuss Syria, Ukraine and Korea. (TASS, 10.09.17)
• Russia accused the United States on Oct. 10 of pretending to fight Islamic State and of deliberately reducing its air strikes in Iraq to allow the group’s militants to stream into Syria to slow the Russian-backed advance of the Syrian army. (Reuters, 10.10.17)
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Oct. 8 that Turkey was implementing a deal agreed with Russia and Iran to reduce violence in Syria’s Idlib province, in cooperation with Free Syrian Army fighters. Turkish troops began establishing observation points in Idlib Oct. 12. (Reuters, 10.08.17, Reuters, 10.13.17)
• An inquiry by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found that sarin gas had been used in a March 30 attack in Syria on the opposition-held town of Latamneh, just days before the banned nerve agent killed dozens in a separate attack that prompted the U.S. to launch missiles on a Syrian air base. Spanish diplomat Fernando Arias has been nominated to head the watchdog group at a critical time for its disarmament work in Syria, diplomats said on Oct. 11. (Reuters, 10.11.17, Reuters, 10.04.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem, in Sochi on Oct. 11. Lavrov said at the talks that Russia will fight attempts to blame the Syrian government for recent use of chemical weapons in the country. (TASS, 10.11.17)
• The trade turnover between Russia and Syria soared 42 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2017 to $192.8 million, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Oct. 10. He also said that Russia and Syria will launch a direct shipping line. (TASS, 10.10.17, TASS, 10.07.17)

Cyber security:

• Israeli intelligence officials spying on Russian government hackers found they were using Kaspersky Lab antivirus software as “a sort of Google search” to look for the code names of American intelligence programs and other sensitive information. The discovery was made more than two years ago. Kaspersky software, which is used by 400 million people globally, was banned last month from use by U.S. government agencies, about two dozen of which had been using it. Kaspersky Lab has expanded its relationship with global law enforcement agency Interpol, signing an agreement to share data to help fight cybercrime. (New York Times, 10.10.17, Reuters, 10.10.17, The Moscow Times, 10.13.17)
• Moscow believes allegations against Russia’s Kaspersky Lab are “absurd,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Oct. 12, adding that the Russian government had nothing to do with it. (Reuters, 10.12.17)
• Norwegian intelligence services declared last week that their country suffered an electronic attack in September that they say came from Russia, with GPS signals on flights in northern Norway being jammed just as Moscow was carrying out its massive “Zapad” military exercise in the neighborhood. Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said on Oct. 13 that Polish cyber experts have successfully repelled a third hacking attempt from Russia. (Foreign Policy, 10.12.17, New York Times, 10.13.17)
• Last week, a panel of judges in the Greek city of Thessaloniki agreed to send Alexander Vinnik to the U.S. to face charges he laundered $4 billion worth of bitcoins through BTC-e, one of the world’s largest digital currency exchanges, which he allegedly operated. On Oct. 11, a different panel of judges accepted a Russian extradition request, which followed the initial U.S. one. (AP, 10.11.17)

Elections interference:

• Twitter has deleted tweets and other user data of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators probing Russia’s suspected manipulation of the social media platform during the 2016 election. The data was removed in line with Twitter’s aggressively pro-consumer privacy policies. Federal investigators now believe Twitter was one of Russia’s most potent weapons in its efforts to promote Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. (Politico, 10.13.17)
• The House Intelligence Committee hopes to release campaign ads that Russians purchased on Facebook Inc. as soon as possible, leaders of the panel’s investigation of election meddling said after meeting with company chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. (Bloomberg, 10.11.17)
  • Sandberg said Oct. 12 that Facebook had promised to provide more information, including ad-targeting data, to government officials as part of the investigation. (The Boston Globe, 10.12.17)
  • Facebook has taken down data and thousands of posts, obscuring the reach of Russian disinformation. However, Sandberg said that Facebook would not have removed political ads bought via Russian accounts if they had been purchased by real people instead of fake accounts. (The Washington Post, 10.12.17, Business Insider, 10.13.17)
  • Facebook bought full-page adverts in The New York Times and The Washington Post last week in an attempt to shore up its reputation after the Russia-ads scandal, but the political fallout threatens to shake the business to its core. (Financial Times, 10.09.17)
• Google investigators found $4,700 in ads tied to the Russian government, according to a person familiar with the matter. Google found a separate $53,000 worth of ads with political material that were purchased from Russian internet addresses, building addresses or with Russian currency. One account spent $7,000 on ads to promote a documentary called ''You've Been Trumped,'' a film about Donald Trump's efforts to build a golf course in Scotland along an environmentally sensitive coastline. (Bloomberg, 10.09.17, New York Times, 10.10.17)
• Russian trolls and others aligned with the Kremlin are injecting disinformation into streams of online content flowing to American military personnel and veterans on Twitter and Facebook, according to an Oxford University study released Oct. 9.  (AP, 10.09.17)
• YouTube videos of police beatings on American streets. A widely circulated internet hoax about Muslim men in Michigan collecting welfare for multiple wives. A local news story about two veterans brutally mugged on a freezing winter night. All of these were recorded, posted or written by Americans. Yet all ended up becoming grist for a network of Facebook pages linked to a shadowy Russian company that has carried out propaganda campaigns for the Kremlin, and which is now believed to be at the center of a far-reaching Russian program to influence the 2016 presidential election. (New York Times, 10.10.17)
• Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Oct. 10 he would not cooperate with any request to appear before the panel in its investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to an unnamed source. (Politico, 10.10.17)
• Samantha Power, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama, met for three hours behind closed doors Oct. 13 with the House Intelligence Committee as part of its probe into Russian election interference. (Bloomberg, 10.13.17)
• Three congressional committees are scuffling over a former British spy’s reports that are central to investigations into U.S. allegations that Russia tried to help Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. (Reuters, 10.11.17)
• The House Intelligence Committee chairman has issued subpoenas to the firm that helped produce a salacious opposition-research dossier that claimed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russians, two people familiar with the matter said Oct. 10. (Bloomberg, 10.10.17)
• Even as President Trump’s advisers encourage him to accept the realities of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, longtime friends and allies are pushing Trump to fight back, citing concerns that his lawyers are naive to the existential threat facing the president. (AP, 10.10.17)
• A CNN investigation of Russian-linked social media account “Don’t Shoot Us” shows that the reach of Russian meddling extended beyond Facebook and Twitter to YouTube, Tumblr and even Pokémon Go. (CNN, 10.12.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• During a visit to Algiers on Oct. 10, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the two countries reiterated their commitment to last year’s agreement among OPEC and other oil producers to curb output. (AP, 10.10.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• Software produced by Microsoft Corp. has been acquired by state organizations and firms in Russia and Crimea despite sanctions barring U.S.-based companies from doing business with them, official documents show. (Reuters, 10.11.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Oct. 12 that Russia was preparing lawsuits to reclaim what Moscow says was illegally seized property in the United States. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement of protest after American authorities reportedly took down several Russian flags from a seized consulate in San Francisco. The U.S. State Department said Oct. 12 that the flags will be returned.  Lavrov and Tillerson also spoke over the phone on Oct. 9. The Russian diplomat drew attention to Moscow’s demand for the return of the Russian diplomatic property seized in the U.S., the Russian Foreign Ministry said, adding that the conversation was initiated by the U.S. side. (TASS, 10.09.17, The Moscow Times, 10.13.17, Reuters, 10.12.17)
• The Russian Foreign Ministry has not eliminated the possibility of reducing U.S. diplomatic staff by another 150 or more personnel, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Oct. 11. (The Moscow Times, 10.11.17)
• Russia on Oct. 12 accused the United States of denying entry to Russian military officials who were planning to conduct a joint Russian-Chinese briefing criticizing U.S. missile defense systems at the United Nations. (RFE/RL, 10.13.17)
• Sanctions against Russia are likely to stay in place for at least the next 10 years, Lukoil’s chief executive, Vagit Alekperov, has said. (Financial Times, 10.12.17)
• Russia's Justice Ministry has said it will target U.S.-registered media operating in the country, following reports that several Russian outlets could be labeled "foreign agents," the Interfax news agency reported Oct. 11. Current Time TV, a 24-hour network produced by U.S. funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in partnership with Voice of America, said it had received the ministry’s warning. Similar letters were received by RFE/RL's Idel.Realii and Krym.Realii projects. (The Moscow Times, 10.11.17)
• The U.S. State Department has called on Russia to find and prosecute those who ordered the 2006 murder of prominent Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. (RFE/RL, 10.07.17)
• Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Oct. 12 it regrets the decision by the U.S. leadership to quit UNESCO, adding the move would disrupt a number of important projects. (Reuters, 10.12.17)
• Moscow's Bolshoi Theater and New York’s Metropolitan Opera are teaming up for the first time to stage three shows and buck the trend of deteriorating Russian-U.S. relations in other spheres. (The Moscow Times, 10.09.17)
• A U.S. citizen is on trial for offering a high-ranking post in Russia’s Far East to a Muscovite in exchange for $7 million. The Kommersant business daily named the U.S. national as George Hager (born in Belarus as Georgy Korobochkin) in 2016. It wrote that Hager was one of four co-conspirators who allegedly offered a post in the newly created auction house at the Federal Fisheries Agency to a businessman named A.K. Burtsev. (The Moscow Times, 10.12.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Several people in Putin’s inner circle say there’s been a flurry of lobbying to replace Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after the March 2018 presidential election with a more forceful manager who can do more to rev up the sputtering economy. They say potential replacements include central bank head Elvira Nabiullina, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Industry Minister Denis Manturov. (Bloomberg, 10.11.17)
• The governor of Russia's Pskov region, Andrei Turchak, has resigned—the 11th regional leader to leave his post in recent weeks. Turchak's name was linked to an attack on Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who was brutally beaten with metal rods by two men outside his home in November 2010. (RFE/RL, 10.12.17)
• Russian authorities are planning to shape the regional agenda ahead of the presidential election with 100 state-run anonymous channels on the messaging app Telegram, the RBC newspaper reported Oct. 10. (The Moscow Times, 10.10.17)
• Russian authorities say they have released all demonstrators who were detained for taking part in unauthorized rallies across Russia that coincided with Putin’s birthday on Oct. 7. (RFE/RL, 10.08.17)
• The head of Russia’s central election commission urged Putin on Oct. 9 to ensure all investigations into election violations detected in Russia last month were completed, and the Kremlin leader promised to do so. (Reuters, 10.09.17)
• Last month, a coalition of liberal opposition candidates under the banner United Democrats won majorities on 30 of Moscow’s 125 municipal councils, a rare show of strength for a group used to being crushed at the polls and hounded off the streets. Vitali Shkliarov, a 41-year-old political operative born in Belarus and a veteran of the Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama campaigns, helped develop a political clearinghouse to usher prospective candidates through the onerous Russian registration process, providing training and financial, logistical and legal support. (The Washington Post, 10.11.17)
• Trust in Russia’s military and intelligence services has grown while trust in government agencies, banks and big business has faltered over the past four years, a Levada Center survey revealed Oct. 12. (The Moscow Times, 10.12.17)
• The global economy is set for continued strong growth into 2018, but the U.K. and Russia are likely to miss out, according to leading indicators released Oct. 9 by the OECD. (Wall Street Journal, 10.09.17)
• The Russian central bank sees full-year inflation at around 3.2 percent in 2017, Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina said on Oct. 12. (Reuters, 10.12.17)
• Russia’s central bank says it will spend at least 800 billion rubles on bailing out failed lenders Otkritie and B&N, more than its initial estimate. (Financial Times, 10.12.17)
• Russian authorities have agreed to regulate the crypto-currency market and hope to set out how this regulation will work by the end of the year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Oct. 11. (Reuters, 10.11.17)
• Russia has cut foreign aid for the first time since 2012, according to a new study. The country’s international development assistance had grown since 2013 and topped $1 billion in the past two years, RBC reported Oct. 10, citing the study. But foreign aid fell from $1.16 billion in 2015 to $1.02 billion in 2016, according to the study. (The Moscow Times, 10.10.17)
• Construction workers at Russia’s Far East spaceport are staging a hunger strike for the third year in a row demanding salaries that they haven’t received in six months. The Vostochny Cosmodrome is among the four sites proudly depicted on two newly unveiled Russian denominations. (The Moscow Times, 10.13.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• Russia successfully launched the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite into orbit Oct. 13 from the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia. The satellite will monitor Europe's atmosphere, helping to study air pollution. (AP, 10.13.17)
• Russia has postponed the launch of an unmanned Russian cargo ship to the International Space Station from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14. (New York Times, 10.12.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• More than a million people have been evacuated from nearly 2,500 buildings as a result of a wave of bomb hoaxes in Russia. (The Moscow Times, 10.10.17)
• Officials from the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor have been put under house arrest and are facing charges of fraud. (The Moscow Times, 10.12.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• A Kremlin aide said Oct. 13 that Russia and Saudi Arabia are close to signing a deal on Moscow’s supplying Riyadh with advanced S-400 air defense missile systems. The Kremlin said on Oct. 9 that talks with Saudi Arabia over the missile systems had gone well so far despite talk of a possible U.S.-Saudi arms deal. The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of a THAAD anti-missile defense system to Saudi Arabia at an estimated cost of $15 billion, the Pentagon said last week, citing Iran among regional threats. (Reuters, 10.13.17, Reuters, 10.09.17, Reuters, 10.06.17)
• Rosatom and the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) signed a “program of cooperation” in peaceful uses of nuclear energy in Moscow this month as part of Saudi Arabian King Salman's state visit to Russia. (World Nuclear News, 10.06.17)
• The Kremlin said on Oct. 9 that it was in touch with the French government over a possible visit to Russia next year by President Emmanuel Macron, but that nothing had yet been confirmed. (Reuters, 10.09.17)
• Putin was scheduled to meet a representative of Siemens, along with businessmen from other German firms, on Oct. 12, according to a Kremlin aide. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the day of the meeting that the Russian leader was prepared to explain the situation with Siemens’ turbines in Crimea if questions arose, but this topic was not on the agenda. (Reuters, 10.09.17, TASS, 10.12.17)
• Turkey could seek a deal to acquire S-400 missile defense system with another country if Russia does not agree to joint production of a defense shield, its foreign minister was quoted as saying on Oct. 9. (Reuters, 10.09.17)
• Turkey’s atomic energy authority is working on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and efforts to hold the groundbreaking by early 2018 are underway, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said on Oct. 11. (Reuters, 10.11.17)
• The Czech Republic’s prime minister has condemned the president’s rejection of EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. In an address on Oct. 10, President Milos Zeman questioned the effectiveness of the sanctions. (RFE/RL, 10.10.17, AP, 10.10.17)
• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Oct. 11 announced that Russia would donate defense hardware to support the military’s fight against pro-Islamic State militants, who he said could regroup and attack “anywhere and everywhere.” (Reuters, 10.11.17)
• A French judge is investigating Danske Bank A/S for allegedly laundering stolen Russian money identified by deceased whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, according to Bill Browder, a former hedge-fund manager leading an international campaign for sanctions against Russia. (Wall Street Journal, 10.12.17)
• British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson will travel to Moscow later this year to discuss international security issues. (Reuters, 10.13.17)
• Poland has expelled a Russian historian, identified only as Dmitry K., on suspicion that he used his contacts among Polish historians and journalists to promote Russia’s viewpoint, to discredit Polish authorities and to undermine Poland’s ties with Ukraine. (The Washington Post, 10.13.17)

China:

• Over the past 18 months, Chinese companies have spent more than $14 billion on Russian energy projects. China now owns stakes in Russia’s largest oil company, petrochemical group and gold producer. By next month, CEFC will add a $500 million investment in energy-to-aluminum business EN+ as part of the company’s $1.5 billion listing in the London. CEFC China Energy is set to raise $5.1 billion in short-term loans from VTB, Russia’s second-biggest lender, to part finance its $9.1 billion purchase of a stake in Rosneft Oil. (Financial Times, 10.11.17, Reuters, 10.12.17)
• China has established a payment versus payment system for Chinese yuan and Russian ruble transactions in a move to reduce risks and improve the efficiency of its foreign exchange transactions. (Reuters, 10.12.17)

Ukraine:

• Ukraine has been able to monitor Paul Manafort's former business associates and turn up evidence of Russian hacking in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in part owing to American technical support. The CIA tore out a Russian-provided cellphone surveillance system, and put in American-supplied computers, said Viktoria Gorbuz, former head of a liaison office that worked with foreign governments at Ukraine’s S.B.U. intelligence service. (New York Times, 10.07.17)
• For more than two years, some 300 American soldiers have been quietly helping train an enormous partner military in western Ukraine. (Defense One, 10.05.17)
• Ukraine will host a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly for the first time in 2020. (TASS, 10.08.17)
• The new U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, said he wants to improve bilateral relations, but the first step is returning Ukrainian control within its internationally recognized borders. (AP, 10.0.7.17)
• Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, met with Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov on Oct. 7 in Belgrade. (RFE/RL, 10.07.17)
• Ukrainian authorities are pushing a bill on "Donbas reintegration" that clearly contradicts the Minsk agreements and undermines the peace process, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Oct. 9. (Interfax, 10.09.17)
• Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Russia's proposal to send U.N. peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine is "a Trojan horse" but that it would be worth trying to "reshape" the plan, since it presents the first opportunity in a long time to resolve the conflict. (RFE/RL, 10.11.17)
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, during a visit to Ukraine, that Turkey won't recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. (AP, 10.09.17)
• Activists in Russian-controlled Crimea say six Crimean Tatars have been detained on suspicion of extremism in what the activists and the Ukrainian government say is part of a discriminatory campaign targeting members of the Muslim group. (RFE/RL, 10.11.17)
• Russia is introducing a new 200 ruble banknote showing images of Ukraine's annexed Crimea region. (RFE/RL, 10.12.17)
• Ukraine’s chief prosecutor on Oct. 9 blamed a Russian crime lord linked to Russia’s security agency for the killing of renegade Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said Voronenkov was gunned down in March on orders from Vladimir Tyurin, a former partner of Voronenkov’s wife, Maria Maksakova. (AP, 10.09.17)
• Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said on Oct. 12 that he was open to amending law reforms amid concerns they aided corruption and could lead to the end of probes into the shooting of protesters in the run-up up to the 2014 revolution. (Reuters, 10.12.17)
• Hungary will continue to withhold its support for Ukraine’s further integration with the European Union as long as a new Ukrainian education law remains unchanged, Hungary’s foreign minister said Oct. 12. (AP, 10.12.17)
• Ukraine has pledged not to close Romanian language schools under a new education law that has caused alarm in Romania, Russia and Hungary. (New York Times, 10.13.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• EU sources say that for the first time the bloc is ready to welcome Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to its Eastern Partnership summit next month. (RFE/RL, 10.10.17)
• Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has vetoed amendments to the constitution that would shift the government to a parliamentary-style system, with the president elected by lawmakers. Parliament, which is dominated by the Georgian Dream Party, adopted the changes last week despite objections from Margvelashvili and the opposition. (RFE/RL, 10.10.17)
• Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has canceled a trip to Russia for a Commonwealth of Independent States summit this week, citing what he said were fears of violent unrest during Kyrgyzstan's Oct. 15 presidential election. Kyrgyz authorities say Kazakhstan has tightened control along the border between the Central Asian neighbors amid tensions over the election. Critics argue that Atambayev and his allies are trying to discredit opponents in a desperate bid to help their favored candidate defeat his front-running opposition rival. Another candidate, Amirbek Beknazarov, nominated by the newly formed Union of National Patriotic Forces, on Oct. 13 bowed out of the race.  (RFE/RL, 10.11.17, RFE/RL, 10.09.17, RFE/RL, 10.11.17, RFE/RL, 10.13.17)
• The EU will not transfer a final tranche of loans worth 28 million euros ($33 million) to support Moldovan justice reforms as the authorities have not fulfilled the required conditions, the EU delegation to Moldova said on Oct. 11. (Reuters, 10.11.17)
• U.N. experts are urging Azerbaijani authorities to investigate reports of human rights abuses against gay and transgender people. (RFE/RL, 10.13.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• ''There was never a strong state on this land. Medieval feudal mosaics, fragile kingdoms and early-modern Cossack republics had nothing in common with European absolutism or Russian authoritarianism,'' said Valerii Pekar, a lecturer at the Kiev-Mohyla Business School, in a recent article. ''This is a country of balance, not of leadership. Nobody can rule Ukraine like a king.'' (New York Times, 10.07.17)
• “Every online forum, every comment section on every local site, everywhere I look, most of the commenters are trolls,” Russian activist Lyudmila Savchuk said in an interview. “It’s like half the country is trolls.” (The Washington Post, 10.08.17)