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

Nuclear security:

• A new research report, “The Use of Highly-Enriched Uranium as Fuel in Russia,” released by the International Panel on Fissile Materials estimates that Russia uses about 8.5 tons of HEU of various enrichments annually, a large fraction of which is weapon-grade material. (IPFM, 09.13.17)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Tehran is honoring the terms of the nuclear deal. (RFE/RL, 09.11.17)

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• Russia on Sept. 14 kicked off its week-long Zapad military exercise with Belarus that has NATO and the U.S. watching anxiously, but actually addresses one of Moscow's primary fears. (The Washington Post, 09.14.17)
• British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has said Russia's upcoming military maneuvers with Belarus are aimed at "provoking" NATO and "testing" its defenses. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he sees no "imminent threat" from the exercises, but criticized Moscow for not being more transparent. (Wall Street Journal, 09.12.17, RFE/RL , 09.06.17,RFE/RL, 09.10.17)
• “We see a very, very large-scale offensive exercise that demonstrates hatred against the West,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said in remarks published Sept. 13. She said it’s “clear” Putin will use Zapad 2017 as an excuse to deploy more weaponry and personnel along Russia’s borders and keep them there. (Bloomberg, 09.14.17)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sept. 9 criticized German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, saying it was bewildered by her assertion that Moscow planned to send more than 100,000 troops to war games on NATO’s eastern flank this month. (Reuters, 09.09.17)
• Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told a German broadcaster that the Zapad drills do not pose a threat to Europe. (The Moscow Times, 09.14.17)
• Some in Congress are pushing for a “Space Corps” dedicated to fighting wars in the cosmos; the proposal comes amid rising concerns over Russia’s and China's space capabilities. (The Washington Post, 09.15.17)
• Lt.Col. Eric Schultz, 44, died Sept. 5 when his highly classified plane crash-landed near the secretive Area 51 weapons testing range in Nevada. Little information is available, so speculation abounds. One theory is that the plane was a Russian Su-27P—Putin’s most advanced warplane. (Daily Star, 09.12.17)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

• Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sept. 13 that the U.S. must keep all three parts of its nuclear force. Mattis also said the Trump administration is reviewing the value of the New START Treaty, adding that the question is linked to adherence by others to separate but related arms treaties—an apparent reference to the INF Treaty. (AP, 09.13.17)
• The United States and Russia plan to soon start discussions at the expert level on New START, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said. (RFE/RL, 09.13.17)

Counter-terrorism:

• Russian security services believe Islamic State is behind a wave of hoax bomb threats that have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from government buildings, shopping malls and airports across the country. (Bloomberg, 09.14.17)
• A Russian Islamic State fighter was sentenced to death by hanging in Iraq on Sept. 12, authorities said, a rare conviction of a foreign militant on terrorism charges. (Reuters, 09.12.17)
• Russia has practically solved the problem of international terrorism inside the country, but terrorism is on the rise across the globe, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. (TASS, 09.12.17)

Conflict in Syria:

• Russia, Turkey and Iran have agreed to establish and monitor a combat-free zone in and around the mostly rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib after two days of talks on ending the country’s six-year war. Meanwhile, Syrian government forces pressed their offensive in the province of Hama on Sept. 15 in an attack aimed at clearing central Syria of Islamic State fighters. (Bloomberg, 09.15.17, AP, 09.15.17)
• The Russian Air Force has deployed some MiG-29SMT multi-role combat aircraft to Hmeymim airbase- in western Syria, the Defense Ministry confirmed on Sept. 13. (Business Insider, 09.13.17)
• Russia’s military fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles Sept. 14 at Islamic State targets in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour. (AP, 09.14.17)
• Russia’s military said Sept. 12 that Syrian troops have liberated about 85% of the country’s territory from militants. (AP, 09.12.17)
• An advanced detachment of the Russian Armed Forces’ international anti-mine center has been dispatched to Syria. A total of 175 specialists with 42 items of special equipment, including advanced Uran-6 robots, will join the humanitarian mine-clearing operation. (TASS, 09.12.17)
• The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sept. 8 that in the previous two weeks its planes had flown 1,417 combat sorties in Syria, claiming to have killed 1,200 fighters in that period. The ministry also said it has killed four Islamic State leaders in an airstrike outside the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, including Abu Muhammad al-Shimali and Gulmurod Khalimov. Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft backing the advance of Syrian government forces in the Uqayribat area have destroyed around 180 opposition facilities Sept. 11-12. (Interfax, 09.12.17, Russia Matters, 09.11.17, AP, 09.08.17)
• Dozens of civilians have been killed since Sept. 10 in suspected Russian air strikes along the Euphrates in eastern Syria, activists say. (BBC, 09.12.17)
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to discuss bilateral military cooperation and joint efforts to defeat IS in Syria. (RFE/RL, 09.12.17)
• Russian military police units may be deployed to the Idlib de-escalation area in Syria. (Interfax, 09.11.17)
• Requests for purchasing Russia’s Kalibr cruise missiles have risen amid the operation in Syria, according to a senior Russian official. (TASS, 09.12.17)
• At Russia's request, the U.S. military on Sept. 8 called off its surveillance of a convoy of Islamic State fighters that had been stuck in the Syrian desert, because the area in question had come under control of Syrian troops. The convoy then reached its destination in eastern Syria as part of a controversial deal brokered by Hezbollah. (Wall Street Journal, 09.14.17, The Washington Post, 09.09.17)
• The armed Syrian opposition has confirmed that it will send a delegation to the sixth round of Syria negotiations in Astana on Sept. 14-15. Russia hopes agreements on a fourth de-escalation zone in Syria, near Idlib, may be formalized at the meeting in a joint effort with Turkey and Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Sept. 11 that “Saudi Arabia is [also] determined to solve the Syria crisis.”   (Interfax, 09.11.17, TASS, 09.11.17, TASS, 09.10.17, AP, 09.11.17, Reuters, 09.14.17)
• The Israeli intelligence minister said Sept. 11 that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ready to let Iran set up military bases in Syria. (Reuters, 09.11.17)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to discuss deepening military ties and reconstruction in Syria. (AP, 09.13.17)

Cyber security:

• American government agencies have been ordered to remove software made by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab cyber-security firm from its networks within three months. Best Buy said it will no longer sell Kaspersky Lab software. The firm could shutter its Washington D.C. offices. (The Moscow Times, 09.14.17, AP, 09.13.17,The Moscow Times, 09.12.17)
  • Eugene Kaspersky, the firm’s co-founder and CEO, has accepted an invitation to testify to U.S. lawmakers later this month over the security of his company’s products, but said he needed an expedited visa in order to do so. (Reuters, 09.14.17)
• In 2015, suspected Russian hackers broke into the computer networks of the German Parliament and made off with a mother lode of data—16 gigabytes, enough to account for a million or more emails. (The Washington Post, 09.10.17)

Elections interference:

• Russia’s effort to influence U.S. voters through Facebook and other social media is a “red-hot” focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. (Bloomberg, 09.13.17)
• Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr said he wants "a full accounting" from Facebook Inc. and other social media companies about any foreign money used to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election. Mueller has alerted the White House that his team will probably seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump. (Bloomberg, 09.12.17, The Washington Post, 09.08.17)
• The lobbying activities of Michael G. Flynn, the son of President Trump's former national security adviser, are being examined by the special counsel investigating possible Trump-Russia ties. (The Washington Post, 09.13.17)
• The Justice Department says it will not permit two FBI officials close to fired director James Comey to appear privately before a congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (AP, 09.13.17)
  • The White House is ramping up its attacks on Comey, suggesting that the Justice Department should consider prosecuting his conduct. (AP, 09.15.17)
• A spokesman for Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, met for more than two hours Sept. 15 with a federal grand jury exploring possible coordination between the president's campaign and the Russian government. (The Washington Post, 09.15.17)
• When Donald Trump Jr. met at Trump Tower last summer with a top lawyer for Moscow’s regional government, the attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had a pressing matter—a client with a previously unreported U.S. criminal investigation into possible Russian money laundering. (Bloomberg, 09.15.17)
• Russia was a topic in this year’s Miss America pageant. Asked whether President Trump's campaign colluded with Russia, Miss Missouri said: "We are still investigating this, and I think we should investigate it to its fullest extent. And if we do find the evidence … then they . . . should be punished accordingly." (The Washington Post, 09.12.17)

Energy exports from CIS:

• OPEC and its allies are discussing extending by more than three months the oil production cuts that expire in March 2018. (Bloomberg, 09.12.17)
• The International Energy Agency said oil consumption will increase in 2017 by an upwardly revised 1.6 million barrels a day to 97.7m b/d. (Financial Times, 09.13.17)

Bilateral economic ties:

• U.S.-based pizzeria chain Sbarro has signed a new franchising agreement for Russia and will resume expansion on the market where it was a major player before the 2014 financial crisis. (Reuters, 09.14.17)

Other bilateral issues:

• In the third month of Trump’s presidency, Russian President Putin dispatched one of his diplomats to the U.S. State Department to deliver a bold proposition: The full normalization of relations between the United States and Russia across all major branches of government. Under the proposal, the two countries would hold “special consultations” on the war in Afghanistan, the Iran nuclear deal, the “situation in Ukraine” and efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula – all by May, according to the document obtained by BuzzFeed. The Russian government confirmed the substance of the BuzzFeed report on Sept. 13. (BuzzFeed, 09.12.17, 09.13.17)
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his U.S. counterpart Thomas Shannon met for talks in Helsinki.
  • The talks focused on the "forced closure" of Russia's Consulate in San Francisco and the "illegitimate seizure" of trade annexes in Washington and New York, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry. (RFE/RL, 09.11.17)
  • Shannon argued that the two sides have “done enough damage to each other” and need to focus on areas where they can work together, such as tensions over North Korea and Syria. (Bloomberg, 09.13.17)
  • Moscow does not want to escalate the situation around U.S. diplomats in Russia, Ryabkov told Shannon. "We called for a stop to the destruction of Russia-U.S. relations," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its Sept. 11 statement.  (Reuters, 09.12.17, RFE/RL, 09.11.17)
  • Ryabkov said it was difficult at the moment to speak about a possible meeting of the Russian and U.S. presidents on the sidelines of an APEC summit against the background of hostile moves by the U.S. (TASS, 09.12.17)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. (Reuters, 09.12.17)
• Secretary of State Tillerson believes the diplomatic tiff between Russia and the U.S. should not be escalated further and hopes the two countries can begin working to improve ties. (Reuters, 09.12.17)
• Russia has withdrawn parking privileges for U.S. diplomats, an apparent continuation of a diplomatic tit-for-tat between Washington and Moscow.  Moscow city authorities said Sept. 15 that they revoked the special parking privileges to resolve parking shortages in the city center. (AP, 09.13.17, The Moscow Times, 09.15.17)
• San Francisco’s air quality watchdog has served the former Russian consulate a notice of violation for burning “garbage” without permission a day before it was ordered by the U.S. State Department to vacate the property. Washington has repeatedly called on Moscow to sell the former consulate building. (The Moscow Times, 09.13.17, The Moscow Times, 09.14.17)
• Four men have been detained in central Moscow after a bottle was thrown at the gates of the U.S. Embassy. (The Moscow Times, 09.08.17)
• CIA Director Mike Pompeo traveled to Moscow in May for talks with Russian intelligence officials, but an agency spokesman declined to discuss the nature of the meeting. (BuzzFeed, 09.12.17)
• The FBI is investigating Russian state-run news agency Sputnik over suspected violations of a U.S. law requiring the registration of “foreign agents.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department has asked the Russian state broadcaster RT to register a company that supplies extensive services for its U.S. outlet as a foreign agent. (The Moscow Times, 09.11.17, RFE/RL, 09.12.17)
• Russian President Putin awarded former Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak the Alexander Nevsky medal, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, the Kremlin said Sept. 11. (Bloomberg, 09.11.17)
• Following North Korea’s latest missile launch, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Russia to crack down on the use of forced North Korean labor, which provides millions of dollars annually to the regime in Pyongyang. (Wall Street Journal, 09.15.17)
• A Soyuz space capsule with two Americans and a Russian aboard docked with the International Space Station on Sept. 12. (AP, 09.12.17)
• The Jehovah’s Witnesses have lodged an appeal with Russia's Supreme Court after being added to an "extremist" registry alongside banned terrorist organizations, the court told the Interfax news agency on Sept. 12. (The Moscow Times, 09.12.17)
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused the FBI of planting incriminating material at the Russian consulate in San Francisco. (The Moscow Times, 09.08.17)
• The new U.S. sanctions law threatens to cut off a vital channel for Russia’s funding of its massive defense buildup. Officials in government and state banks are looking for ways to get around the restrictions or minimize their impact on the funding. (Bloomberg, 09.12.17)
• Russia’s Defense Ministry has for the first time released the number of Soviet casualties during the Cuban missile crisis: 64 Soviet citizens died on Cuban territory during the period between the years 1962 and 1964, according to new official data released by the ministry. (The Moscow Times, 09.11.17)
• Democratic lawmakers say they're investigating whether President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, secretly promoted a U.S.-Russian project to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the Middle East. The proposed project was to be funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and built and run by a consortium of U.S., Russian, French, Dutch, Arab, British, Ukrainian, and Israeli firms. (RFE/RL, 09.14.17)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Russia’s richest hold as much as 60 percent of their wealth overseas, according to a new study. (Bloomberg, 09.12.17)
• Vladimir Putin will announce his participation in the 2018 presidential race in November of this year, becoming a technically independent candidate in late December or early January, according to Kommersant newspaper. (APA, 09.12.17)
• Russia’s ruling party swept gubernatorial elections on Sept. 10, but the beleaguered opposition claimed a rare breakthrough in voting for district councils in Moscow. An independent Russian election monitoring group, Golos, said low turnout for regional and local elections across the country was caused by "the low level of competition and by voters' distrust toward the election process." (Bloomberg, 09.11.17, The Moscow Times, 09.11.17, RFE/RL, 09.12.17)
• A top activist in Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's presidential campaign says he was attacked on the street with a metal pipe in Moscow. (RFE/RL, 09.15.17)
• Journalist Yulia Latynina has left Russia with her family after a series of attacks on her in recent months. (The Moscow Times, 09.11.17)
• Nearly half of Russian citizens approve of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, a Levada Center poll released on Sept. 13 found. (The Moscow Times, 09.13.17)
• The World Anti-Doping Agency has cleared 95 Russian athletes of doping charges because it lacked sufficient evidence to support the allegations. (The Moscow Times, 09.13.17)

Defense and aerospace:

• Moscow is planning to salvage 6,000 more tanks than it had previously planned. Some 10,000 of its older model tanks were to be sent to the junk yard for disposal; now that figure could be reduced to as few as 4,000. (National Interest, 09.11.17)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

• Russia's Investigative Committee has charged Oleg Korshunov, the deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service, with embezzling 160 million rubles ($2.7 million). (RFE/RL, 09.14.17)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

• The UN Security Council approved new sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea after the U.S. dropped demands such as an oil embargo to win support from Russia and China. The resolution seeks to cut imports of refined petroleum products to 2 million barrels a year, ban textile exports and strengthen inspections of ships that are believed to be carrying cargo in breach of sanctions. (Bloomberg, 09.11.17)
  • Joseph Yun, the State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, made a quiet trip to Moscow on Monday to urge Russia to support new UN sanctions on North Korea. (Washington Post, 09.12.17)
• The Trump administration is warning that the U.S. will punish companies in China and Russia that don’t comply with restrictions in the new international sanctions on North Korea. Russian smugglers are scurrying to the aid of North Korea with shipments of petroleum and other vital supplies that could help that country weather harsh new economic sanctions, U.S. officials say. (AP, 09.12.17)
• The European Union has prolonged its asset freezes and travel bans on Russian officials and Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine for another six months, with Russia's new ambassador to the U.S. remaining on the list, diplomats said. Western sanctions have cost Russia $55 billion while the EU is losing $3.2 billion a month, according to an UN report cited by Russia’s Kommersant daily on September 13. (RFE/RL, 09.14.17, Russia Matters, 09.13.17)
• Turkey has signed a deal with Russia to buy S-400 antiaircraft missile systems in its first major weapons purchase from Moscow. (RFE/RL, 09.12.17)
• Sweden has started its largest military exercise in over 20 years, with nearly 20,000 troops drilling on air, land and sea, including a contingent of over 1,000 U.S. soldiers. (AP, 09.11.17)
• The Russian foreign minister told his Saudi counterpart that a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Qatar to end a bitter diplomatic dispute that has raised tensions on the Arabian Peninsula. (RFE/RL, 09.11.17)
• Alternative for Germany, a nationalist party that wants to end sanctions against Russia, is predicted to enter parliament for the first time this month. (AP, 09.13.17)
• Poland’s main opposition party is calling for the suspension of Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz over allegations he has secret ties with Russian military intelligence. (AP, 09.13.17)
• Poland's lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved an increase in defense spending to at least 2.1 percent of GDP in 2020 and at least 2.5 percent in 2030, well above the level NATO requires. Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz called the increase a necessary response to "threats from the East" where Russia is "using force to pursue its political goals." (AP, 09.15.17)
• The European Union's enlargement commissioner urged Serbia and its neighbors on Friday to stay on course toward membership in the 28-nation bloc amid Russia's attempts to maintain influence in the Balkan region. (AP, 09.15.17)
• Judges in the trial of suspected coup plotters against Montenegro’s government on Monday rejected a defense request to free the suspects from prison, partly because of their Russian connections. (AP, 09.11.17)
• Venezuela has asked Moscow to restructure the country’s debt. (Financial Times, 09.11.17)
• Japan and Russia have signed a memorandum on the exchange of information on reactor physics experiments for minor actinoid transmutation for radioactive waste processing and management. (World Nuclear News, 09.08.17)
• Rosatom and Kinetics Corporation are to supply a cyclotron complex with radiochemical laboratories to the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology. (World Nuclear News, 09.11.17)

China:

• In supporting a watered-down version of North Korea sanctions, China and Russia had a stern warning for the U.S.: Don’t try to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime. (Bloomberg, 09.12.17)
• Four Chinese navy ships have departed for joint drills with Russia. The drills are being held in the Sea of Japan near the Korean Peninsula and the Sea of Okhotsk off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. (AP, 09.14.17)

Ukraine:

• Russian President Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sept. 11 that U.N. peacekeepers might be deployed to eastern Ukraine not only on the Donbas contact line separating the sides of the conflict, but also in other parts where OSCE inspectors work. Putin, in a phone call with Merkel, gave her a detailed description of Russia’s initiative to establish a U.N. mission to protect observers from a special OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. (Reuters, 09.11.17, Voice of America, 09.15.17)
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also counts on support for Ukraine's initiative to introduce U.N. peacekeepers to Donbas at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.  (Interfax, 09.12.17)
• Petro Poroshenko said that as part of his trip to the United States for participation in the session of the U.N. General Assembly, he will also hold meetings with the U.S. military and members of the U.S. Defense Department. (Interfax, 09.12.17)
• The opening ceremony of the Rapid Trident 2017 exercise took place on Sept. 11 in the Lviv region. This year’s drill involves about 2,500 servicemen from 15 countries, among them Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Italy, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey. (Kyiv Post, 09.12.17)
• Almost all combat military units of Ukraine’s air force have been put on alert for a tryout. (Interfax, 09.12.17)
• Russia on Sept. 12 strongly condemned a new education law in Ukraine, saying it will infringe on the rights of Russian-speakers. (AP, 09.12.17)
• The European Union does not recognize the regional elections held in Crimea and Sevastopol on Sept. 10. (TASS, 09.12.17)
• EU lawmakers are pushing for more sanctions on Russia ahead of a summit in Brussels in November. (RFE/RL, 09.11.17)
• Ukraine is ready to satisfy the request of Russian gas giant Gazprom to increase the transit of natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, the press service of Ukraine’s Naftogaz said on Sept. 11. (TASS, 09.11.17)
• A push for overhauls encouraged by Ukraine's Western backers is deepening divisions in the government, including a call by some officials for the dismissal or investigation of reformist Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk. (Wall Street Journal, 09.12.17)
• On Sept. 11, a day after forcing his way past border guards back into Ukraine, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he would unite the opposition against his former ally President Petro Poroshenko. Saakashvili then told a rally in western Ukraine that he had returned to the country to help solve the country’s “political crisis” and that he intends to travel to Kiev next week. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Saakashvili is wanted on “serious” criminal charges. (Reuters, 09.12.17, RFE/RL, 09.12.17, RFE/RL, 09.13.17
• Pennsylvania-based XCoal Energy & Resources on Sept. 13 delivered the first ever US shipments of anthracite coal to Ukraine. (Financial Times, 09.13.17)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Moldovan President Igor Dodon has demanded the dismissal of acting defense chief Gheorghe Galbura after the military sent soldiers to a multinational training exercise in Ukraine against the president's wishes. (RFE/RL, 09.08.17)
• British oil giant BP and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR have signed a contract that prolongs their 1994 sharing agreement for Azerbaijan's largest oil fields until 2050. (RFE/RL, 09.14.17)
• More than 150 people have been stripped of Azerbaijani citizenship for taking part in hostilities on the side of terrorist organizations abroad. (Interfax, 09.12.17)
• Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin who was jailed in Baku for traveling to Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region has left Baku on a flight to Israel, three days after receiving a pardon from President Ilham Aliyev. (RFE/RL, 09.14.17)
• The director of Azerbaijan's independent Turan news agency has been released from pretrial detention on condition that he remain under house arrest. (RFE/RL, 09.11.17)
• As a share of Kazakhstan’s GDP, net foreign investment has dropped to 3.5 percent, from a high of 13 percent in 2004. (New York Times, 09.10.17)
• Kazakh uranium producer KazAtomProm and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear fuel and power generation. (World Nuclear News, 09.11.17)

IV. Quoteworthy

• No significant developments.