Russia in Review, Feb. 8-15, 2019

This Week’s Highlights:

  • Following the U.S. decision to suspend its participation in the INF Treaty, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling partners, the Social Democratic Party, are reconsidering their support for a decades-old arrangement that puts Germany under the U.S. nuclear shield, the Wall Street Journal reports.
  • NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is studying a "wide range of options" to deal with alleged Russian violations of the INF Treaty, but mirroring deployments of the SSC-8 missile, which Russia’s been accused of fielding, is not one of them, according to multiple news reports.
  • The U.S. plans to significantly increase its troop numbers in Poland, according to the country’s ambassador to Warsaw as cited by the Financial Times.
  • While 45 percent of respondents in 26 large countries said the United States posed “a major threat to our country,” only 36 percent said the same about Russia and 35 percent about China, according to a new Pew Research Center survey reported by The Washington Post.
  • A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill that would impose drastic new sanctions on Russia over its meddling in U.S. elections and aggression against Ukraine. The bill includes sanctions on new sovereign debt and liquefied natural gas investments. The sanctions could also target Russian banks that support efforts to interfere in foreign elections and individuals deemed to "facilitate illicit and corrupt activities … on behalf of Putin," RFE/RL and Bloomberg reported. 
  • The planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is forecast to be complete by the end of the year, while Russia’s Gazprom will start gas supplies via the new Power of Siberia pipeline to China from Dec. 1, according to the Financial Times and Reuters.

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

Nuclear security and safety:

  • Russia’s government has approved plans to begin decommissioning what are perhaps the most secluded commercial nuclear reactors in the world, located at the Bilibino nuclear power plant in Chukotka—5,600 kilometers and 11 time zones to Moscow’s east. (Bellona, 02.12.19)
  • The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) terminated the construction license for the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility. The letter announcing the termination was sent to the CB&I Areva MOX Services on Feb. 8. (IPFM, 02.11.19)

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

  • “China's been helping us and Russia's been helping us. And South Korea, I think you can say, has been—we've been working very closely with South Korea, with Japan. But China, Russia on the border have really been at least partially living up to what they're supposed to be doing, and that's OK, as per the United Nations,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 15 in reference to the international efforts to roll North Korea’s nuclear weapons program back. (The Washington Post, 02.15.19, Russia Matters, 02.15.19)
  • U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed a North Korean ballistic missile test as a hoax because Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him Pyongyang did not have the capacity to launch such weapons, former FBI chief Andrew McCabe has claimed in his new book. (The Washington Post, 02.14.19)
  • U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has launched a scathing attack on European efforts to defy U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying a scheme to keep trade links with Iran open was an “ill-advised step.” Speaking during a U.S.-led conference on the Middle East in Warsaw on Feb. 14, Pence called on Europe to follow America in abandoning the Iran nuclear deal. (Financial Times, 02.14.19)
  • The Trump White House has accelerated a secret American program to sabotage Iran’s missiles and rockets. (New York Times, 02.15.19)

New Cold War/saber rattling:

  • No significant developments.

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling partners, SDP, are reconsidering their support for a decades old arrangement that puts Germany under the U.S. nuclear shield. The deliberations came partly as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, according to SPD officials. (Wall Street Journal, 02.12.19)
  • The U.S. plans to significantly increase its troop numbers in Poland, according to the country’s ambassador to Warsaw. (Financial Times, 02.13.19)
  • In Warsaw, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused Moscow of wanting to "dominate" Europe. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin "seeks to splinter the NATO alliance, weaken the United States and disrupt Western democracies." (RFE/RL, 02.13.19)
  • The U.S. and other Western powers spent more on defense last year to sustain their advantages over Chinese and Russian technology, the International Institute for Security Studies reported in its annual spending summary. Altogether, the world spent 1.8 percent more in 2018 than in 2017 on defense—a total of $1.67 trillion. The U.S. was responsible for almost half of that growth, with a 5 percent boost over its 2017 budget. (Fortune, 02.15.19)
  • About 80 percent of the world arms trade, by value, appears to have been supplied by the United States, about 10 percent by the EU, about 5 percent by Russia, and less than 2 percent by China, according to the 36th edition of the U.S. State Department’s World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers publication, covering the years 2005-2016. (U.S. State Department, 02.13.19)

Missile defense:

  • No significant developments.

Nuclear arms control:

  • Russia has deployed its controversial 9M729 (NATO code: SSC-8) cruise missile in Mozdok in North Ossetia in Shuya, close to Moscow, in Kapustin Yar in southern Russia and one in Kamyshlov, east of Yekaterinburg, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Each of Russia’s four 9M729 battalions has four launchers on wheels, each of which has four missiles—meaning that Russia now has at least 64 such missiles (RFE/RL, 02.10.19, RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is studying a "wide range of options" to deal with alleged Russian violations of the INF Treaty. Stoltenberg was speaking on Feb. 13 in Brussels, where the alliance's defense ministers were discussing what to do if INF is abandoned. Some allies favor new arms-control efforts, while others, particularly those neighboring Russia, favor exploring stronger deterrents—such as missile-defense initiatives and increasing the speed and number of forces that can be deployed. On Feb. 12, the NATO chief said that Moscow "continues to develop and deploy several battalions of the SSC-8 missile." He also said there is no intention to mirror Russian deployments. On Feb. 13 Stoltenberg urged Moscow to seize the "last opportunity” to return to compliance with the INF Treaty. (RFE/RL, 02.13.19, RFE/RL, 02.12.19, Wall Street Journal, 02.14.19)
    • German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen did not rule out any form of defense capability, including nuclear weapons, in response to the threat of Russian nuclear-capable missiles. (RFE/RL, 02.13.19)
  • Russia may create a ground-based Kalibr missile system and prepare it for serial production by late 2019, a source in the Russian missile production industry told TASS. (TASS, 02.08.19)

Counter-terrorism:      

  • From 14,000 to 18,000 militants from the Islamic State remain in Iraq and Syria and the group is gradually evolving into a clandestine network, Vladimir Voronkov, U.N. Under-Secretary-General, has said. Russia has repatriated 27 children from Iraq where their mothers are imprisoned for being members of Islamic State. (TASS, 02.11.19, RFE/RL, 02.10.19)

Conflict in Syria:

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Feb. 14 that Russia, Turkey and Iran had agreed to take unspecified extra steps to clear Syria's Idlib region of what he called "a hotbed of terrorists," but the Kremlin said there would be no military operation there. Putin was speaking after hosting a summit in southern Russia to weigh the future of Syria with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts. (Reuters, 02.15.19)
  • Russia told Turkey on Feb. 14 it had no right to create a "safe zone" inside Syria unless it sought and received the consent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, signaling tensions as a three-way summit on the Syrian conflict began. (Reuters, 02.14.19)
  • Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar at their meeting in Ankara emphasized the need to take decisive measures to ensure security in the de-militarized zone in Syria’s Idlib province. (TASS, 02.11.19)
  • Gen. Joseph Votel, chief of the U.S. Central Command, says the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria will likely begin within “weeks.” (RFE/RL, 02.11.19)
  • Islamic State fighters are targeting civilians who are trying to flee the last territory held by the terror group in eastern Syria, the town of Baghuz. (VOA, 02.15.19)

Cyber security:

  • U.S. senators from both political parties on Feb. 14 praised the military’s cyber force for helping secure last year’s midterm elections, with one suggesting it was largely due to U.S. Cyber Command that the Russians failed to affect the 2018 vote. (The Washington Post, 02.14.19)
  • Russia's lower house of parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill that backers say is designed to ensure the operation of the Internet in the country if access to servers abroad is cut off. Russia is also planning to temporarily disconnect from the global Internet in the coming weeks as it tests its defenses against cyberattacks. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19, RFE/RL, 02.11.19)

Elections interference:

  • Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director, said in an interview aired on Feb. 14 that top Justice Department officials became so alarmed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision in May 2017 to fire James Comey, the bureau’s director, that they discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. (New York Times, 02.14.19)
    • Trump appeared to respond to the interview in a pair of tweets attacking McCabe. The president called McCabe “a big part of the Crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax—a puppet for Leakin’ James Comey.” (Financial Times, 02.14.19)
  • U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ruled that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by intentionally lying to prosecutors and the grand jury as part of the special counsel's Russia probe. The judge said a "preponderance" of evidence showed that Manafort lied on three different topics, including his communications with former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik. (RFE/RL, 02.14.19)
  • "We can confirm that Mr. Deripaska has never lent his private jet to Mr. Kilimnik, nor has ever had any interaction with him," Oleg Deripaska’s spokeswoman Larissa Belyaeva said. Some media reports have suggested that Deripaska might have lent his personal jet to Kilimnik around the time of the Aug. 2 meeting between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik. It was at that meeting that prosecutors believe Manafort and Kilimnik may have exchanged key information relevant to Russia and Trump’s presidential bid. (The Washington Post, 02.12.19)
  • U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, expressed concern Feb. 10 that special counsel Robert Mueller has not adequately scrutinized U.S. President Donald Trump's finances and said House investigators plan to probe Trump's relationship with a bank implicated in Russian money laundering. (The Washington Post, 02.11.19)
  • That Russian national Maria Butina’s prosecution was launched by the National Security Section of the District of Columbia federal prosecutor’s office, led by Gregg Maisel, is telling in itself: According to a source close to the Mueller investigation, the special counsel’s office had declined to pursue the case, even though it would have clearly fit under its mandate. (The New Republic, 02.11.19)
  • Fifty-six percent of Americans trust special counsel Robert Mueller's version of the facts over U.S. President Donald Trump's according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll. And by nearly as wide a margin, more believe Mueller is mainly interested in "finding out the truth" than trying to "hurt Trump politically." (The Washington Post, 02.12.19)

Energy exports:

  • Officials in Berlin agreed to help finance a port to import liquefied natural gas from America, a key U.S. demand. In return, Washington is toning down its opposition to the Nord Stream 2 underwater pipeline being built from Russia to Germany. (New York Times, 02.13.19)
  • The EU has finalized tougher rules on the contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany which will change the operation and economics of the project, but not stop it. The pipeline is forecast to be complete by the end of the year. (Financial Times, 02.14.19)
  • Russia’s Gazprom will start gas supplies to China from Dec. 1, a month earlier than planned, the gas producer said on Feb. 15. Deliveries of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline were due to begin at the end of December 2019, but the project is only expected to reach full capacity in 2025. (Reuters, 02.15.19)

Bilateral economic ties:

  • No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

  • A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill that would impose drastic new sanctions on Russia over its meddling in U.S. elections and aggression against Ukraine. The bill includes sanctions on new sovereign debt and liquefied natural gas investments. The legislation also sets out sanctions that would target Russian banks that support efforts to interfere in foreign elections; and individuals deemed to "facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Putin." (RFE/RL, 02.14.19, Bloomberg, 02.13.19)
    • The threat of new U.S. sanctions rocked Russian markets on Feb. 14. The dollar-denominated RTS index fell 3 percent and the ruble-based MOEX Russian index lost 1.3 percent. The ruble touched 67 against the U.S. dollar on Feb. 14, its weakest since Jan. 15, and lost almost 1 percent against the Euro to trade at 75.57. (Reuters 02.15.19)
    • Sberbank's chief executive, German Gref, said that according to his information, major Russian banks were not included in the new U.S. sanctions bill, but he added that one should prepare for unfavorable situations. (Reuters 02.15.19)
  • Russia has detained Michael Calvey, the U.S. founder of Baring Vostok, the biggest private independent equity fund in the country, on suspicion of embezzling $37.5 million. Calvey told a Russian court that the allegations were false and had arisen because his fund is in a dispute with Russia's Vostochny Bank. (The Moscow Times, 02.15.19, CNBC, 02.15.19)
  • While 45 percent of respondents in 26 large countries interviewed between May and August 2018 said that the United States posed “a major threat to our country,” only 36 percent said the same about Russia and 35 percent about China, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released on Feb. 10. (The Washington Post, 02.11.19)
  • A Washington judge has ordered the city medical examiner to turn over dozens of autopsy records and other files in the investigation of Mikhail Lesin, the former Russian press minister who was found dead in a D.C. hotel room under suspicious circumstances more than three years ago. (RFE/RL, 02.14.19)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

  • Russia’s gross domestic product is only expected to grow by 1.3 percent over the next year, according to Russia’s Economic Development Ministry. The federal statistics agency sparked skepticism last week for releasing figures that suggested that Russia’s economy had grown 2.3 percent in 2018. The growth rate last year was attributed to a tenfold increase in construction. (The Moscow Times, 02.12.19)
  • Russia’s bonds are now rated investment grade by all three major rating agencies after Moody’s Investors upgraded the country’s credit rating from junk status as its vulnerability to external shocks, including U.S. sanctions, had “materially diminished.” (Financial Times, 02.08.19)
  • Russia will spend 25.7 trillion rubles ($391 billion) on carrying out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansive promises to overhaul Russia’s economy by the end of his last term in office, according to a new government estimate. (The Moscow Times, 02.11.19)
  • According to poll results published by Levada on Feb. 11, 52 percent of Russian respondents said that top officials “always” or “largely” hid the truth when describing the country's economic situation, health care, pensions or the fight against crime. (The Moscow Times, 02.11.19)
  • Lev Ponomaryov’s “For Human Rights” group has been blacklisted as a “foreign agent” months after he spent time behind bars over a protest, the Russian Justice Ministry has said. (The Moscow Times, 02.14.19)
  • Moscow has been named as the world capital of traffic jams in 2018 in an annual report released by the INRIX automotive analytics company. (The Moscow Times, 02.14.19)

Defense and aerospace:

  • Russia is moving to ban its soldiers from sharing information on the internet, a step that follows the use of social media posts by investigative journalists to shine a light on Moscow's clandestine role in foreign conflicts. (The Moscow Times, 02.14.19)
  • The Russian navy is deploying marines aboard all its warships sailing to overseas stations. Their mission is to secure these ships against terrorists and saboteurs. (The National Interest, 02.09.19)

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

  • Dmitry Gribov, head of a Russian anti-corruption group, has been beaten to death outside Moscow. (The Moscow Times, 02.14.19)
  • Azat Miftakhov, a mathematics student at Moscow State University who says he was tortured while being detained on suspicion of being a bomb maker, has been remanded in pretrial custody on hooliganism charges. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • A brawl at a prison in Russia has injured 20 inmates, prison officials said on Feb. 9. The fight broke out during dinner on Feb. 8 at the penitentiary in southwestern Samara, officials said. (RFE/RL, 02.09.19)
  • Moscow's Lefortovo District Court on Feb. 12 ruled to extend the pretrial detention of Karina Tsurkan, an executive with energy holding company Inter RAO charged with spying, until at least mid-April. (RFE/RL, 02.13.19)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

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

  • A third man suspected of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal is high-ranking Russian military intelligence agent Sergey Vyachaeslavovich Fedotov, Bellingcat said on Feb. 14. Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said the same man had visited Bulgaria three times in 2015, confirming a report published by Bellingcat. The Bulgarian authorities have reopened a criminal investigation into the poisoning of prominent arms dealer Emilian Gebrev over questions about a possible connection with the nerve agent attack on Skripal, Tsatsarov said. (Reuters, 02.14.19, New York Times, 02.12.19)
  • Alex Younger, the head of MI6, has warned Russia’s spy agencies to end their campaign to undermine and disrupt Western institutions and alliances, threatening an “assertive response” from Britain and its allies. (Financial Times, 02.15.19)
  • Britain’s defense minister says the country should bolster its military capabilities after Brexit and warned that Russia should be aware that actions deemed unacceptable by the West will "come at a cost." (RFE/RL, 02.11.19)
  • Bill Browder, the head of Hermitage Capital, said he had evidence that members of the U.K.’s House of Lords were in the pay of Russian companies to block the enforcement of new powers enabling the U.K. to sanction people who commit gross human-rights violations. (Financial Times, 02.13.19)
  • The European External Action Service estimates there are “about 250 Chinese and 200 Russian spies in the European capital [Brussels],” Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported, citing EU diplomats. (RFE/RL, 02.09.19)
  • Clement Vandenborre, a counterintelligence chief in Belgium’s military intelligence service, is reportedly under house arrest on suspicion of spying for Russia. (The Moscow Times, 02.15.19)
  • A court in Estonia has convicted former Estonian military officer Deniss Metsavas and his father Pyotr Volin of espionage for Russia. (The Moscow Times, 02.12.19)
  •  The European Parliament has called on authorities in Russia's Chechnya region to immediately release detained Chechen human rights activist Oyub Titiyev. (RFE/RL, 02.14.19)
  • ''Does it seem reasonable to you that Russia Today often uses headlines that are not true?'' former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in 2016. ''Why do they have to have reports today on some protest against me, if that square is full of my people, defending our reform?” Renzi asked. (New York Times, 02.13.19)
  • “Our goal is to prevent another color—or black and white—[revolution] tailor-made by the Americans,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in reference to the situation in Venezuela. (The Moscow Times, 02.15.19)
  • Nuclear-capable Russian bombers carried out a training flight over the Sea of Japan, prompting Tokyo to scramble air force planes to intercept them, Interfax cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying on Feb. 15. (Reuters, 02.15.19)

China:

  • The Pentagon's lead intelligence agency has warned in a new report that Russia and China are building technologies that will soon threaten U.S. dominance in space. Both countries "are developing a variety of means to exploit perceived U.S. reliance on space-based systems and challenge the U.S. position in space," the report said. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • At a joint news conference with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjart, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised concerns over ties between Hungary and Russia, and Budapest's contract with Chinese company Huawei. Szijjarto welcomed Pompeo's calls for closer ties, but also brushed off the criticism on relations with Russia and China. "There is an enormous hypocrisy and political correctness in the European political arena," he said. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)

Ukraine:

  • The EU will blacklist eight more Russians over a stand-off with Ukraine in the Azov Sea, diplomatic sources said on Feb. 15. The bloc's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed in Brussels on Feb. 15 "the issue of restrictive measures as a consequence of the incidents in the Azov Sea," a senior EU official said, indicating the EU was coordinating with Washington. (Reuters, 02.15.19)
    • A Moscow court on Feb. 12 upheld the extension of the pretrial detention of four of 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces along with their three naval vessels in November near the Kerch Strait. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to begin preparations for the joint Ukrainian-U.S. exercises Sea Breeze-2019 scheduled to be held in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. (TASS, 02.12.19)
  • Commander of the U.S. Army Europe Christopher Cavoli has visited the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security in Ukraine’s Lviv region, where he had a look at the training of Ukrainian troops. (Interfax, 02.11.19)
  • Across social media, Ukrainian police and law enforcement officials are apologizing for one officer's slur aimed at far-right ultranationalists and making it known: They, too, are "#Banderites." Or, to be clear, supporters of militant Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. (RFE/RL, 02.11.19)
  • Ukraine has taken the extraordinary step of deporting a senior cleric of the Moscow-aligned Orthodox Church and stripping him of his citizenship. The move threatens to draw U.S. officials into the spat, since the Ukrainian-born Bishop Gedeon, whose given name is Yuriy Kharon, is said to hold U.S. citizenship. (RFE/RL, 02.15.19)
  • Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk has said he favors autonomy status for Donbass, just like Crimea was proclaimed autonomous in Ukraine's Constitution. (Interfax, 02.11.19)
  • Vladyslav Manher, head of the regional council in the southern region of Kherson, who is suspected of organizing the killing of Ukrainian anticorruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk last year, has been arrested. (RFE/RL, 02.15.19)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

  • Belarus is ready to merge with Russia, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on the third and last day of his bilateral talks with President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 15. “The two of us could unite tomorrow, no problem,” Lukashenko said. “But are you—Russians and Belarussians—ready for it?” Lukashenko said. (The Moscow Times, 02.15.19)
  • EU officials have agreed to extend for another year the bloc's arms embargo against Belarus, several sources familiar with the negotiations who are not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL on Feb. 15. (RFE/RL, 02.15.19)
  • Facebook says it has removed 168 accounts, 28 pages and eight Instagram accounts from its social-media platforms after they were discovered to be "engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior targeting people in Moldova" ahead of the country's Feb. 24 parliamentary elections. (RFE/RL, 02.14.19)
  • The Armenian Defense Ministry says Yerevan has sent an 83-strong team of demining experts and other personnel to war-ravaged Syria as part of a Russia-backed mission. The U.S. has indicated it does not support Armenia's participation in the Russia-backed mission. (RFE/RL, 02.10.19, RFE/RL, 02.13.19)
  • Armenian investigators have filed a new bribe-taking charge against former President Robert Kocharian, who was previously charged with violating the country's constitutional system. (RFE/RL, 02.13.19)
  • Uzbekistan made its international bond market debut Feb. 14 with an oversubscribed $1 billion offering. (Wall Street Journal, 02.14.19)
  • Ikhtiyor Abdullaev resigned as head of the Uzbek Service of State Security. Abdusalom Azizov, until now defense minister, has been named the new state security chief. (RFE/RL, 02.11.19)
  • Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has dismissed long-serving Interior Minister Qalmukhanbet Qasymov, who has faced criticism for years over the use of force by police, but handed him two potentially influential positions in his administration. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • Tajik authorities have issued an arrest warrant in absentia for prominent journalist Khairullo Mirsaidov, whose 12-year prison sentence was changed to a fine and community service in August 2018 in a case widely seen as politically motivated. (RFE/RL, 02.12.19)
  • Tajikistan's Interior Ministry says prominent opposition figure Sharodiddin Gadoev has returned to the Central Asian country from abroad and "is sorry for his deeds," while a colleague claims that he was abducted in Russia. (RFE/RL, 02.15.19)

IV. Quoteworthy

  • No significant developments.