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

Nuclear security:

• A group of government ministers committed their countries to further strengthening global nuclear security, including by combating illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive material, according to a Ministerial Declaration adopted Dec. 5 at the IAEA’s brought together 2,000 participants from more than 130 of the agency's member states and 17 international, regional and nongovernmental organizations to review the status of the international security regime.( IAEA, World Nuclear News, 12.07.16)
• "Nuclear terrorists" can strike anywhere, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano warned Dec. 5 at the start of the week-long conference in Vienna: “Terrorists and criminals will try to exploit any vulnerability in the global nuclear security system. Any country, in any part of the world, could find itself used as a transit point. And any country could become the target of an attack." (AFP, 12.05.16)
• U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has announced that "the United States is beginning consultations with the IAEA to monitor the dilution and packaging of up to six metric tons of surplus plutonium at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina." (IPFM Blog, 12.05.16)
• “The fact that this forum is being held is a testament to IAEA’s central role in international cooperation on nuclear security. IAEA is the only international organization that possesses the expertise potential in this sphere,” the director of the department for non-proliferation and arms control of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Ulyanov, told the IAEA conference in Vienna. “International assistance to states can be rendered only upon their request and in compliance with demands of their national law,” he said. (Belfer Center, 12.07.16)

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• No significant developments.

Military issues, including NATO-Russia relations:

• The U.S. Senate has passed a $618.7 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that includes a ban on funds for military-to-military contact between the Pentagon and the Russian Defense Ministry—a response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, 12.08.15)
• The Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, Frank Kendall, has said that Russian “behavior has caused us … to rethink the balance of capabilities that we’re going to need.” None of the officials at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum gave details about how the concerns would affect the fiscal 2018 budget request, but defense officials have pointed to the need to focus on areas such as cyber security, space, nuclear capabilities and missile defense, where Russia has developed new capabilities in recent years. (Reuters, 12.05.16, Foreign Policy, 12.05.16)
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum that Russia’s goal to undermine NATO is a dangerous game, and Russian forces “are operating with a frequency and in places that we haven’t seen for decades.” (Foreign Policy, 12.05.16).
• Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said there were continuing incidents involving Russian aircraft buzzing U.S. vessels, with some coming as close as 30 feet, and other cases where ships were behaving "erratically." "More communication with Russia would be a valuable thing," Richardson said, noting that he had regular contact with his counterpart in China, but not with those in Russia or Iran. (Reuters, 12.05.16)
• "Russia is the No. 1 threat to the United States. We have a number of threats that we're dealing with, but Russia could be, because of the nuclear aspect, an existential threat to the United States," Air Force Secretary Deborah James told Reuters in an interview at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum. (Reuters, 12.05.16)
• U.S. Army Secretary Eric Fanning told a panel at the conference that Russia was clearly acting "in a destabilizing way," and said the United States was learning from how the Russian military was behaving in Ukraine. (Reuters, 12.05.16)
• “We will continue to have a dual approach to Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “We need defense and dialog, not defense or dialog. We do not want a new cold war; we do not seek confrontation.” (Bloomberg, 12.05.16)
• Among the 40 proposals for EU-NATO cooperation to be endorsed at the NATO ministerial conference, a quarter relate to countering hybrid threats like propaganda, political and economic interference or disguising trained military personnel as militias, as Russia did in Ukraine. Others relate to better coordinating the two organizations’ crisis response activities and studying whether to conduct joint and coordinated military exercises. (AP, 12.06.16)
• In January a brigade from the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division will arrive in Germany and then move to Poland, according to U.S. military officials. After conducting systems tests in Poland, one battalion will go back to the training center in Germany, another battalion will go to the Baltic States and one battalion will go to Romania, the officials said. NATO military officials held an exercise last week to help plan the deployment. (Wall Street Journal, 12.09.16)
• The Pentagon’s soon-to-be published Electronic Warfare strategy calls for increased investment in advanced electronic warfare technology. The prospect for a “first-of-its kind” DoD electronic warfare strategy gained new urgency following Russia’s successful use of advanced EW technologies in Ukraine. (National Interest, 12.06.16)
• Russia is engaged in efforts to convene a Russia-NATO council meeting, according to Russia’s envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko. NATO wants to hold a meeting before Christmas, but Russia is reluctant to discuss Ukraine, which the allies insist must be on the table. Moscow may even wait until a new U.S. administration is installed next month to see if there is any policy change. (AP, 12.07.16, TASS, 12.09.16)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he believes "frantic attempts are being made to pull Montenegro into NATO" before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama's term in January. (RFE/RL, 12.09.16)
• Commercial satellite images suggest that Russia is moving a new generation of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into Eastern Europe. Russian officials have described the Iskander deployment as a counterweight to missile-defense systems the U.S. has put in Romania and plans to install in Poland. (NPR, 12.08.16. Wall Street Journal, 12.09.16)

Missile defense:

• No significant developments.

Arms control:

• The U.S. Senate has passed a National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that withholds funding from the Defense Department for matters related to Russian surveillance flights over the United States. Those flights are authorized under a 2002 agreement known as the Open Skies Treaty. (RFE/RL, 12.08.15)
• James Mattis, the retired general Donald Trump has chosen to be the next U.S. defense secretary, has questioned the need for land-based nuclear missiles on the grounds they represent a higher risk than other weapons of being launched on a false alarm. (Guardian, 12.04.16)

Counter-terrorism:

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that a Trump administration would align more closely with Russian objectives. “The commitment to fighting terrorism has been expressed much more clearly than the concrete actions of the Obama administration,” Lavrov told reporters at an OSCE meeting in Germany. (Bloomberg, 12.09.16)
• Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has killed a leader of the Islamic State militant group during a raid in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan. In a statement issued on Dec. 4, the FSB said it had killed Rustam Aselderov and "four of his close associates" during a raid on a private house near Dagestan’s capital city of Makhachkala. (RFE/RL,12.04.16)
• The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a factory fire in the Moscow suburbs last month, an online jihadist monitoring organization reported. (The Moscow Times, 12.09.16)
• The Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service have detained 12 members of an alleged terrorist organization in Moscow, with criminal cases opened against the detainees. (TASS, 12.06.16)

Conflict in Syria:

• The Syrian army has gained control of 93% of Aleppo's territory, with 52 neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city liberated, head of the Main Operations Department at Russia's General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, said Dec. 9. (TASS, 12.09.16)
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Dec. 8 that the Syrian army has suspended combat operations in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Military activities in the Aleppo region were halted only to allow civilians to leave the city, Lavrov said at a press conference in Hamburg on Dec. 9. On Dec. 7 Syrian government forces swept through the Old City of Aleppo. The army and allied militiamen now hold three-quarters of east Aleppo, four years after the area fell from government control. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16, AP, 12.07.16, TASS, 12.09.16)
• Syrian government forces and allied militias captured Aleppo’s centrally located al-Shaar neighborhood from rebels on Dec. 6 as the government and its ally Russia rejected a cease-fire for the war-torn city. The same day the Syrian government and Russia issued stark warnings to rebels in besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo, with Moscow’s top diplomat saying the rebels will be wiped out unless they stop fighting and leave the city. (AP, 12.06.16)
• Syrian activists said on Dec. 5 that Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their assaults on the rebel-held province of Idlib, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people. (AP, 12.05.16)
• On Dec. 4, Russian troops helped deliver aid to thousands of people crammed into what had been shops in a covered market in Jibreen, a government-held town south of Aleppo. (New York Times, 12.04.16)
• Bashar al-Assad’s military, backed by Russian firepower and Iranian-trained militias, should regain control of the whole of Aleppo within a month or two, according to Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament. Another Russian senator, Ilyas Umakhanov, who’s met with Assad in Damascus and recently returned from talks in Tehran, said gaining “a decisive military edge” in Syria now is the best way to achieve peace in the future. (Bloomberg, 12.05.16)
• “The Russians are rushing to create a fait accompli on the ground before Trump gets to the White House,” said Bassma Kodmani, a leader of the High Negotiations Council, a Syrian political group supported by countries including the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia. (Bloomberg, 12.05.16)
• Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council proposal to stop the fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Dec. 5, thwarting flurried international efforts to end violence that has killed hundreds of civilians in recent weeks. (Washington Post, 12.05.16)
• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks on Syria on Dec. 8 and said he was “hopeful” about halting the siege of Aleppo, where government forces have tightened their grip on the opposition stronghold. Syria’s six-year-old war dominated discussions on the sidelines of a ministerial conference in Germany, with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Kerry both meeting Lavrov late Dec. 7. Steinmeier pushed for an immediate cease-fire to allow for humanitarian access to eastern Aleppo and a return to a political process. (Bloomberg, 12.08.16)
• The United States and Russia are "poles apart" in trying to agree on terms for evacuations from rebel-held areas of Aleppo, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland says. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian military should use its combat experience in Syria to further modernize its arsenals. (AP, 12.07.16)
• Two Chechen special forces battalions are being deployed to Syria, the Kommersant newspaper reported Dec. 8. The head of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, says that troops based there would be happy to fight what he called "scum" in Syria if President Vladimir Putin wishes. (RFE/RL, 12.09.16, The Moscow Times, 12.08.16)
• A Russian Su-33 fighter jet has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during an attempt to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. This is the second crash in three weeks involving a plane attempting to land on the carrier’s deck and, like the first crash, of a Mig-29, this one was due to broken arresting gear. The carrier may halt flight operations. Aircraft would be relocated to Russia's Khmeimim airbase in Syria's Latakia province, sources told Kommersant. The Russian Defense Ministry rejected reports on Dec. 8 that the commission investigating this incident considered a pilot error as the likely cause for the crash. (TASS, 12.08.16, The Moscow Times, 12.06.16, The Moscow Times, 12.05.16)
• The Russian Defense Ministry said Dec. 5 that two of its nurses had been killed in an attack on a field clinic in Syria. Describing the armed opposition as "animals in human form," a spokesman for the ministry, Igor Konashenkov, blamed the rebellion's Western backers. “The blood of our servicemen is on the hands of those who ordered this murder," he said. "Yes, yes, I mean you, gentlemen, those who cover for the terrorists from the United States, Great Britain and France and other states and entities that sympathize with them.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said the Kremlin regrets a “more than modest” reaction by the international community following the attack. (Washington Post, 12.05.16, AP, 12.06.16)
• Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed the death of one of its army officers in Aleppo on Dec. 7. Colonel Ruslan Galitsky was wounded during shelling by "militants of the so-called [Syrian] opposition" from western neighborhoods of Aleppo, the ministry said. (AP, 12.07.16)
• U.S. Senate has passed a $618.7 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that gives Donald Trump the authority to send surface-to-air missiles to help Syrian fighters. (Washington Post, 12.08.16)
• Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has met with Donald Trump, said in an interview that it is unlikely Americans would support the kind of military commitment needed to unseat Bashar al-Assad. "I think we have to begin by being realistic," he said. "Assad is going to remain in power, and the Russians are committed to that." "Show me a strategy right now that gets rid of Assad," former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a close Trump adviser, said in an interview, suggesting no such strategy exists: "The Russians are for him and the Iranians are for him, and there's no coalition of forces in the region that defeats him. So it starts with reality."(Wall Street Journal, 12.04.16)
• Egypt is urging closer cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in confronting terrorism in the Middle East—particularly in Syria—as Donald Trump prepares to become president next month, Egypt's foreign minister said in an interview. (Wall Street Journal, 12.08.16)
• Britain's foreign intelligence chief says that Russia and the Syrian government are blocking efforts to end the war in Syria and defeat the extremist Islamic State by treating all opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16)

Cyber security:

• Russia's new information-security doctrine calls for the government to develop "a national system of managing the Russian segment of the Internet." The doctrine took effect on Dec. 6. The 16-page document sketches out what the Kremlin sees as the main threats to its security and national interests from foreign information making its way into the country and sets priorities for countering them. It identifies terrorist recruiting and financial crime as dangers. The doctrine also calls for "liquidating the dependence of domestic industries on foreign information technologies" and ensuring information security by developing effective Russian technologies. (RFE/RL, 12.06.16, New York Times, 12.06.16)
• U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered American intelligence agencies to produce a full report on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, his homeland security adviser said Dec. 9. He also directed them to develop a list of “lessons learned” from the alleged Russian campaign. One of Obama’s closest aides told reporters “he expects to receive this report before he leaves office.” (New York Times, 12.09.16)
• Leading Senate Republicans are preparing to launch a coordinated and wide-ranging probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. elections and its potential cyber threats to the military, digging deep into what they view as corrosive interference in the nation’s institutions. Senator John McCain is readying a probe of possible Russian cyber-incursions into U.S. weapons systems, and he said he has been discussing the issue with fellow senators. The loudest GOP calls for a Russia probe are coming from McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham. (Washington Post, 12.08.16)
• Hackers stole 2 billion rubles ($31.3 million) from correspondent bank accounts at Russia's central bank, a spokeswoman at the bank confirmed, adding that the country was devising new measures to be prepared for further attacks. (Wall Street Journal, 12.02.16)
• Rostelecom has successfully repelled DDoS attacks against Russian banks and financial institutions, the telecommunications company reported Dec. 9. (The Moscow Times, 12.09.16)
• The EU and NATO were set to approve an agreement Dec. 6 aimed at strengthening their cooperation and ability to defend allies from hybrid or cyberattack. The agreement will allow NATO and the EU's "fusion cells," groups of experts who are supposed to detect and help rebuff hybrid attacks, to synchronize their work and teams of on-call experts will be able to coordinate their planned responses. (Wall Street Journal, 12.06.16)
• U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has shrugged off allegations that Russia meddled in the election that handed him the White House, saying other states or individuals could have been behind cyberattacks against U.S. targets including the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. (RFE/RL, 12.07.16)

Energy exports from CIS:

• Russia will seek discussions at a planned meeting with OPEC on Dec. 10 about how the group will fully comply with production cuts, following an increase in its November oil output, said a government official. (Bloomberg, 12.08.16)
• The European Union will seek to ease tension in energy relations between Russia and Ukraine when it hosts three-way talks on natural gas supply, the first since a pricing dispute between the two former Soviet states prompted the government in Kiev to halt purchases last year. (Bloomberg, 12.09.16)
• The Russian-Turkish agreement on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project entered force on Dec. 6 after being signed by the Turkish president. (TASS, 12.06.16)
• Energy giant BP has the highest exposure in the 13 countries that have so far said they will cut output, according to Rystad Energy AS data. The likely participation by Russia, where BP holds a 20% stake in Rosneft, puts it ahead of rivals Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Eni and Chevron, according to the data. (Bloomberg, 12.06.16)

Bilateral economic ties:

• No significant developments.

Other bilateral issues:

• Moscow has no illusions about friendship with the United States under a Donald Trump presidency, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "Of course, after the arrival of the new [Trump] team there won't be any celebration of 'friendship, brotherhood, and justice.'" Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page. "Nobody has any illusions." (The Moscow Times, 12.08.16)
• Russia's Foreign Ministry has threatened to retaliate against U.S. diplomats if Washington enacts legislation restricting the movements of Russian diplomats in the United States. Legislation now making its way through the U.S. Congress calls for tightening restrictions on Russian diplomats who want to travel more than 40 kilometers from their official posts in the United States. The diplomats would essentially be forced to get approval ahead of time from the FBI. (RFE/RL, 12.07.16)
• A measure formally known as the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act passed the Senate in a 92-7 vote on Dec. 8 as part of a larger bill that sets guidance for U.S. defense priorities for the coming year. The legislation is modeled after the Magnitsky Act and authorizes the president to impose visa bans, to freeze financial assets or to take other punitive measures against anyone who targets whistle-blowers exposing corruption or citizens exercising basic rights like freedom of speech, religion or assembly. It also targets foreign government officials engaged in "significant corruption.” (RFE/RL, 12.08.15)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Donald Trump’s business success is evidence the U.S. president-elect is a “smart man.” “Trump was a businessman and an entrepreneur,” Putin told Russia’s NTV network. “Today he’s already a state actor, already head of the United States of America, one of the world’s leading nations, one of the world’s leading economies, leading military powers.” During the interview, Putin also said that the global balance of power is changing and that "attempts to establish a unipolar world have failed." (Guardian, 12.04.16, Washington Post, 12.04.16)
• The Russian presidential administration has no plans to hold meetings with Carter Page, former adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has arrived in Moscow. (TASS, 12.08.16)
• Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who was to have met Donald Trump on Dec. 6 to discuss becoming his secretary of state, is a seasoned deal-maker whose close ties to Vladimir Putin and other world leaders could redefine American interests abroad. "He has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American with the exception of Henry Kissinger," said John Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary. People familiar with the transition place Tillerson behind the three top contenders—Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and David Petraeus. Sen. Bob Corker is also on the short list; his committee voted Dec. 6 to advance legislation admitting Montenegro into NATO. (Washington Post, 12.06.16, Wall Street Journal, 12.06.16)
• Russian citizens filed 1,912 new U.S. asylum application in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, up 31% compared to 2015 and 164% since 2012, when Vladimir Putin was again elected president following a four-year stint as prime minister, new official statistics show. (RFE/RL, 12.06.16)
• As the founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party, an American group that aims to preserve the privileged place of whiteness in Western civilization and fight "anti-Christian degeneracy," Matthew Heimbach knows whom he envisions as the ideal ruler: the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. "Russia is our biggest inspiration," Heimbach said. "I see President Putin as the leader of the free world." (New York Times, 12.04.16)
• As president of Yes California, Louis Marinelli is organizing a statewide referendum on independence to be held in 2019—if he can collect half a million signatures by next fall. He is preparing the ground for an “embassy of California” in Moscow, with the help of a vehemently anti-American group supported by the Kremlin.(Bloomberg, 12.06.16)
• American economist Paul Craig Roberts, a former U.S. assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for economic policy under Ronald Reagan (1981-1982), has facetiously requested a Russian passport. (RBTH, 12.02.16)

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin says he dreams of traveling the world after a “successful retirement”—but still refuses to confirm whether he’ll be running for office in the 2018 presidential election. Putin will make his final decision in March, one year before the election, says a Kremlin insider: “He wants to stay and he wants to go.” (The Moscow Times, 12.06.16, The Moscow Times, 12.06.16)
• Russia’s economic recovery will be uneven and may not immediately benefit all sectors, the Central Bank has predicted. “We estimate a potential GDP growth rate of less than 1.5-2%, provided there are no changes in the structure of the economy,” bank head Elvira Nabiullina has said. (The Moscow Times, 12.02.16)
• Commodity trader Glencore Plc and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund have agreed to buy a 19.5% stake in Russia’s largest oil producer, state-run Rosneft, in a surprise deal worth some $11 billion, marking a triumph for President Vladimir Putin in the face of budget gaps and Western sanctions. The White House says U.S. authorities will examine the deal to determine how U.S. sanctions may impact it. (Financial Times, 12.07.16, RFE/RL, 12.08.16, Bloomberg, 12.08.16)
• Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta says it has uncovered substantial falsifications at 68 polling places in the Moscow suburb of Mytischi during local and national legislative elections in September. (RFE/RL, 12.05.16)
• First deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kirienko has told members of Russia's Human Rights Council that while the controversial foreign agents law on NGOs cannot be repealed, it could be improved. (The Moscow Times, 12.06.16)
• A Moscow court has fined human rights group Memorial International 300,00 rubles ($4,703) for breaking Russia's infamous "foreign agents law," the Interfax news agency reported Dec. 7. (The Moscow Times, 12.07.16)
• Russia's largest independent media company, RBC, is appealing to oil giant BP to break its silence on a lawsuit by Rosneft that threatens to bankrupt it and further limit free press in Russia. (The Moscow Times, 12.06.16)
• 80% of Russians say they are happy, according to a new survey by the state-controlled All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. (RBTH, 12.05.16)
• Mikhail Gorbachev has blamed the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other politicians for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, saying that their hunger for power destroyed the country. (RFE/RL, 12.07.16)
• An independent investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has revealed that more than a thousand Russian athletes were connected with the use of performance-enhancing drugs or the concealment of positive urine samples. (The Moscow Times, 12.09.16)

Defense and aerospace:

• Last year alone Russia spent a record 3.1 trillion rubles ($48 billion) on defense, 25% higher than in 2014 and more than a fifth of Russia’s entire budget. Russian forces received 35 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than 240 warplanes and helicopters and nearly 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles—a growth in Russia’s arsenal unseen since Soviet times. (AP, 12.06.16)
• While conscripts are paid a paltry 2,000 rubles ($31) a month, those signing contracts for longer tours of duty receive 10 times the starting pay and extra privileges. Promotion to sergeant could mean a monthly paycheck of around 40,000 rubles ($620), better than average civilian wages. Russia’s Defense Ministry says contract soldiers, most of them former conscripts who opt to stay, have outnumbered conscripts in the ranks since 2015. (AP, 12.06.16)
• Several S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems were put on combat duty on Dec. 8 to protect the air borders in northwestern Russia, spokesman for the Western Military District Igor Muginov said. (TASS, 12.08.16)
• The Russian Northern Fleet’s large anti-submarine warfare ship Vice Admiral Kulakov has passed the Strait of Dover, which is the narrowest part of the English Channel, to sail to the northeast Atlantic, the fleet’s press office reported on Dec. 6. (TASS, 12.06.16)
• The Russian military is to deploy a global sea monitoring system that will see robotized stations on the ocean bed transmitting intelligence on the movement of foreign ships and submarines to the central command. (RBTH, 12.05.16)
• While many are focused on Russian armor and sorties, some in the U.S. defense establishment have noticed another sign of Russian progress: their ability to work through local proxy forces in Ukraine and Syria, allowing Moscow to exert influence while keeping deployments small, costs down and troops away from the front lines. In Syria U.S. officials have seen small groups of Russian special operations forces “work quite effectively” with Assad regime troops and the Iranian Qods Force and Hezbollah. “That’s been their M.O. in the Donbass and in Syria,” said a U.S. military official. (Foreign Policy, 12.09.16)

Security, law enforcement and justice:

• At least 12 people, including nine members of a children's acrobatics team, have been killed in a road collision in eastern Siberia, Russian officials said. (RFE/RL, 12.04.16)
• Oksana Sevastidi, a 46-year-old shopkeeper from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for high treason. Sevastidi was convicted of sending two text messages in the first half of 2008 that the Russian government argued contained secret information about military movements in the direction of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. Sevastidi is just one of at least 10 people similarly charged and sentenced by a secret court in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. (RFE/RL, 12.06.16)
• A Dublin judge on Dec. 7 ordered Irish authorities to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107 million) in cash belonging to exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the funds were illegally gained as Russia contends. (AP, 12.07.16)
• The head of a regional branch of the Main Internal Security Department of Russia’s Interior Ministry has been detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of taking a bribe of 50 million rubles ($790,000), the Investigative Committee said on Dec. 9. (TASS, 12.09.16)

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

General developments and relations with “far abroad” countries:

• European Union diplomats say EU leaders are highly likely to prolong economic sanctions on Russia through July 31, 2017, when they meet in Brussels for a summit next week. Several EU diplomats close to the sanctions talks have told RFE/RL that EU leaders might give a green light for the six-month extension of the sanctions without a discussion when they meet on Dec. 15. The formal procedure to prolong sanctions should conclude around Dec. 20 (RFE/RL, 12.06.16, Reuters, 12.09.16)
• "We are dealing with the situation in the world, especially in light of the U.S. presidential elections, in which the approaches in the world must be re-formulated, regarding above all such important things as NATO and relations with Russia," Angela Merkel said at the Christian Democratic Union party conference, which re-elected her as the party’s leader. (Sputnik, 12.06.16)
• Russia is trying to destabilize German society with propaganda and cyberattacks ahead of the country’s general election, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said Dec. 8. (AP, 12.08.16)
• German companies are quietly boosting investments in Russia even as Western leaders are warning Moscow about possible new sanctions for its actions in Syria. Direct investment by German companies in Russia rose to €2.05 billion in the first nine months of the year. That surpasses the amount for all of 2015 and contrasts with a net outflow in 2014, according to statistics from Germany's central bank. (Wall Street Journal, 12.08.16)
• “We respect the integrity of Sweden, and we have no plans whatsoever to invade Sweden, so the Swedish population can sleep easy,” Viktor Tatarintsev, the Russian ambassador to Sweden, has said. (Washington Post, 12.09.16)
• Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared his candidacy for the French presidency. "I want an independent France," he said, "inflexible in its values faced with the China of Xi Jinping, the Russia of Vladimir Putin, the America of Donald Trump, the Turkey of Recep Erdogan." Valls’s low approval ratings show his candidacy faces an uphill climb; opinion polls suggest he would lose easily in the first round of the general election to Francois Fillon, the top center-right candidate, and Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front. (Wall Street Journal, 12.05.16)
• Russian troops are learning to operate Chinese Armed Forces weapons during an exercise involving Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states and taking place in Xinjiang, an aide to the Russian Central Military District commander has said. (TASS, 12.06.16)
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to host Russian President Vladimir Putin in his hometown of Nagato next week. Abe’s goal in hosting Putin is to persuade the Russian leader to finally sign a peace treaty. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the signature of the treaty was a precondition for settling territorial disputes. Speaking at a press conference in Moscow with his Japanese counterpart on Dec. 3, Lavrov added that, although the two countries have “common positions” on the topic of a peace treaty, it would be a mistake to have “excessively high expectations” that it will be signed soon. (Foreign Policy, 12.08.16, RFE/RL, 12.03.16)
• Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's visit to Moscow on Dec. 5-6 demonstrated Ankara's intention not only to restore its relations with Moscow, but also to bring these relations to a whole new level. In particular, Yildirim stated that the two countries could and should bring the volume of bilateral trade to $100 billion; according to the Russian business daily Kommersant, the figure stood at $23 billion in 2015. (RBTH, 12.09.16)
• Human rights violators from around the world could face having their assets frozen in the UK as lawmakers vote on proposals similar to the U.S. Magnitsky Act. A “Magnitsky Amendment” has been added to the Criminal Finances bill, which aims to clamp down on money-laundering and terror financing. (Financial Times, 12.05.16)
• Moscow and Kabul reached an agreement on the maintenance and repairs of Russian- and Soviet-produced helicopters in Afghanistan. (TASS, 12.07.16)

Ukraine:

• The U.S. Senate has passed a National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that earmarks $350 million in military and security assistance for Ukraine, but half of those funds are contingent on Ukraine doing more to clean up corruption and waste in its armed forces. The measure also authorizes the supply of lethal weaponry, which Ukraine has demanded for months to help its forces battling Russia-backed fighters in eastern regions. (RFE/RL, 12.08.15)
• More than two dozen U.S. senators have urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump not to weaken sanctions targeting Russia for its actions in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. “In light of Russia's continued aggression and repeated refusal to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereign right to choose its own destiny, we also renew our call for the United States to increase political, economic and military support for Ukraine," they wrote. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16)
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is urging Western allies to maintain diplomatic pressure and sanctions on Russia until it respects the peace agreement in Ukraine. After talks with NATO and Ukraine foreign ministers, Stoltenberg told reporters Dec. 7 of a “massive increase in cease-fire violations” in the conflict-torn east of the former Soviet republic.(AP, 12.07.16)
• The EU has disbursed billions of euros to Ukraine, largely for budget support, but the European Court of Auditors admitted that it was unable to say how the money was spent. The ECA’s report also said Ukraine is still perceived as Europe’s most corrupt state despite European Union assistance to Kiev intended to reverse the situation. "Vested interests influence public policy-making. Oligarchic clans continue to exert a dominant influence on Ukraine’s economy, politics and media,” the report said. (TASS, 12.07.16, Euractiv, 12.07.16)
• EU member states and the European Parliament have struck a deal to end a dispute that had been holding up a decision to allow Ukrainians and Georgians to visit the bloc without needing a visa. (RFE/RL, 12.18.16)
• “Ukraine is very high on the list of countries that might be fired” by Donald Trump, according to Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia who has embarked on a second political career in Ukraine. “Trump is attracted by success and he hates losers, and he expresses it. From both standpoints, Ukraine is not in the right place,” Saakashvili said. (The Guardian, 12.06.16)
• “I am really proud that in these 2 1/2 years we have created the most powerful Armed Forces in Europe,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said. (Ukrinform, 12.05.16)
• The Radical Party faction of the Ukrainian parliament is seeking to withdraw Ukraine’s membership of the 1968 international treaty that bans the development of nuclear weapons and keeps nuclear technology in check. (RT, 12.06.16)
• The Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine fined Gazprom a whopping $6.8 billion, Russia's Kommersant business daily reported on Dec. 5. The sum includes fines for alleged violations of antitrust laws in the sphere of gas transit and additional penalties. (Forbes, 12.05.16)
• The Kremlin has pledged to boost the Crimean economy with a 37.8 billion-ruble ($593 million) subsidy in 2017, according to a draft national budget. (The Moscow Times, 12.05.16)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has rebuffed a request to free imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, saying the court must decide Sentsov’s fate. (The Moscow Times, 12.02.16)
• Lawyers for Mykola Semena, a Crimean journalist and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, say their client has received the final written charges from the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16)
• Ukrainian authorities say Prosecutor-General Yuri Lutsenko will personally oversee the probe into what officials are calling a "friendly fire" shootout between police and state guards service agents that left at least five law-enforcement officers dead. (RFE/RL, 12.05.16)
• Announced greenfield investments from foreign companies into Ukraine dropped from 82 projects totaling an estimated $4.6 billion in 2013 to 25 totaling $858 million the following year, according to fDi Markets, an FT data service. The figures have not yet recovered. (Financial Times, 12.08.16)

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission says that acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has won the Dec. 4 presidential election with 88.6% of the vote. Both the OSCE and the EU have said the election underscored the need for reforms in the Central Asian nation. (RFE/RL, 12.05.16, RFE/RL, 12.06.16)
• Uzbek President-elect Shavkat Mirziyoyev has proposed direct elections for regional governors and city mayors, part of what the first new leader the country has had in more than a quarter-century is portraying as a major push to make officials more accountable to citizens. He also signed a decree on Dec. 6, according to which citizens of Australia, Austria, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland and Japan can enter the country without a visa as tourists for up to 30 days. (RFE/RL, 12.08.16, RFE/RL, 12.06.16)
• Construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant has begun in Kazakhstan, KazAtomProm, CGN and Areva have announced. The plant will be managed by a joint venture between KazAtomProm and China General Nuclear Power Corporation. (World Nuclear News, 12.08.16)
• The Kazakh parliament's lower house has approved a bill on an amnesty for some 30,000 people now behind bars. (RFE/RL, 12.07.16)
• Azerbaijan's security forces have shot dead a man who reportedly tried to detonate a suicide belt near a shopping mall in the capital, Baku, the state security service has said. (RFE/RL, 12.03.16)
• In 2015 exports from Belarus's main IT hub totaled $705.6 million. (Wall Street Journal, 12.06.16)

News items for this digest curated by Simon Saradzhyan, director of the Russia Matters Project.