Russia Review | June 2020
Russia-US: telephone talk, bilateral talks, “foreign hand” & Afghan “bounty” The month started on an upbeat note for US-Russia relations, with a telephone call to President Putin from President Trump, in which (as per the Kremlin readout) the Russian President thanked his US counterpart for the timely donation of ventilators, the two Presidents congratulated themselves […]
Russia Review | May 2020
Overview • Russia’s Covid-19 challenges mount• Mixed signals in US-Russia relations• Libyan setback, Syrian kerfuffle• Snippets: Putin’s ratings decline, Russia’s MFA on India-Pakistan Russia’s Covid-19 challenge grows Russia rapidly climbed up the global Covid-19 ladder in May, reaching third place globally (it was briefly in second place, till Brazil rapidly overtook it), with over 400,000 […]
Russia Review | April 2020
Overview • Covid-19 grips Russia• “Covidiplomacy” yields dividends• Trump’s “teleshuttle” mediation defused Russia-Saudi oil spat• Snippets: Russian PM gets Covid, Russians return from India, Putin’s full plate Covid-19 gathers force Russia’s Covid-19 cases shot up from under 2000 in end-March to over 110,000 a month later, with about 1200 deaths, up from just 9. It […]
Russia Review | March 2020
Overview Russia’s Coronavirus campaign Foundations laid for Putin Mark V & VI Russia-Saudi oil spat aggravated Covid impact on energy markets Snippets: Covid diplomacy, Idlib peace, Putin-Modi telecon Russia combats CoronavirusAfter relatively low incidence of detected Covid-19 cases in the first half of March, Russia announced a spike on March 24 (with 163 new […]
Russia Review | February 2020
Overview Russia-Turkey “marriage of convenience” on the rocksRussia endorses US-Taliban dealSnippets: US-Central Asia, Ukraine backtracking, coronavirus frictions Mutual recriminations replaced Russia-Turkey understanding on Idlib The delicate balance between Russian and Turkish interests in Syria was destroyed in February, as Syrian troops (reportedly reinforced by Iran-backed militants) used Russian air cover to launch an all-out attack […]
Russia Review | January 2020
Overview A new economic and social deal for Russia Hesitant forward movement on Ukraine US Sanctions target NordStream2 Russia promised a new economic and social dealPresident Putin’s annual address (January 15) to the joint houses of the Russian parliament got global attention, because of a few sentences that were seen as providing clues about […]
Russia Review by Ambassador P S Raghavan | November 2019
Franco-German pressure for Russia-Ukraine thaw Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s bold initiative to break the Russia-Ukraine logjam on the Minsk accords (see RR of September 2019) predictably continued to face opposition within Ukraine. Protestors, led by former President Poroshenko and former PM Tymoshenko, demanded that the Ukrainian government should press for the return of Crimea, prevent “federalization” […]
Russia Review by Ambassador P S Raghavan | October 2019
Russia-Turkey accord keeps Syrian political process alive There were upheavals in the Syrian theatre, with President Trump’s sudden decision to withdraw US troops, Turkey’s military action to create a “safe zone” in northern Syria (see RR 1/19 & 5/19), consequent US sanctions on Turkey, lifting of the sanctions after Vice President Pence brokered a temporary […]
Russia Review by Ambassador P S Raghavan | September 2019
Overview • India unveils its Act Far East policy in Vladivostok • Ukraine: furore in the US, but progress at home • News snippets: elections, Google/Facebook, France, Israel, Syria The Indo-Pacific enters the India-Russia partnership Prime Minister Modi combined his attendance at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok with the annual India-Russia summit […]
Russia Review by Ambassador P S Raghavan | August 2019
Overview • Inching towards a Russia-West rapprochement• The Idlib headache in Syria continues• Russia sings the right tune on Article 370 Russia-West engagement intensifies There is now a discernible change in the tempo and tenor of Russia’s engagement with the West. The tentative steps forward in relations with the US (Review, 6 […]