Russia & CIS

The head of the GISDI mission said the voting process was very well organized and that there was no pressure or intimidation.

An EgyptAir flight has departed to Moscow from Cairo after a break of two and a half years, as shown on flightradar24.com.

Today’s installment of slides comes from the speech of Belarusian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov. While last year, Ravkov’s speech immediately followed and was largely complementary to Valery Gerasimov’s speech, which focused on European Security, this year he got to headline the panel on European Security himself. This was convenient for his staff, as they didn’t have to change the title slide at all, and really only made superficial modifications to a number of other slides. Compare the slides below to last year’s slides. I guess as far as Belarus is concerned, European security hasn’t changed much over the last year. The Ravkov speech is available on video in Russian and English.

Baku City Executive Power has authorized the National Council to hold a rally at the former “Mehsul” stadium on April 14, APA reports.

Turkey is "very uncomfortable" with some countries that have turned Syria into an "arm wrestling" arena, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

On April 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a telephone call to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani president’s press service reported.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan was free and held in accordance with international standards, Pere Macias Arau, head of the election observation mission of the Freedom and Democracy Fund, said at a press conference on April 12, APA reports.

Well, it’s time once again for the annual slide show of presentations from the Moscow Conference on International Security. This was my fifth time attending. I’ll write up some overall impressions later in the week. Sadly, Valery Gerasimov was absent this year, supposedly because he was accompanying Vladimir Putin during his state visit to Turkey.  His spot on the program was filled by Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, speaking about Russia’s operation in Syria. His speech is, as usual available on YouTube in both English and Russian versions. MCIS has also posted a Russian transcript. The slides are below, though some can also be viewed (including animations) in the linked videos.

(All in all, if ability to make use of advanced features of PowerPoint is a proxy for Russian military modernization, the West should be concerned, because the Russian General Staff has made giant strides in this regard in the last five years. I would estimate the gap between the best Russian and American powerpoint rangers at no more than 10 years now.)

The index of the Moscow Exchange (formerly known as MICEX) has lost nine percent, the RTS index has fallen by more then ten percent. The decline was the largest for the companies, the top manager of which were affected by the recent sanctions that the US Treasury announced on Friday, April 6. The sanctions also affected metallurgical companies and participants of the financial market. On Monday, April 9, the Moscow Exchange  (former MICEX) index dropped 9%, the RTS index - 10.7%.The shares of the following companies showed the largest decline: Rusal (-26.7%), Polyus (-8.8%), Norilsk Nickel (-10%), Raspadskaya (-7.2%), Mechel ( -10%), En + (-17.7%), VTB (-6.7%), Sberbank (-6.8%), ALROSA (-7%).Rusal securities started falling on the Moscow Exchange in the morning of April 9 and were traded at a minimum of 15.04 rubles per share, which was 46% less than on Friday, April 6. The Moscow Stock Exchange suspended the trading and announced a discrete auction for Rusal securities due to a fall in the value of shares by more than 20% within ten minutes.On April 9, the ruble also experienced a considerable decline in value for the first time in months. During the day, when the USA imposed new sanctions on Russian businessmen and officials close to President Putin, the Russian ruble dropped by 50 kopecks vs. the US dollar. On Friday evening, experts promised that the decline will continue at a more serious pace.Since the opening of trading on Monday, April 9, the Russian started declining rapidly for reasons of geopolitical risks.Afterwards, the US dollar rose by 1.14 rubles reached the mark of 59.31 rubles per dollar for the first time since December 25, 2017. The euro rate has grown by 2.16 rubles and made up 73.46 rubles per one euro. This is a record fall for the Russian ruble rate for several months. In addition, the ruble has ignored a sharp rise in oil quotations.Experts believe that such a considerable decline in the ruble rate has occurred not only because of the recent sanctions that the USA imposed on Friday, but also due to other  imminent restrictive measures related to the chemical attack in Syria's Douma. Washington held Russia responsible for the attack, whereas US President Trump said that Russia would have to pay a "big price" for the chemical attack in Syria. In April 2013, the United States started imposing sanctions on a number of Russian officials, whom the US Treasury found involved in the death of legal adviser of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, Sergei Magnitsky. The original list included 18 people: they were barred from entering the US, their accounts in American banks were frozen. At the moment, the "Magnitsky list" counts 51 people.In the spring of 2014, the US Treasury issued a decree on imposing sanctions on Russia in connection with the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine and because of Russia's actions to reunite with the Crimea. The original list included eleven people, such as presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev, Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matvienko, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and others. They were banned from entering the US territory, and their bank accounts and property were to be blocked in case of detection. Subsequently, the list had been expanded several times and currently includes 205 people (mostly Russian and Ukrainian citizens. Pravda.Ru

Baku reports no Azerbaijanis among victims of Muenster incident.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has visited Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

Interview by Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov to One on One program of TRT World.

Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov has today held the next consultation with the participation of ministry’s leadership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Sergey Kopyrkin as Russia’s ambassador to Armenia.

Iran could help Azerbaijan to export its electricity to other countries, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Iran Bunyad Huseynov said referring to electricity swap contract between the two countries.

Temperature will reach 20 C in Baku tomorrow.

The second Azerbaijani satellite, which is planned to be put into orbit, will cover the countries of Europe, the Middle East, tropical Africa, and Central and South Asia.

The flooding processes have intensified in Baku.

The CEO of Russia’s Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said on Friday he was proud of having been included on a new U.S. sanctions list and that the company’s policies were right, Reuters reported.

According to Armiya.az, as a result of careless handling of weapons, the machine gun, which was in the hands of an Armenian soldier, fired.