Russia’s National Security Strategy denotes U.S. and NATO as threats

The National Security Strategy blames the U.S. and the European Union for the Ukraine crisis; in particular, it paints the Euro-Maidan events as a Western-sponsored “color revolution” and a potential threat to Russia’s security. Russia’s new National Security Strategy (NSS), signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on December 31, 2015, marks the culmination of a long process in deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington and in how the Russian security elite perceives the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The security document itself must be assessed in this context, as well as with the understanding of how and why the new strategy was formulated. The Kremlin explicitly denoting the United States and NATO as threats to Russia’s security has longer-term implications concerning the limits of future cooperation (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 4, 5, 7). According to Russian law, the NSS must be updated every six years.

Newsbriefs

Poroshenko on restoring control over east

KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has vowed to regain sovereignty over separatist-held areas in the country’s east in 2016. “Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions must be restored,” Mr. Poroshenko told journalists on January 14. He added that securing Crimea’s return from Russian control was a priority, saying “de-occupation” of the peninsula that was annexed by Russia in March 2014 must be implemented via international mechanisms and with EU and U.S. help. “We – the society, the army, the government – have largely strengthened our country’s defense,” the Ukrainian leader also said. “This is reflected by the fact that our enemy is losing its willingness to continue its offensive against Ukraine.” He added, “In January 2015 we had a goal to survive, and in January 2016 we have a goal to succeed.

Russia bargains and bluffs for breakthrough in Ukraine

For months, the various negotiations formats on conflict management in Ukraine appeared deadlocked. But suddenly, in mid-January, signs of a breakthrough in the making have multiplied – bringing both hopes and concerns to all the parties involved. The most meaningful of these signs was U.S. President Barack Obama’s telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, January 13, in which Ukraine was the starting topic of the “open and business-like conversation” (Rbc.ru, January 13). The follow-up came on Friday, January 15, in the meeting between Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Mr. Putin’s aide Vladislav Surkov, in a cozy presidential residence in the Kaliningrad region (Kommersant, January 15). Mr. Surkov described the six-hour-long meeting as a “brainstorm.” And while his official status is low and the list of his rivals in the Kremlin is quite long, Mr. Surkov is indeed a person who can invent complex compromises and then sell them to his boss.

Moscow Patriarchate sets up new staff to destabilize inter-Church relations in Ukraine

The Russian Orthodox Church has set up a new staff in the synod department of external church affairs to blacken the reputation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, to block the Ecumenical Patriarchate from recognizing the Kyiv Church as canonical, and to destabilize religious conditions across Ukraine. In an article on Ukrinform.ru titled “The Moscow Patriarchate as Commissar of Hybrid War,” Kyiv journalist Lana Samokhvalova says that this staff, headquartered in Moscow, seeks to create controversies between the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine so as to be able to complain to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international bodies that Ukraine is religiously intolerant (ukrinform.ru/rubric-community/ 1944967-moskovskiy-patriarhat-kak-komissar-gibridnoy-voynyi.html). Among the groups this new staff oversees are the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, the Union of Orthodox Citizens, the Association of Orthodox Citizens and other radical nationalist groups not publicly associated with the Moscow Patriarchate in order to suggest that these conflicts arise within Ukraine and to give Moscow deniability as far as its role is concerned. The chief operative of this Moscow staff in Ukraine is the Union of Orthodox Journalists which, Samokhvalova says, “is in fact neither a union nor does it comprise journalists or Orthodox faithful.” Instead, it is an FSB operation intended to provoke conflicts between the Moscow Patriarchate and the parishes of the Kyiv Patriarchate and then blame them on the latter. The Ukrainian journalist says that articles in Moscow Patriarchate outlets show that the new staff is pursuing the following five goals: discrediting all but Moscow Patriarchate churches in Ukraine, bringing religious problems in Ukraine to the attention of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the hopes of blocking its recognition of Kyiv as a canonical patriarchate, deforming [Ukraine’s] information space, creating conditions among the faithful for civic strife, and intimidating pro-Kyiv churchmen by threatening them in various ways.

Ukrainian envoy to the Holy See: Pope Francis will never forsake Ukraine

VATICAN – The pope’s traditional New Year’s meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions of foreign states and international organizations accredited to the Holy See was held on January 11. Pope Francis delivered a speech focusing on the results of the Vatican’s diplomatic activities, the main international events of the past year and the challenges facing the international community on the eve of 2016. In his speech, the pontiff separately commented on the situation in Ukraine. He said: “May this Holy Year of Mercy will be an especially favorable time to finally put an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Extremely important is the diverse support that the international community, individual countries and humanitarian organizations can offer to the country in order to overcome the current crisis.”

After the speech, the pope met briefly with the ambassador of Ukraine.

International pressure can achieve release of Russia’s political prisoners

I am a Ukrainian citizen who was illegally arrested and detained by the Russian Federation for over a year for political reasons. Nadiya Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov and others who are less known have suffered and continue to suffer the same fate. In May 2014, I was in Russia’s Kursk region with a friend on a business trip. During a routine document check that Russian police officers often practice, I was detained. At the police department, an FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) agent showed me a photograph of myself taken during the Euro-Maidan protests, which I suspect he had found on social media.

State Department clarifies president’s SOTU reference

WASHINGTON – The following response was given on January 15 by the State Department spokesperson Mark Toner regarding President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address (January 12), in which he said: “…Russia is pouring resources in to prop up Ukraine and Syria – client states they saw slipping away from their orbit.”

Mr. Toner stated:

“Over the past two years, the United States has worked closely with our European and international partners to help Ukraine defend its democracy and territorial integrity, and the United States remains firmly committed to helping the Ukrainian people build a country that is peaceful, prosperous, and free to chart its own destiny. “The president was referring in his remarks to Russia’s previous long-term efforts to bolster the regime of former President [Viktor] Yanukovych as a way to prevent Ukraine from pursuing further integration with Europe, and its current occupation of Crimea, extensive efforts to support armed groups operating in eastern Ukraine, and other efforts to destabilize the country.”

Mr. Toner’s response was to a request for comment from a correspondent for the Ukrinform news service. The Ukrainian Weekly could find no account of this clarification on the State Department’s website.

Mis-stating the State of the Union

This comment below appeared on January 13 on the website of The McCain Institute for International Leadership (www.mccaininstitute.org). The author is the institute’s senior director for human rights and democracy. In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama uttered the following baffling statement:

“In today’s world, we’re threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states. The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia. Economic headwinds are blowing in from a Chinese economy that is in significant transition.

Ukraine is not a client state of Russia

The statement below was released by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on January 13. In his final State of the Union address, President Obama got it wrong when it came to Ukraine. Speaking before the annual joint session of Congress, the President declared, “Even as their economy severely contracts, Russia is pouring resources in to prop up Ukraine and Syria – client states that they saw slipping away from their orbit,” when summarizing the United States’ national priorities. When it came time to mention Ukraine, a long-time strategic partner of the United States, President Obama once again demonstrated a shocking ignorance of foreign policy hotspots in his biggest address to the nation. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representation of Ukrainians in America, is outraged by the description of Ukraine used in the State of the Union address.

New poll finds pessimism is high

KYIV – The released on January 12 by the International Republican Institute’s Center for Insights in Survey Research found that after nearly two years of war and an onslaught of Russian propaganda, pessimism is high throughout the country, particularly in the areas of the Donbas region governed by national authorities. However, despite the war and Russia’s propaganda, an overwhelming majority of residents in the Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) in these areas want to remain part of Ukraine. “Despite Russia’s continued efforts to drive a wedge between the Donbas and the rest of Ukraine and its continued violations of the Minsk agreement, as confirmed by President [Vladimir] Putin himself, the people of Ukraine, including those living in the Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donbas, want to preserve the territorial integrity of their country,” said Stephen Nix, director of Eurasia programs at IRI. “There is no doubt,” he said, “that Ukrainians long for the unity and sovereignty of their country, and it is critical that the United States and Europe support Ukraine to ensure that Russia’s occupation does not become permanent.”

After two years of deadly conflict with Russia and Russian-supported separatists, which has left more than 9,000 people killed and another 1.5 million displaced, pessimism throughout Ukraine is high, particularly in the Donbas region. When asked if the country were headed in the right or wrong direction, only 15 percent nationwide and 8 percent in the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donbas region believed Ukraine was headed in the right direction.