Tag Archives: Moscow

U.S. believes Russia deployed new missile in treaty violation: NYT

Russian military helicopters fly in formation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russia has deployed a new cruise missile despite complaints by U.S. officials that it violates an arms control treaty banning ground-based U.S. and Russian intermediate-range missiles, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified officials.

The newspaper said Russia had secretly deployed the ground-launched SSC-8 cruise missile that Moscow has been developing and testing for several years, despite U.S. complaints that it violated sections of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the New York Times story.

The U.S. State Department concluded in a July 2014 arms control report that “the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the INF Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km (310 miles to 3,420 miles), or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.”

Russia accused Washington of conducting “megaphone diplomacy” after the accusation was repeated by the State Department in 2015. Moscow also denied it had violated the INF treaty, which helped end the Cold War between the two countries.

The New York Times said the previous U.S. administration of President Barack Obama had attempted to persuade Moscow to correct the violation while the missile was still in the testing phase.

Instead, Russia has moved ahead with the SSC-8 missile, deploying it as an operational system, the report said.

Russia now has two battalions of the cruise missile, the newspaper quoted administration officials as saying. One is located at Russia’s missile test site at Kapustin Yar in the country’s southeast.

The other cruise missile battalion has been located at an operational base elsewhere in Russia, the Times quoted one unidentified official as saying.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Susan Heavey and Grant McCool)

U.S. makes limited exceptions to sanctions on Russian spy agency

cars drive past headquarters

By Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday adjusted sanctions on Russian intelligence agency FSB, making limited exceptions to the measures put in place by former President Barack Obama over accusations Moscow tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election with cyber attacks on political organizations.

The department said in a statement it would allow U.S. companies to make limited transactions with FSB that are needed to gain approval to import information technology products into Russia.

At the White House, President Donald Trump responded to a reporter’s question about whether he was easing sanctions on Russia, saying, “I’m not easing anything.”

Sanctions experts and former Obama administration officials stressed the exceptions to the sanctions imposed in December do not signal a broader shift in Russia policy.

In a conference call with reporters, a senior Treasury Department official said the exceptions were “a very technical fix” made in response to “direct complaints” from companies that were unable to import many consumer technology products without a permit from the FSB. The action had been in the making for weeks before Trump took office on Jan. 20, the official said.

Beyond its intelligence function, the FSB also regulates the importation of software and hardware that contains cryptography. Companies need FSB approval even to import broadly available commercial products such as cell phones and printers if they contain encryption.

Peter Harrell, a sanctions expert and former senior U.S. State Department official, said Treasury officials likely had not considered the issue in December.

“I don’t think when they sanctioned FSB they were intending to complicate the sale of cell phones and tablets,” Harrell said.

David Mortlock, a former National Security Council advisor for Obama said that before granting such exceptions, the administration would ask who a sanction was hurting and who it was benefiting.

Mortlock, now an attorney, said “here it’s a pretty easy calculus” because it was clear tech companies were the ones harmed by not being able to import software into Russia, not the spy agencies.

U.S. intelligence agencies accused the FSB of involvement in hacking of Democratic Party organizations during the election to discredit Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Republican Trump.

The agencies and private cyber security experts concluded the FSB first broke into the Democratic National Committee’s computer system in the summer of 2015 and began monitoring email and chat conversations.

They said FSB was one of two Russian spy agencies involved in a broad operation approved by top-ranking people in the Russian government. In December, Obama expelled 35 suspected Russian spies and sanctioned two spy agencies. He also sanctioned four Russian intelligence officers and three companies that he said provided support to the cyber operations.

(Reporting by Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz; additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Jason Lange; Editing by Alistair Bell and Grant McCool)

Trump’s offer to Russia: an end to sanctions for nuclear arms cut – London Times

Donald Trump speaking at news conference on Russia foreign policy

By Guy Faulconbridge and William James

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Moscow, he told The Times of London.

Criticizing previous U.S. foreign policy in an interview published on Monday, he described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as possibly the gravest error in the history of the United States and akin to “throwing rocks into a beehive”.

But Trump, who will be inaugurated on Friday as the 45th U.S. president, raised the prospect of the first big nuclear arms control agreement with Moscow since the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

“They have sanctions on Russia — let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,” the Republican president-elect was quoted as saying by The Times.

“For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it. But Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit.”

The United States and Russia are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers. The United States has 1,367 nuclear warheads on deployed strategic missiles and bombers, and Russia has 1,796 such deployed warheads, according to the latest published assessment by the U.S. State Department.

Under the 2010 New START treaty, Russia and the United States agreed to limit the number of long-range, strategic nuclear weapons they can deploy.

Trump has said he will seek to improve relations with Moscow despite criticism that he is too eager to make an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The United States and other Western powers imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 over its annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and its support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Asked whether he would trust German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Putin more, Trump said: “Well, I start off trusting both –but let’s see how long that lasts. It may not last long at all.”

His relations with Moscow have faced renewed scrutiny after an unsubstantiated report that Russia had collected compromising information about Trump.

The information was summarized in a U.S. intelligence report which was presented to Trump and Obama this month.

The report concluded Russia tried to sway the outcome of the Nov. 8 election in Trump’s favor by hacking and other means. It did not make an assessment on whether Russia’s attempts affected the election’s outcome.

Trump accused U.S. intelligence agencies of leaking the information from the unverified dossier, which he called “fake news” and phony stuff.” Intelligence leaders denied the charge and Moscow has dismissed the accusations against it.

RUSSIAN RELATIONS

In the interview with The Times, Trump was also critical of Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war which, along with the help of Iran, has tilted the conflict in President Bashar al-Assad’s favor.

“I think it’s a very rough thing,” Trump said of Russian intervention in Syria. “Aleppo has been such a terrible humanitarian situation.”

The war has killed more than 300,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and aided the rise of the Islamic State militant group.

On NATO, Trump repeated his view that the military alliance was obsolete but said it was still very important for him.

“I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete,” Trump told The Times, referring to comments he made during his presidential election campaign. “It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right.”

Trump said many NATO member states were not paying their fair share for U.S. protection.

“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States,” Trump said. “With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much.”

Trump said he would appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to try to broker a Middle East peace deal, urged Britain to veto any new U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel and criticized Obama’s handling of the deal between Iran and six world powers including the United States which curbed Tehran’s nuclear program.

On Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Trump said: “Brexit is going to end up being a great thing” and said he was eager to get a trade deal done with the United Kingdom.

(Editing by Peter Cooney and Timothy Heritage)

Russia finds main black box from Black Sea crash jet

Flowers in memory of passengers and crew members of Russian military Tu-154, which crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, are placed at an embankment in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia

By Andrew Osborn and Peter Hobson

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has found the main flight recorder from a military plane that crashed into the Black Sea killing all 92 on board, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, amid unconfirmed reports that authorities had grounded all aircraft of the same type.

The recorder, one of several reported to be on board, contains information that could help investigators identify the cause of Sunday’s crash, which killed dozens of Red Army Choir singers and dancers en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops in the run-up to the New Year.

Investigators have so far said that pilot error or a technical fault, rather than terrorism, are most likely to have caused the Defence Ministry’s Tupolev-154 to crash into the sea.

The black box, which was found by a remote-controlled underwater vehicle at a depth of around 55ft (17 metres) and 1 mile (1,600 metres) from the resort of Sochi, has been sent to a Defence Ministry facility in Moscow for analysis.

“The casing holding the flight recorder is in a satisfactory condition,” the ministry said in a statement.

“After it is technically cleaned in distilled water we will start transcribing it.”

The ministry said numerous fragments of the plane had been found, including the engine, the landing gear and pieces of the fuselage.

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying Russia had grounded all TU-154 planes until the cause of Sunday’s crash became clear. There was no official confirmation of that.

The Defence Ministry says the downed jet, a Soviet-era plane built in 1983, had last been serviced in September and underwent more major repairs in December 2014.

Russian pilots say the TU-154 is still flight worthy, though major Russian commercial airlines have long since replaced it with Western-built planes. Experts say only two are registered with Russian passenger airlines with the rest registered to various government ministries.

The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s political elite went down in western Russia killing everyone on board.

The Interfax news agency, citing a law enforcement source, said a second flight recorder had also been found in the wreckage of Sunday’s crash, but not yet raised to the surface.

The Defence Ministry said that search and rescue teams have so far recovered 12 bodies and 156 body fragments.

(Editing by John Stonestreet and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Ties between Russia and the Taliban worry Afghan, U.S. officials

Members of the Taliban gather at the site of the execution of three men accused of murdering a couple during a robbery in Ghazni province, Afghanistan

By Hamid Shalizi and Josh Smith

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation.

Russian officials have denied they provide aid to the insurgents, who are contesting large swathes of territory and inflicting heavy casualties, and say their limited contacts are aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Leaders in Kabul say Russian support for the Afghan Taliban appears to be mostly political so far.

But a series of recent meetings they say has taken place in Moscow and Tajikistan has made Afghan intelligence and defence officials nervous about more direct support including weapons or funding.

A senior Afghan security official called Russian support for the Taliban a “dangerous new trend”, an analysis echoed by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson.

He told reporters at a briefing in Washington last week that Russia had joined Iran and Pakistan as countries with a “malign influence” in Afghanistan, and said Moscow was lending legitimacy to the Taliban.

Russia’s ambassador to Kabul, Alexander Mantytskiy, told reporters on Thursday that his government’s contacts with the insurgent group were aimed at ensuring the safety of Russian citizens and encouraging peace talks.

“We do not have intensive contacts with the Taliban,” he said through an interpreter, adding that Russia favored a negotiated peace in Afghanistan which could only happen by cultivating contacts with all players, including the Taliban.

Mantytskiy expressed annoyance at persistant accusations of Russian collaboration with the Taliban, saying the statements by American and Afghan officials were an effort to distract attention from the worsening conflict.

“They are trying to put the blame for their failures on our shoulders,” he told Reuters.

ANOTHER “GREAT GAME”?

Afghanistan has long been the scene of international intrigue and intervention, with the British and Russians jockeying for power during the 19th Century “Great Game,” and the United States helping Pakistan provide weapons and funding to Afghan rebels fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s.

Taliban officials told Reuters that the group has had significant contacts with Moscow since at least 2007, adding that Russian involvement did not extend beyond “moral and political support”.

“We had a common enemy,” said one senior Taliban official. “We needed support to get rid of the United States and its allies in Afghanistan and Russia wanted all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan as quickly as possible.”

Moscow has been critical of the United States and NATO over their handling of the war in Afghanistan, but Russia initially helped provide helicopters for the Afghan military and agreed to a supply route for coalition materials through Russia.

Most of that cooperation has fallen apart as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated in recent years over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, who takes office in January, has signaled a desire to improve relations with Russia, meaning future U.S. and Russian policies could change.

FOREIGN MEETINGS

In recent months, Taliban representatives have held several meetings with Russian officials, according to Taliban and Afghan government sources.

Those meetings included a visit to Tajikistan by the Taliban shadow governor of Kunduz province, Mullah Abdul Salam, said Kunduz police chief Qasim Jangalbagh.

Another recent meeting occurred in Moscow itself, according to an official at the presidential palace in Kabul.

Earlier this week Afghan lawmakers said they planned to investigate reports of Russian aid to the Taliban, and had sent a letter to Moscow seeking clarification.

Afghan officials did not produce evidence of direct Russian aid, but recent cross-border flights by unidentified helicopters and seizures of new “Russian-made” guns had raised concerns that regional actors may be playing a larger role, Jangalbagh said.

“If the Taliban get their hands on anti-aircraft guns provided, for example, by Russia, then it is a game-changer, and forget about peace,” said another senior Afghan security official.

ISLAMIC STATE OR UNITED STATES?

According to Afghan and U.S. officials, Russian representatives have maintained that government security forces, backed by U.S. special forces and air strikes, have not done enough to stem the growth of Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Militants loyal to the radical Middle East-based network have carved out territory along the border with Pakistan, and have found themselves fighting not only Afghan and foreign troops, but also the Taliban, who compete for land, influence, and fighters.

Taliban officials dismissed the idea that their ties to Russia had anything to do with fighting Islamic State.

“In early 2008, when Russia began supporting us, ISIS(Islamic State) didn’t exist anywhere in the world,” the senior Taliban official said. “Their sole purpose was to strengthen us against the U.S. and its allies.”

That was echoed by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who said “ISIS is not an issue”.

Nicholson said the talk of Islamic State is a smokescreen designed to justify Russian policies.

“Their (Russia’s) narrative goes something like this: that the Taliban are the ones fighting Islamic State, not the Afghan government,” Nicholson said.

“So this public legitimacy that Russia lends to the Taliban is not based on fact, but is used as a way to essentially undermine the Afghan government and the NATO efforts and bolster the belligerents.”

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Pakistan and Tatiana Ustinova and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Met a friendly stranger? Call us, say Lithuania’s spyhunters

Lithuania's State Security Department director Darius Jauniskis poses for a picture in Vilnius, Lithuania,

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) – A single mother takes a kindly man into her confidence. A student is plied with beer by a smiling stranger. Beguiling scenes. But the people of Lithuania are being urged in TV adverts to be wary of the kindness of strangers and call a new ‘spyline’ to check if they aren’t, perhaps, being lured into espionage by foreign agents.

By foreign agents, Lithuania means the Kremlin. Ties have always been tense with former imperial master Moscow. But since the annexation of Crimea, Russia is seen in Vilnius as a threat to Lithuania and the other Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia.

“People don’t even think that information is being squeezed out of them until it’s too late,” Darius Jauniskis, the 48-year-old head of Lithuania’s State Security Department, told Reuters.

“So to prevent this, we are going public and we are explaining all this.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the FSB security service did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

Each advert, Jauniskis said, is based on a true recruitment story.

As the relationship flourishes, the kindly man dupes the lonely mother into installing an information-sucking virus at her workplace. The student wonders if the stranger’s largesse might just be motivated by the diplomatic career he plans.

NATO and EU member Lithuania is perhaps the most vocal of the Baltics in criticizing Russia and increased Russian military activity in the Nordic region. The government has even published a manual on resisting a Russian invasion.

Russia characterizes such fears as fantasy concocted by a NATO alliance that seeks to intimidate Moscow. NATO also has carried out extensive maneuvers near Russian borders.

SOVIET RULE

But Lithuania was under Soviet rule only 25 years ago. It was the first country to declare independence from Moscow in 1990, and saw off a Soviet army attempt to topple its government in 1991. Twelve civilians were killed.

Jauniskis, then 22, stood guard inside the Lithuanian parliament. Later, he led a Lithuanian commando squad fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan alongside the Americans.

He said a third of Russian embassy staff were intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover. Equipment installed on the embassy roof allowed them to listen in to phone calls.

“You will not recognize a spy,” he said. “Because a professional spy will not stand out in any way. He will not have a good car or great clothes. He will just be same as any of us.”

Moscow is recruiting Lithuanians on shopping trips to Russia, accusing them of smuggling, then offering to drop charges – and facilitate future shopping – if they agree to provide intelligence, Jauniskis’s agency said in its annual report.

Russia was also targeting Lithuanian businessmen and diplomats working in Moscow, often using blackmail.

All these things may appear standard fare for many intelligence agencies, but Lithuania sees a particular threat, living as it does in the shadow of so powerful a neighbor.

“Russia is abusing every weakness of democracy that it is able to,” said Jauniskis. “As a former soldier, I can say that defense alone will not win a war. You need to counterattack.”

An actor reading a "testimonial" about a suspiciously friendly stranger is seen in this screen grab from a TV advert by Lithuanian State Security Department

An actor reading a “testimonial” about a suspiciously friendly stranger is seen in this screen grab from a TV advert by Lithuanian State Security Department taken November 30, 2016. Lithuanian State Security Department via REUTERS

But critics say the spy hotline will only breed paranoia – while perhaps overestimating Russian intelligence capabilities.

Few Russian spies have actually gone to prison. Two Lithuanians were sentenced in 2015 and 2016 and a Russian who Lithuanian prosecutors say is a Russian intelligence officer was detained in 2015. His trial is in progress.

Jauniskis said Russia was trying to undermine citizens’ trust in their own country by repeating falsehoods about it in the media and elsewhere. He proposes legislation to criminalize the “spreading of lies” to destabilize the country.

“I will not get popular by saying this, but times have changed, and we must understand that civil liberties are being curtailed in times of war,” he said.

Jauniskis is not impressed by critics’ accusation that all this constituted a step back to Soviet-style “thought police”.

“I don’t think Russia is even concealing that their main target is not Baltics, but destroying the European Union and NATO,” Jauniskis said.

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; editing by Alistair Scrutton; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Russian tankers defy EU ban to smuggle jet fuel to Syria

Russian military jets are seen at Hmeymim air base in Syria,

By Guy Faulconbridge and Jonathan Saul

LONDON (Reuters) – Russian tankers have smuggled jet fuel to Syria through EU waters, bolstering military supplies to a war-torn country where Moscow is carrying out air strikes in support of the government, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

At least two Russian-flagged ships made deliveries – which contravene EU sanctions – via Cyprus, an intelligence source with a European Union government told Reuters. There was a sharp increase in shipments in October, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A separate shipping source familiar with the movements of the Russian-flagged vessels said the ships visited Cypriot and Greek ports before delivering fuel to Syria.

The Russian defense and transport ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs and security policy said the implementation of EU restrictions lay with member states. “We trust that competent authorities are complying with their obligation to ensure respect of the restrictive measures in place and to pursue any circumvention attempts,” she added.

Greece’s foreign ministry declined to comment. The Cypriot government said its authorities had not approved the docking of any Russian tankers carrying jet fuel bound for Syria. “We would welcome any information that may be provided to us on any activity that contravenes U.N. or EU restrictive measures,” the Cypriot foreign ministry added.

Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, has become a theater for competing global powers, with Russia and Iran supporting President Bashar al-Assad, and the United States, Gulf Arab and European powers backing rebels who want to depose him.

Russia changed the course of the conflict in favor of Assad’s government last year when it intervened with air strikes. Moscow says it targets only Islamic State militants and other jihadist fighters.

EU Council Regulation 1323/2014, introduced two years ago, bans any supply of jet fuel to Syria from the EU territories, whether or not the fuel originated in the European Union.

Over one two-week period in October, Russian tankers delivered 20,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel to Syria – worth around $9 million at today’s world prices – via the European Union, according to the EU government intelligence source.

“The jet fuel shipments from these vessels have played a vital role in maintaining Russian air strikes in the region,” said the source. “This points to a sustained Russian build-up of resources needed to support their military operation and ambitions in Syria.”

Some of the shipped fuel also went to the Syrian military, helping to “keep Assad’s air assets operational”, the source added.

The shipping source and a third person, an intelligence consultant specializing in the Mediterranean area, also said the fuel was likely intended for Russian and Syrian military use.

TRANSPONDERS OFF

Publicly available ship-tracking data confirms that at least two Russian tankers, the Yaz and Mukhalatka, made one trip each between September and October, stopping in Greece and Limassol in Cyprus. In Greece, the Yaz stopped at Agioi Theodoroi port but it is unclear where the Mukhalatka stopped.

From Cyprus, they sailed towards Syria and Lebanon. Their tracking transponders were switched off near the coasts of those countries, according to the data.

The EU intelligence source said the Mukhalatka went on to deliver jet fuel to Syria, while the other two sources said the Yaz almost certainly carried fuel to the country. All the people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It was unclear where the fuel might have originated.

Alexander Yaroshenko, general director of the owner of the Yaz and Mukhalatka ships, St Petersburg-based Transpetrochart, declined to comment when asked by Reuters about the shipments. Transpetrochart asked for written questions, which were supplied, but did not provide an immediate response.

Transpetrochart says on its website that it was founded in 2002 and specializes in shipping crude oil, fuel oil, diesel oil, gasoline and other oil products. It operates seven oil tankers.

The intelligence consultant said the Yaz was investigated by Greek authorities for possible EU sanctions violations during its stay in the port of Agioi Theodoroi in September, but that it was allowed to leave bound for Turkey.

The Greek coastguard service said in September that it had investigated the Yaz for possible breaches of EU regulations regarding Syria and had pressed charges against the ship’s captain. A spokesman did not give further details about the investigation when contacted by Reuters.

One coastguard official said separately the captain was charged and released pending trial.

The EU government intelligence source said Russia was also using ships flying the flags of other countries to carry jet fuel to Syria. Reuters was unable to corroborate that allegation with other sources, or with ship-tracking data.

(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou in Athens and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Pravin Char)

Putin unveils monument to Russia’s ‘spiritual founder’ calls for unity

The newly unveiled monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988AD, is seen in central Moscow, Russia,

By Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday unveiled a monument to the medieval prince who brought Christianity to the precursor of the Russian state, a figure being embraced by the Kremlin as a symbol of national identity.

Unveiling the statue to Grand Prince Vladimir near the Kremlin walls, Putin said the prince had been the spiritual founder of the Russian state.

“Today, our duty is to jointly stand up to modern challenges and threats, relying on the priceless traditions of unity and accord, moving forward and safeguarding the continuation of our 1,000-year history,” he said.

The 17.5 meter (56 foot) -tall bronze monument features prince Vladimir in flowing robes with a sword in his left hand and a cross in his right.

Grand Prince Vladimir was a ruler of Kievan Rus, the territory in modern-day Ukraine from which the Russian state would later emerge. In 988, he adopted Orthodox Christianity as the faith of his people, who were until then largely pagan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, attend a ceremony to unveil a monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988AD, on National Unity Day in central Moscow, Russia,

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, attend a ceremony to unveil a monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus’ in 988AD, on National Unity Day in central Moscow, Russia, November 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Putin, in the 16 years since he became president, has sought to build a spirit of national unity and pride, with a new emphasis on traditional Russian values.

His critics say he uses those values as a pretext to justify his stand-off with the West, which he accuses of trying to encroach on Russia’s sphere of influence and impose liberal social attitudes on its people.

The site of the new statue is between the red-brick walls of the Kremlin and the Lenin Library.

The unveiling coincided with National Unity Day, a public holiday created by Putin’s administration in 2004 to replace the Communist October Revolution Day, when tanks, missiles and troops used to parade through Red Square.

(Editing by Christian Lowe and Andrew Roche)

Russia’s Putin suspends plutonium cleanup accord with U.S. because of ‘unfriendly’ acts

Putin at award ceremony

By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday suspended an agreement with the United States for disposal of weapons-grade plutonium because of “unfriendly” acts by Washington, the Kremlin said.

A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had signed a decree suspending the 2010 agreement under which each side committed to destroy tonnes of weapons-grade material because Washington had not been implementing it and because of current tensions in relations.

The two former Cold War adversaries are at loggerheads over a raft of issues including Ukraine, where Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and supports pro-Moscow separatists, and the conflict in Syria.

The deal, signed in 2000 but which did not come into force until 2010, was being suspended due to “the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation”, the preamble to the decree said.

It also said that Washington had failed “to ensure the implementation of its obligations to utilize surplus weapons-grade plutonium”.

The 2010 agreement, signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called on each side to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning in nuclear reactors.

Clinton said at the time that that was enough material to make almost 17,000 nuclear weapons. Both sides then viewed the deal as a sign of increased cooperation between the two former adversaries toward a joint goal of nuclear non-proliferation.

“For quite a long time, Russia had been implementing it (the agreement) unilaterally,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists on Monday.

“Now, taking into account this tension (in relations) in general … the Russian side considers it impossible for the current state of things to last any longer.”

Ties between Moscow and Washington plunged to freezing point over Crimea and Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine after protests in Kiev toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich.

Washington led a campaign to impose Western economic sanctions on Russia for its role in the Ukraine crisis.

Relations soured further last year when Russia deployed its warplanes to an air base in Syria to provide support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops fighting rebels.

The rift has widened in recent weeks, with Moscow accusing Washington of not delivering on its promise to separate units of moderate Syrian opposition from “terrorists”.

Huge cost overruns have also long been another threat to the project originally estimated at a total of $5.7 billion.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Moscow vows to press Syria offensive; U.S. weighs tough response

Rebel fighters of 'Al-Sultan Murad' brigade gather on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Shawa, which is controlled by Islamic State militants, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria,

By Jonathan Landay and Tom Perry

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Kremlin vowed on Thursday to press on with its assault in Syria, while U.S. officials searched for a tougher response to Russia’s decision to ignore the peace process and seek military victory on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow and Damascus launched an assault to recapture the rebel-held sector of Aleppo this month, abandoning a new ceasefire a week after it took effect to embark on what could be the biggest battle of a nearly six-year war.

Rebel fighters have launched an advance of their own in countryside near the central city of Hama, where they said they made gains on Thursday.

The United States and European Union accuse Russia of torpedoing diplomacy to pursue military victory in Aleppo, and say Moscow and Damascus are guilty of war crimes for targeting civilians, hospitals and aid workers to break the will of 250,000 people living under siege inside Syria’s largest city.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called the air strikes in Aleppo a “massacre” and said European governments were considering their response. Russia and the Syrian government say they are targeting only militants.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who personally negotiated the failed truce in talks with Russia despite scepticism from other senior U.S. officials, has said Washington could walk away from diplomacy unless the fighting stops.

He has called for a halt to flights, a step rejected by Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday Russia would “continue the operation of its air force in support of the anti-terrorist activity of Syria’s armed forces”.

Peskov said Washington was to blame for the fighting, by failing to meet an obligation to separate “moderate” rebel fighters from terrorists.

“In general, we express regret at the rather non-constructive nature of the rhetoric voiced by Washington in the past days.”

U.S. officials are considering tougher responses to the Russian-backed Syrian government assault, including military options, although they have described the range of possible responses as limited and say risky measures like air strikes on Syrian targets or sending U.S. jets to escort aid are unlikely.

BATTLE FOR ALEPPO

Recapturing Aleppo would be the biggest victory of the war for government forces, and a potential turning point in a conflict that until now most outside countries had said would never be won by force.

The multi-sided civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, made half of Syrians homeless, and allowed much of the east of the country to fall into the hands of Islamic State jihadists who are enemies of all other sides.

Aleppo has been divided into government and opposition sectors for four years, and its rebel zone is now the only major urban area still in the hands of anti-Assad fighters supported by the West and Arab states. The government lay siege to it in July, cutting off those trapped inside from food and medicine.

The last week of bombing has killed hundreds of people and left many hundreds more wounded, with no way to bring in medical supplies. There are only around 30 doctors inside the besieged zone. The two biggest hospitals were knocked out of service by air strikes or shelling on Wednesday.

Russia says the only way to defeat Islamic State is to support Assad. Washington says the Syrian president has too much blood on his hands and must leave power.

Washington is bombing Islamic State targets in the east but has otherwise avoided any direct participation in the civil war in the rest of the country, leaving the field open to Russia, which joined the war a year ago tipping the conflict in favor of its ally Assad.

Relations between Moscow and Washington are already at their worst since the Cold War, with the United States and European Union having imposed economic sanctions over Russia’s annexation of territory from Ukraine and support for separatists there.

WASHINGTON CAUGHT OFF GUARD

The ferocity of the assault on Aleppo is driving many of the Western-backed anti-Assad groups to cooperate more closely with jihadist fighters, the opposite of the strategy Washington has hoped to pursue, rebel officials told Reuters.

In Aleppo, rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner are sharing operational planning with Jaish al-Fatah, an alliance of Islamist groups that includes the former Syrian wing of al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, in nearby Hama province, FSA groups armed with U.S.-made anti-tank missiles are taking part in a major offensive with the al Qaeda-inspired Jund al-Aqsa group that has diverted some of the army’s firepower from Aleppo.

The FSA rebels have deep ideological differences with the jihadists, and have even fought them at times, but say survival is the main consideration.

“At a time when we are dying, it is not logical to first check if a group is classified as terrorist or not before cooperating with it,” said a senior official in one of the Aleppo-based rebel factions. “The only option you have is to go in this direction.”

Two U.S. officials said the speed with which the diplomatic track collapsed in Syria and pro-government forces advanced in Aleppo had caught some in the administration off guard.

Obama administration officials have begun considering responses, including military options, U.S. officials said. The new discussions were being held at “staff level,” and had yet to produce any recommendations to Obama.

Even administration advocates of a more muscular U.S. response said on Wednesday that it was not clear what, if anything, the president would do, and that his options “begin at tougher talk”, as one official put it.

One official said that before any action could be taken, Washington would first have to “follow through on Kerry’s threat and break off talks with the Russians” on Syria.

OPTIONS ON THE TABLE

Possible responses include allowing Gulf allies to supply rebels with more sophisticated weaponry, or carrying out a U.S. air strike on a Syrian government air base, viewed as less likely because of the potential for causing Russian casualties, the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The options being weighed are limited in number and stop well short of any large-scale commitment of U.S. troops.

One of the officials said the list of options included supporting rebel counter-attacks elsewhere with additional weaponry or even air strikes, which “might not reverse the tide of battle, but might cause the Russians to stop and think”.

Another official said any weapons supplied to rebels would not include shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, which rebels say they need to fight the Russian air force but which Washington fears could end up in the hands of militants.

Other ideas under consideration include sending more U.S. special operations forces to train and advise Kurdish and Syrian Arab rebel groups, and deploying additional American and allied naval and airpower to the eastern Mediterranean.

U.S. officials had considered a humanitarian airlift to rebel-held areas, which would require escorts by U.S. warplanes, but this has been deemed too risky and “moved down the list”, one official said.

(Additional reporting by John Walcott, Matt Spetalnick, Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart in Washington, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow and Robin Emmott in Brussels,; writing by Peter Graff, editing by Peter Millership)