NATO chief: Russia's Syria deployment aimed to take eyes off Ukraine
By Mike Eckel
WASHINGTON -- NATO's top commander says Russia's military deployment to Syria was aimed at showcasing Moscow's resurgent armed forces, but also to distract Western attention from the simmering conflict in Ukraine.
The comments by U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove on October 30 came the same day that Russia staged a major test of its strategic and tactical missile forces, firing multiple ballistic and cruise missiles at testing ranges throughout the country.
Breedlove told reporters at the Pentagon that Moscow continued to defy the so-called Minsk agreements that resulted in a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine. He said Russia was supplying command-and-control units, artillery spotting and support, and other materiel to the separatists.
"Folks have taken their eye off of Ukraine because of what's happened in Syria," Breedlove said. "It's technique they've employed in the past.
"This is part of a larger construct by Russia and we need to be thinking holistically about our response," he said. "We need to remember that these are connected."
The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known as the Donbas, has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014.
The Russian missile tests, which appeared to be the largest it has conducted in at least a year, included the launch of a Kalibr cruise missile from a Russian ship in the Caspian Sea, as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in the north and one in the Sea of Okhotsk, off Russia's eastern coast, the Defense Ministry said.
The exercises also included the firing of a land-based Topol missile from Plesetsk in northwestern Russia, Tu-160s strategic bombers launching cruise missiles in the northern Komi region and the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, and an Iskander cruise missile fired at Kapustin Yar in southern Russia.
The tests, and Breedlove's comments, come as rhetoric between Moscow and the West continues to ratchet up, with U.S. and NATO aircraft flying in sometimes close proximity to one another in Syrian airspace.
They also come as NATO stages its largest training exercises in more than a decade, with 36,000 troops from 30 countries participating in the drills off of Spain and Portugal. NATO officials said the Trident Juncture drills had been planned for months, but also highlighted the alliance's concerns with Russia's often bellicose actions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
The Russian military campaign in Syria, which began on September 30 after weeks of a stealth build-up of troops and equipment, is its largest outside the former Soviet Union in decades.
With advanced military weaponry such as Su-30M fighter jets and the Kalibr cruise missiles being used in the air campaign, many analysts believe the Syria operation is aimed at sending a message that Russian military capabilities have returned in full.
Earlier this week, two strategic Tu-160 bombers flew within 2 kilometers, and at a height of 150 meters, to the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan in the Pacific Ocean off East Asia, prompting officials to scramble F/A-18 fighter jets to escort the bombers.
Asked why he thought the Kremlin had deployed to Syria, where the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is a close ally, Breedlove said, "Mr. Putin wants to be seen as equal on the world stage, as a world power."
"Mr. Putin needs eastern Mediterranean ports and airfields. Mr. Putin sees the Assad regime as a guarantor of those ports. Mr. Putin wants the world's eyes off of Ukraine, to put the focus on Syria, then normalize Donbas. I think he wants to take the world's eyes off of Ukraine," he said. (w/ AP, TASS, Interfax)
This ends our live blogging for October 30. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Ukraine Librarian Detained In Moscow Falls Ill, Claims Was Framed
By RFE/RL
The detained head of the Russian Library of Ukrainian Literature has fallen ill in custody and claims Russian authorities framed her by planting extremist books in her collection.
"She said they had planted a large batch of books during the searches," Russian rights activist Zoya Svetova told the AFP news agency on October 30 after speaking with Natalya Sharina, the 58-year-old library director detained by Russian authorities.
After the library was raided October 29, Russia's Investigative Committee said authorities had found books by Ukrainian ultranationalist author Dmytro Korchynsky, whose works are banned in Russia. It charged Sharina with inciting ethnic hatred and violating human dignity by distributing such books.
While Sharina was not present at the library when it was raided by armed, masked police, who carted off about 200 books, her deputy, Vitaly Krikunenko, said the library did not keep Korchynsky's books and called the accusations against her "absolute nonsense."
Sharina denied the charges in the Taganka district court in Moscow on October 30.
"I didn't do anything illegal," she said. "The library staff examined the new arrivals carefully and as soon as one or another titles was added to the list of extremist literature, we immediately excluded them from general public access."
Library employees say any extremist books purportedly found by investigators were planted to create a pretext for the raid.
Tatyana Muntyan, an employee, said she had personally seen investigators plant banned books in the library the day before the raid.
"They brought books with them which were included on the list of extremist literature," Muntyan told Reuters. "I saw it. The books they brought did not have our stamp inside them. They planted these books."
The investigative committee did not respond to the charges.
Meanwhile, Sharina fell into a health crisis while under detention, suffering several bouts of extreme high blood pressure which required treatment by medical personnel, her lawyers said.
Russian news agencies said the court decided October 30 to put Sharina under house arrest and charge her with incitement of ethnic hatred. That crime can result in up to four years in prison.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax
Russia Blasts 'Politicized' Rule Change IMF Mulling For Ukraine
By RFE/RL
Russia's finance minister expressed concern about a possible rule change by the International Monetary Fund that would enable it to keep lending to Ukraine even if Kyiv defaults on its debt to Russia.
"Russia does not want Ukraine to be left without financial support," Anton Siluanov said on October 30, but Russia is suspicious of the "hastiness" of the rule change at the IMF.
"We are concerned that the changes in the policy of the fund are forced in the context of a very politicized issue of restructuring of the Ukrainian debt," he said.
The IMF has said it is considering easing a long-standing rule against lending to countries in default in "carefully circumscribed circumstances" to keep Ukraine's $17.5 billion bailout package alive.
Ukraine, running short of cash, has sought to restructure its $3 billion debt to Russia the same way it has rescheduled its privately held debt, but Russia has refused to go along.
Moscow -- which is also running short of cash and reserve funds -- insists it should get full repayment on schedule by the end of the year.
Ukraine must make a critical payment on the debt to Russia next month. The IMF rule change would increase the likelihood of Ukraine defaulting on that payment, a possibility Ukraine has admitted it is considering.
Under its current rules, the IMF is not allowed to lend money to a country when it is in default on debt to an "official" lender such as another government.
Under those rules, if Kyiv defaults on the $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond bought by Russia, the IMF would have to cut off its credit, even though the country is reeling from a deep economic recession and pro-Russian insurgency in the east.
The rule change would allow the IMF to keep lending to Ukraine as long as Kyiv has made a "good faith" effort to renegotiate its debt with Russia.
While Russia objects to the rule change, Siluanov said that even if the IMF went through with it, Ukraine would not meet the new criteria.
"Ukraine has not carried out such negotiations with Russia," he said.
A meeting between Siluanov and Ukraine's finance minister earlier this month failed to produce any agreement on restructuring the debt because of Russia's objections to changing the terms.
Siluanov said Kyiv at the meeting refused to consider any alternatives apart from equating Ukraine's debt to Russia with its debt to private investors.
Under pressure from the IMF, Ukraine and its private creditors reached an agreement this summer that wipes out $3.6 billion in debt and reschedules repayment on $8.5 billion.
In a statement October 29, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said that creditors involved in that debt restructuring should expect to receive new Ukrainian sovereign securities on November 12.
Arguing that its debt to Russia should be considered a commercial loan rather than a formal agreement between the two countries, Ukraine had given Russia until October 29 to either accept the same restructuring terms or face a "legal war" in court.
The $3 billion loan was given by Moscow to Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013 in what Kyiv now says was essentially a bribe to get him to ditch a deal for closer ties with the European Union.
Yanukovych's decision to dump the EU agreement sparked protests that eventually led to his ouster and unleashed a chain reaction of events that has included Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and a pro-Russian insurgency in the east.