From RFE/RL's News Desk:
RUSSIAN, NORTH KOREAN FMs HOLD TALKS IN MOSCOW
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow has plans to expand relations with North Korea in "various fields."
Lavrov made his comments at a press conference with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong in Moscow on October 1.
Lavrov said his talks with Ri would focus on bilateral relations, economic ties, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Ri noted the "long tradition of relations" between Moscow and Pyongyang and said ties between the two countries are "bonded with blood."
Ri, who is one a 10-day visit to Russia, is also expected to discuss the resumption of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Pyongyang suspended the talks in 2009.
Lavrov said Russia puts "high value" on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's statement that bilateral relations would continue on course.
(Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS)
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
RUSSIAN, KAZAKH LAWMAKERS OK EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION
Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans for a Eurasian Economic Union are coming closer to reality.
Russia's upper parliament house and Kazakhstan's lower chamber ratified treaties on the EES on October 1.
The EES was established on the basis of the Customs Union by member states Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in May. It is scheduled to officially start functioning from January 1, 2015.
Moscow has been pressuring former Soviet republics to join the Customs Union and the EES, saying the latter will be modeled after the European Union.
Armenian Prime Minister Ovik Abramian said in July that an agreement allowing his country to join the EES will be signed by the end of October.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has said that Kyrgyzstan will join the Customs Union by the end of 2014.
(Based on reporting by KazTAG and Kazinform)
Meanwhile, oil prices are dropping fast, according to Business Insider:
Whoa!
Oil just totally crashed. One possible culprit is this Reuters story, showing that OPEC production is surging.
There are a host of other factors that might be driving down oil as well.
What are they? Read the whole piece here.
The Russian media is making a lot of hay about the alleged discovery of "mass graves" in Donetsk.
But Tom Parfitt of "The Daily Telegraph" is checking out the details and raising some doubts:
As Russia switches to a war economy, social programs continue to take a hit.
From RFE/RL's News Desk
RUSSIAN ARMY DRAFTING MEN FROM CHECHNYA FOR FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS
Young men from Chechnya are being drafted into Russia's armed forces for the first time in 20 years.
Some 500 men aged 18-27 will be drafted this autumn.
Officials at Russia's Southern Military District said on October 1 that drafting commissions had started working in Chechnya's 17 districts and that the first group of conscripts will be sent to military units in 10 days.
Mandatory military service in Russia is 12 months.
Chechen youth stopped being drafted to the Russian Army in late 1994, when the Kremlin sent the military into Chechnya to try to crush its separatist leadership.
Government forces drove separatists from power in a second war and Moscow announced in 2009 that its "counter-terrorist" operation in Chechnya was over.
Chechen separatist fighters gradually turned into Islamic insurgency and spread to other parts of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
(Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS)
The Russian government is backing legislation that would compensate Russian businessmen with taxpayer's money should their assets be seized abroad.
"Vedomosti" has the details. See also this report in "Slon."
Ulrich Speck at Carnegie Europe has an article up calling the EU's decision to postpone the trade deal with Ukraine a "bad move."
"By postponing the DCFTA, the economic core of the Association Agreement meant to bring Ukraine closer to the union, some EU leaders apparently wanted to accommodate the Kremlin. The concession on the DCFTA was meant to give Moscow an additional incentive to stick to a ceasefire that Russia, Russian-supported rebels, and the Ukrainian government had agreed to on September 5. The so-called Minsk protocol also set in motion a broader process to end the fighting between pro-Moscow and pro-EU forces in Ukraine.
But delaying the DCFTA is a mistake. It gives Russia incentives to raise the pressure because it opens a large window of opportunity to prevent the DCFTA from entering into force. The pressure could be military, economic, or diplomatic. And the delay puts at risk what should be the EU’s longer-term response to the Ukraine crisis: a redoubled effort to help the country build itself up as a successful liberal democracy and market economy."
Read it all here.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
EU KEEPS RUSSIAN SANCTIONS IN PLACE
The European Union has decided to keep in place a raft of sanctions against Russia over its actions in eastern Ukraine and its support of rebels there.
EU ambassadors met in Brussels on September 30 to assess the situation in eastern Ukraine.
The bloc imposed its latest round of sanctions earlier this month.
At the time, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said they could be dropped depending on the results of a review, the deadline of which was September 30.
But the EU found that Ukraine's peace plan, agreed to between Kyiv and pro-Russian rebels, had not yet been fully implemented.
EU spokeswoman Maja Kojicancic said there had been "encouraging developments" in "some aspects" of the peace deal, but added that "relevant parts of the protocol will need to be properly implemented."
(Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters)