MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP, OCTOBER 6
A couple items from RFE/RL's News Desk:
FIVE DEAD IN GROZNY SUICIDE BOMBING
A suicide bomber has killed five police officers in Chechnya's capital, Grozny.
The Interior Ministry branch in Chechnya reported the bomber blew himself up on October 5 outside the venue where a concert marking Grozny's City Day was about to begin. At least 12 people were injured in the attack.
Grozny's City Day celebrations coincided this year with the birthday of Chechnya's pro-Moscow President Ramzan Kadyrov.
Russian news agencies reported that local police working a metal detector outside the concert venue became suspicious at the behavior of a young man in the crowd.
According to the Interior Ministry, when police approached the man he detonated explosives he was carrying.
Local authorities said the bomber, who was also killed in the explosion, was tentatively identified as 19-year-old Opti Mudarov.
They said Mudarov was from the Staropromyslov district of Grozny and had not been heard from snce he left home two months ago.
President Ramzan Kadyrov offered a slightly different account of events outside the concert hall.
He said the bomber was armed with a pistol and was posing as a policeman, and detonated his explosives when the real police officers said they wanted to search him.
Kadyrov credited the police for their professionalism and vigilance, which prevented what could have been a greater catastrophe.
Kadyrov said the "terrorists had attempted to turn a holiday into a national tragedy and spill the blood of dozens, or hundreds of people."
Kadyrov's father, former President Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed in an explosion in Grozny in May 2004.
Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said the slain police officers would be given posthumous awards.
Kadyrov earlier in the day had been praising the changes in Grozny, saying the city was in ruins not so long ago but has been reborn.
He has recently said that Islamist extremists were no longer a threat in Chechnya.
Chechnya fought two separatist wars with Moscow in the 1990s which gradually turned into a fight for an Islamic state in the region which is led by a group calling itself the "Caucasus Emirate."
The October 5 attack was the first major incident since the insurgents' long-time leader, Doku Umarov, was killed last year.
The last major suicide bombings in Russia occurred last December in Volgograd. The bombings of a train station and an electric trolleybus there killed 34 people.
(Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax)
NULAND EXPECTED IN UKRAINE AMID CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS
U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland is due in Kyiv October 6 to hold talks with senior Ukrainian government leaders.
The State Department said in a statement that Nuland "will discuss the U.S. commitment to assist ongoing reform efforts in Ukraine, the status of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and U.S. support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity."
Nuland's visit comes amid fresh Ukrainian reports of violations of a month-old cease-fire by Russian-backed separatists.
Military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said in Kyiv October 5 that two Ukrainian service staff were killed in the past 24 hours as government forces came under attack in several parts of the east.
In the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, a senior rebel official, Eduard Basulin, said three pro-Russia fighters were killed in the past 24 hours, mainly in fighting around the airport, which is controlled by the Ukrainian military.
Rebels have been trying for weeks to dislodge government troops from the airport.
(With additional reporting by Reuters and AFP)
And this via Reuters:
NEW NATO CHIEF SAYS ALLIANCE CAN PUT TROOPS WHEREVER IT WANTS
WARSAW, Oct 5 (Reuters) - New NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that the Western alliance could deploy its forces wherever it wants, apparently calling into question post-Cold War agreements that have been shaken by Russia's actions in Crimea and Ukraine.
Stoltenberg was visiting NATO member Poland to reassure it that NATO would provide the protection it sought against its former communist master, Russia, which in recent months has annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, and been accused by the West of sending troops and equipment to back pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
At a summit a month ago, NATO leaders agreed to set up a "spearhead" rapid reaction force that could be sent to a hotspot within days, and to pre-position equipment and supplies in eastern European countries to receive the force if needed.
But they rejected appeals from NATO members in Eastern Europe, including Poland, to station thousands of troops there permanently -- partly because of the expense, and partly because they did not want to break a 1997 pact under which NATO promised Russia it would not permanently station significant combat forces in the east.
Stoltenberg appeared to take a tougher line in Poland, however.
"Next year, at the ministerial meeting, we will take decisions regarding the so-called spearhead but, even before it is established, NATO has a strong army after all. We can deploy it wherever we want to," Stoltenberg told the state broadcaster TVP Info.
"These capabilities already exist. We have them, and we can deploy them in individual regions. And this is only an add-on to what the alliance already has."
Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, took over on Wednesday as NATO secretary-general, at a time when the alliance is wrapping up its combat mission in Afghanistan but faces new challenges from a resurgent Russia to the east and from Islamic State militants on the borders of Turkey, NATO's southernmost member.
NATO has made clear it will not intervene militarily in Ukraine, which is not an alliance member, but has reinforced the defences of its eastern member states. Russia has repeatedly denied sending forces or equipment to the rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A STRAGE AND DISTURBING VIDEO OF THE SEPARATIST 'DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC'S 6-MONTH-ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Apparently they were trying to reenact the "fascist" atmosphere on the Maidan. But the effect is just bizarre and creepy.
BODY OF MISSING CRIMEAN TATAR FOUND
AFTERNOON NEWS ROUNDUP, OCTOBER 6
A few items from RFE/RL's News Desk
RUSSIAN RUBLE HITS RECORD LOW
The U.S. dollar has risen above 40 Russian rubles for the first time ever.
The ruble's worth fell below 40 to the dollar in early trading in Moscow on October 6, RIA Novosti and TASS reported.
The Russian currency has fallen steadily in the last three months amid tightening U.S. and European Union sanctions against Moscow over its role in the conflict in Ukraine.
A dollar bought about 34 rubles in early July, and the official exchange rate on October 4 was just under 39.70 rubles to the dollar.
The ruble rate has been closely watched by since the 1991 Soviet collapse and is seen by many Russians as a sign of the economy's strength or weakness.
News that the ruble's worth fell below 40 to the dollar was greeted with comments by Kremlin foes such as Alexei Navalny, who noted that a round number would make calculations simple.
(Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, TASS, and Reuters)
NAVALNY ASSOCIATE SEEKS ASYLUM IN GREAT BRITIAN
A close associate of top Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny has applied for political asylum in Britain.
Vladimir Ashurkov, the executive director of Navalny's anti-corruption fund, announced his decision on Twitter on October 6.
The former banker helped Navalny expose corruption among the elite and fund his campaign for Moscow mayor last year.
His announcement came after the "Izvestia" daily published what it said was his asylum application.
Ashurkov wrote in the alleged application that "a fabricated criminal case" had been launched against him and that he faced "detention, inhuman conditions, torture, and unfair judicial procedure" if he returned to Russia.
In June, the Investigative Committee issued an arrest warrant for Ashurkov and charged two other allies of Navalny with fraud linked to the financing of his Moscow mayoral bid.
(Based on reporting by AFP, "Izvestia," and Interfax)
NATO CHIEF SEEKS 'CONSTRUCTIVE' TIES WITH RUSSIA
NATO's new chief says the alliance wants "constructive" relations with Russia despite moves to bolster the defense of member states in eastern Europe.
Jens Stoltenberg, who is on his first trip abroad since becoming NATO Secretary General last week, spoke in an interview published in the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" on October 6.
"There is no contradiction between a strong NATO and building constructive relations with Russia," he said.
Stoltenberg pledged NATO would respect its international commitments, including a post-Cold War deal with Moscow limiting deployments in the former Communist bloc.
In comments broadcast on October 5, Stoltenberg told the Polish state broadcaster TVP Info that NATO could deploy its forces "wherever" it wanted, potentially calling into question its 1997 promise to Russia that it would not permanently station significant combat forces in the east.
Relations between NATO and Moscow are badly strained by the Ukraine crisis.
(Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa)
RUSSIA TO DEPLOY WEATHER SATELLITE GROUP TO ARCTIC
Russia plans to deploy satellites to monitor the Arctic, a region President Vladimir Putin has set out as a priority because of its strategic location and natural resource riches.
The Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos, said on October 6 that "two Arktika-M satellites will be placed in a highly elliptical near-Earth orbit" soon to monitor the weather and environment in the region.
Officials have said a new military command will be formed in the Arctic region by the end of 2014 and two motor-rifle brigades will start serving within the Russian army group there in 2015-2016.
Russia is looking to the Arctic as a source of oil and gas, but Western sanctions against companies such as state giant Rosneft have thrown up a hurdle to its drilling plans.
(Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS)
RUSSIAN MILITARY HOLDS 'ANTI-TERROR' DRILLS IN TAJIKISTAN
Russian forces based in Tajikistan are holding military drills near the Central Asian nation's capital, Dushanbe.
A spokesman for Russia's Central Military District, Yaroslav Roshchupkin, says the maneuvers started on the Lyaur training ground on October 6.
He said more than 1,000 servicemen and 300 pieces of military hardware from Russia's 201st military base, which is located in Tajikistan, are practicing to ward off possible attacks by "international terrorists."
Tajikistan shares a long border with Afghanistan, and Russian officials have voiced concern that the militant threat to Central Asia and Russia may increase after most Western troops leave by the end of this year.
The 201st base is Russia's largest non-naval military facility outside the country, with some 6,000 servicemen stationed near the cities of Dushanbe, Qurghonteppa and Kulob.
(Based on reporting by TASS and ca-news.org)
MORE ON MISSING CRIMEAN TATAR EDEM ASANOV, WHO HAS BEEN FOUND DEAD
And you can read report by RFE/RL's Robert Coalson on the campaign of harassment and intimidation against Crimean Tatars here.
PUTIN TO SPEND BIRTHDAY IN SIBERIAN TAIGA - WILL NO DOUBT DO SOMETHING 'MANLY'
SURKOV'S FAMILY ALBUM
Tatler has pix of Vladislav Surkov's family. They sure do like plaid. I think I have a Burberry overdose!
MORE ON CAMPAIGN AGAINST CRIMEAN TATARS
AS PUTIN'S BIRTHDAY APPROACHES, WE SEE MORE AND MORE 'MANLY' PIX