Thursday, March 31, 2016

NEWS IN BRIEF

Russia’s Surgutneftegaz has become the world’s most pro� table oil company, according to repor-ting by Bloomberg. The company, which is now more pro� table than ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, has become the only major global player continuing to generate income for investors after the collapse of oil prices. Its net income for the � rst nine months of 2015 increased by 39.4 per-cent to total $6.4 billion.

In the past 15 months, the dividend yield of the company’s securities reached a record 18.5 per-cent as other Russian oil companies face a fall in stock returns.

The secret of Surgutneftegaz’s success is, not, however, due to any increase in production or sales. The increased value is instead the result of the company’s huge dollar reserves. Over the past 10 years, Surgutneftegaz did not invest its prof-its in new assets, but simply saved them, manag-ing to accumulate more than $30 billion. Since the company pays dividends in rubles, and the ruble fell by almost 50 percent over the past two years, the company is managing to show a high yield based purely on exchage rate gains.

U.S. air carrier Delta Air Lines will resume � ights to Russia beginning on May 16, 2016, Russian news agency TASS reported on March 4. “We have scheduled our � ight from Shereme-tyevo airport beginning on May 16,” said Leonid Tarasov, a company representative in Russia. Delta Air Lines will operate � ights on the Mos-cow–New York route on a Boeing 767-400ER lea-ving from Terminal D at Sheremetyevo Airport. Ticket prices will start at about $450. Delta suspended � ights between Russia and the U.S. in December 2015 due to increased costs as a result of the stronger U.S. dollar, a company press release announced at the time.

Dodo Pizza, which was launched in 2011 in the northern Russian city of Syktyvkar and made a name for itself by delivering pizzas by drone, has opened its � rst outlet in the United States, accor-ding to Russian news site RBC Daily. The restau-rant, located in Oxford, Ark., has been operating in test mode since Feb. 25, with the official ope-ning scheduled for this month, according to foun-der Fyodor Ovchinnikov. Planned investment in the � rst Dodo Pizza restaurant is around $500,000. In the next 10 years, Dodo Pizza intends to open 400 outlets in the U.S.

Russian oil company now world’s most profi table

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines to resume fl ights to Russia

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Syria Russian military operations end as warring parties return to the negotating table

Russia’s surprise move earlier this month to scale back its military operations in Syria has provoked debate about the motives behind the operation itself.

Moscow’s decision to withdraw its troops from Syrian bases came as a surprise to many Western policymakers, leaving experts and analysts to attempt to ex-plain the logic behind the move.

According to an official statement from President Vladimir Putin, the pull-out of Russia’s main military contin-gent in Syria was due to the fact that the military had “largely achieved its objectives” and that the stage was now set for diplomats to take over negoti-ations in an inter-Syrian dialogue to end the � ve-year-old civil war. The de-cision to withdraw was made on the � rst day of a new round of talks, which included representatives from govern-ment, rebel and Kurdish forces.

“It’s clear that [the talks] should in-clude the whole spectrum of Syrian political forces; otherwise, this cannot claim to be a representative forum,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, indicating that the Russian mil-itary intervention was critical in get-ting all the parties to the table.

VLADIMIR MIKHEEVSPECIAL TO RBTH

� cials can � nd ways to say the oper-ation ful� lled the stated goal of the military intervention — � ghting ter-rorism.

“It can be claimed that Russian military involvement prevented the jihadists from grabbing a signi� cant part of Syria,” Kosach said.

Tsvetkov, however, disagrees, say-ing that the withdrawal of Russian forces while ISIS remains in control of large swathes of Syria is an indi-cation that the � ght against ISIS is not Russia’s main priority in the Mid-dle East. “The highest-ranking offi-cials and experts have been insisting for months that the goal of Russia’s operation in Syria was the � ght with ISIS, and nothing else. Today theyeither have to admit that they’ve been misleading everyone, or agree with the statement that Russia lost the � ght and thus had to leave,” Tsvetkov said.

According to Yestafeyev, with the intervention and withdrawal, “Mos-cow clearly demonstrated to Assad that it supports his � ght against ISIS and other terrorist organizations but not his attempts to use Russian mil-itary potential to solve the problems of his political survival.”

Moscow is not completely aban-doning its � ght against ISIS in Syria. Russian military service personnel will remain at the Khmeimim air-base in Latakia province and at the naval base in Tartus to “observe cease-fire agreements.” Russia also has voiced its commitment “to coordinat-ing” with the United States the re-taking of the rebel strongholds of Raqqa and Palmyra.

No matter the outcome of the ne-gotiations, or the debate over Rus-sia’s involvement, with its operations in Syria, Moscow has proved its of-ten-reiterated foreign policy narra-tive: In the case of regional con� icts in the relative proximity of Russia’s borders, it has the leverage to in� u-ence warring parties and set the stage for a settlement.

Hidden agenda Despite these high-level statements, the reason for the withdrawal of troops — as with the instigation of Moscow’s military campaign — re-mains vague.

According to analyst DmitryYestafeyev, the withdrawal should not have come as a surprise. Putin “strikes � rst, something he has admitted on several occasions, but he also always leaves the battle � rst if it can be done elegantly and without losses,” Ye-stafeyev wrote in a column for RBTH, adding, “Putin goes to the end only when it concerns Russia’s security or his plausibility as a leader. If such critical interests are not at stake, the Russian president rather easily leaves the process.”

Grigory Kosach, a professor at the Russian State University for the Hu-manities and an expert on the poli-tics of the Arab world, said that the most likely reason for the withdraw-al was that the launch of a new round of talks gave Russia the best chance to solidify its position as a power bro-ker in the Middle East. In Kosach’s opnion, Russia, along with the Unit-ed States, could preside over the par-tition of Syria, which could be turned into a “federation” with a not-neces-sarily-unfriendly new regime in Da-

mascus and a Syrian Kurdistan that would be receptive to Moscow’s in-terests.

“Moscow might count on preserv-ing its in� uence with the authorities that would control two largeterritories: one stretching fromDamascus to Aleppo all along the Mediterranean coast, and the other en com passing the northern regions inhabited largely by the Kurds.That would constitute the ‘prize fund,’and it would probably suffice,”Kosach said.

Ivan Tsvetov, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations at St. Petersburg State University, said that the with-drawal was instead intended to show up Washington. “The events around Syria have shown that Russia’s con-temporary foreign policy is basically aimed at one single overarching task: to get the approval of the U.S. as an equal partner and thus return to the club of leading world states. By ac-tive participation in the Syrian war, Putin was trying to prove to Presi-dent Obama that the United States couldn’t do it alone without Russia,” Tsvetkov said.

What about ISIS? Kosach thinks that no matter the out-come of the negotiations, Russian of-

Defense A range of military hardware will remain at bases at Latakia and Tartus despite the withdrawal

Although much of Moscow’s fighting force is being removed from the Middle East, a contingent of tactical weapons and advisers will stay.

maybe two thirds,” said Murakhovsky. “At the same time, the number of our troops in Syria will be reduced only slightly; this is necessary to en-sure the safety of the permanent Rus-sian military bases at the Khmeimim air� eld and the port of Tartus.”

Staying behindAccording to Murakhovsky, helicop-ter units will remain in their entire-ty to carry out search-and-rescue mis-sions and tactical transportation in

Syria. Russia is also leaving military advisers to help the Syrian leader-ship in the � ght against Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

“Russia is leaving its air defense systems in Syria in their entirety — S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems as well as Buk-M3, Tor-M2 and Pantsyr S-1 air defense missile sys-tems,” Viktor Litovkin, a retired col-onel and military analyst for Rus-sian news agency TASS, told RBTH.

“Also, Russian navy warships will

continue to operate in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, to be ro-tated in the normal mode,” he said.

According to Litovkin, the navy is tasked not only with the control and surveillance of ISIS militants, but also with monitoring NATO war-ships, which come to the Black Sea with SM-3 and Tomahawk cruise missiles on board.

“Moscow is initiating the peace process and following the path of the United States in Afghanistan by leaving its strongholds and their means of defense,” Fyodor Lukya-nov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told RBTH. “The pullout of the ‘combat’ part of the troops is also a signal toPresident [Bashar al-] Assad that Russia will not always solve Syrian problems in the international arena and that the current regime is now quite capable of independent polit-ical action.”

Russian Presence to Remain in Syria

NIKOLAI LITOVKINRBTH

On the morning of March 15, the � rst group of Russian � ghters and bomb-ers left Syria en route to their sites of permanent deployment, according to a statement on the website of Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

The � ights are being carried out in groups led by military transport air-craft (Tu-154 or Il-76), which trans-port engineers and technicians, as well as material and technical equipment.

Pilots � y in such a group until reach-ing the Russian border, and then head for the air� elds where they are per-manently deployed.

“Of the 60 fighters and bombers, more than half will be withdrawn,

military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, were flying from Latakia.

percent of Russia’s air forces deployed to Syria will return home.

Russian military bases will remain, at Tartus and Latakia.

60 50 2THE NUMBERS

An SU-25 fighter leaves the Khmeimim base in Latakia, Syria, during the Russian withdrawal.

Experts Question Reasons Behind End of Air Strikes

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The U.S. Air Force has signed con-tracts with two American firms to develop a domestic alternative to the Russian RD-180 engine currently used in the first stage of the U.S. Atlas space launch ve-hicle, according to information released by the Defense Depart-ment on Feb. 29.

The Pentagon has awarded $115.3 million to Aerojet Rock-etdyne, a California-based com-pany that produces rocket pro-pulsion systems, to develop a prototype of the AR1 rocket en-gine. Another contract awarded $46.6 million to United Launch Services LLC, a subsidiary of United Launch Alliance (U.L.A.), to develop a prototype of the Vul-can rocket. Total investment in the AR1 could total $536 million while spending on the Vulcan could reach $202 million. Aero-jet Rocketdyne and United Launch Services have contribut-ed additional $57.6 million and $40.8 million respectively to the project.

Energomash, the Moscow-based producer and exporter of

space Contracts signed with domestic producers for new prototypes

agreements signed with U.s. manufacturers at the end of February give a boost to the effort to replace the rd-180 with a domestic product.

the RD-180 engines, plans to continue to export engines to the United States under current agreements, and hopes to sign new agreements in the future.

“Energomash will sell 20 more engines to the U.S. by 2019, in full accordance with an agree-ment signed in Dec. 2015 with RD Amross,” said Igor Arbuzov, general director of Energomash. RD Amross is a joint venture between Energomash and U.S. aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.

“Our company sees the U.S. investment as an incentive to improve our product’s quality, cut expenses and develop the best commercial proposal,” Arbuzov added.

Post–Cold War relicThe decision to put Russian en-gines in U.S. rockets was the re-sult of improved cooperation be-tween Washington and Moscow after the end of the Cold War. The U.S. had stopped making engines powerful enough to carry heavy rockets into space, and by using

the RD-180 engines, American officials believed they could solve their engine problem while cre-ating goodwill, providing a mar-ket for Russian technology.

The first flight of a U.S. Atlas III rocket with the RD-180 en-gine took place in 2000. The en-gines have also been used Atlas V rockets, the successor to the Atlas III.

engine under sanctionsContinued use of the RD-180 be-came a question for U.S. officials in 2014 following Russia’s annex-ation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. The U.S.

“The mentioned investment is only a small part of the future expenditures,” said Igor Afa-nasyev, editor-in-chief of the Сosmonautics News magazine.

According to Afanasyev, it could take as long as seven years for the U.S. to equip its space launch vehicles with domestical-ly made engines, despite the cur-rent plan to have U.S. engines in the rockets by 2020.

“I’m not sure it is realistic to accomplish the project in five years,” Afanasyev told RBTH.

This is not the first attempt by the U.S. to substitute the Rus-sian-made engine with its own. “An attempt was made 20 years ago but failed. In order for this technology to work successfully a myriad of details must be ac-counted for,” said Viktor Litovkin, a Russian military analyst.

Energomash director Arbuzov said that a new U.S. engine would not undermine the operations of the Russian engine producer. He confirmed, however, that the U.S. is the only client currently pur-chasing the RD-180 engines.

Pentagon Plan for alternative rocket engine moves Forward

a member of an indigenous tribe in the altai territory.

NIKoLaI sHeVCHeNKo, ILya KroLRbth

new RD-180 rocket engines were ordered by the U.S. from Ener-gomash in December.

years may be needed for the U.S. to develop its own heavy-rocket engine.

launches have been carried out by Atlas V rockets using RD-180 engines.

20 7 61tHe NUmbers

government imposed sanctions on Russian companies in strate-gic sectors as well as on specific individuals, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is responsible for Russia’s space industry and is the head of Energomash.

In April 2014, U.S. private space firm SpaceX filed a lawsuit against U.L.A. claiming that the deal violated sanctions since Rogozin was the head of Ener-gomash, and a U.S. Federal Court issued an injunction against im-ports of the rocket. The injunc-tion was later lifted, but wheth-er the import of RD-180 engines

to the U.S. comes in violation of economic sanctions imposed on Russia remains unclear.

made in the U.s.a.In September 2014, United Launch Alliance signed an agree-ment with Blue Origin, a space-flight venture owned by Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos, to develop a new high-performance rocket engine, the BE-4. The agreement allows for a four-year develop-ment process with full-scale test-ing later this year and first flight in 2019. The BE-4 will be used in Vulcan rockets.

Despite the importance the U.S. government has placed on the de-velopment of a replacement rock-et, a solution will not come quick-ly — or cheaply. In December 2014, Congress passed a bill au-thorizing $220 million for the de-velopment of an engine to replace the RD-180, and the Defense De-partment estimates that com-bined investment in the project by the government, Aerojet Rock-etdyne and United Launch Ser-vices could reach $1.1 billion.

anthropology Major study determines genetic link between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and eastern Russia

a large-scale survey by the russian academy of sciences conclusively proves a connection between indigenous peoples on both sides of the bering strait.

Scientists have long suspected that Native Americans are close-ly related to the indigenous peo-ples of the Altai Territory in Si-beria. The theory that people migrated to North America via a land bridge crossing the Ber-ing Strait was first proposed in 1590 and has been widely accept-ed for nearly a century, but there was no conclusive genetic con-firmation that the peoples on both sides of the strait were related until last year.

In late 2015, Russian geneticist Oleg Balanovsky finally con-firmed this theory, publishing the results of a wide-ranging study

involving more than 25,000 bio-logical samples from more than 90 countries. Balanovsky’s study also proved ties between some Native Americans and the indig-enous populations of Australia.

Balanovsky developed his study after two of the world’s leading scientific magazines, Science and Nature, published articles about the analysis of the Native Amer-ican and Siberian genomes. The articles compared these genomes with those of peoples in other re-gions around the world.

The first study analyzed 48 ge-nomes from Brazil. The second study analyzed 31 genomes from peoples in the U.S. and Siberia. Results from both studies con-firmed that the ancestors of Na-tive Americans left Siberia about 20,000–30,000 years ago.

Balanovsky felt that the sam-ple size was not enough for a de-finitive confirmation, and

launched a larger-scale, two-stage trial with samples requested from colleagues around the world.

25,000 samples, 90 nationsIn the first stage, scientists ana-lyzed DNA samples from the Rus-sian biobank. “Our biobank con-tains more than 25,000 samples from representatives of 90 nation-alities in Russia and neighboring countries,” Balanovsky said.

In the second stage, the DNA was analyzed according to vari-ous markers such as the Y chro-mosome, which is inherited from the male line, the mitochondrial DNA that is inherited from the female line and chromosomes that are combined from both parents.

As a result of this work, scien-tists proved conclusively that Na-tive Americans are closely relat-ed to the peoples of Altai. But during the study another discov-ery was made.

“Besides Siberian ancestors, some Native Americans showed a puzzling relation to the indig-enous peoples of Australia and Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean,’’ Balanovsky said. “This is astound-ing because they are located in an almost opposite part of the planet.”

Speaking about the study, Valery Ilyinsky, a geneticist at the Institute of General Genetics at the Russian Academy of Scienc-es said the work shows “clear proof” and “confirms the theory that the Altai peoples are closely related to Native Americans.’’

While scientists already know that humans traveled to the Americas from Altai via the land bridge on the Bering Strait, Bal-anovsky said it’s unclear wheth-er migration from Australia and Melanesia to the Americas was directly across the ocean, or by moving across a string of islands.

Research Confirms American, Siberian Ties

aram ter-GHaZaryaNSpeCIAl to Rbth

Inbound tourism to Russia grew 13.7 percent year-on-year in 2015 to reach a total of 2.93 million tourist arrivals, with China, Ge-

tourism Statistics show Russia attracting more travelers from both east and West

the number of visitors to russia increased in 2015, with major growth in arrivals from China and Iran. europeans are still staying away, however.

many and the United States top-ping the list of countries sending the most visitors. Irina Tyurina, press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), announced the figures in an in-terview with Russian news agen-cy Interfax earlier this month, cit-ing data from the Federal State Statistics Service.

Tyurina attributed the rise in numbers to the drop in the cost

of a Russian vacation.“The primary motivation was

the ruble’s fall against world cur-rencies, which made the tours very cheap for foreigners. More-over, travelers could afford qual-ity accommodation in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” Tyurina said.

For the second year in a row, China sent the most tourists to Russia — 677,600 Chinese citi-zens visited the country in 2015,

a 65.3 percent increase over 2014. Germans were next on the list, with 358,100 tourists, an increase of 2.5 percent, while Americans rounded out the top three with 165,100 visitors, an increase of 2 percent.

Despite the collapse in Russian-Turkish relations at the end of the year, Turkey was fourth on the list. Tyurina said that the number of visitors from Turkey

had been increaseing steadily in recent years. Growth in inbound tourism from Turkey was 15.6 per-cent in the first nine months of 2015, so even after anti-Turkish sanctions came into force in No-vember, the overall total number of visitors was still up 3.4 per-cent from 2014.

The country with the largest increase in tourist arrivals by per-entage was Iran, which sent 35,400 visitors to Russia — up 106 percent year-on-year. Russia played an important role in craft-ing the Iran nuclear deal and has been building ties with the coun-try for the past several years, keeping Russia as a destination on the radar of Iranians. Inbound

tourism has also increased from South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Spain and Hong Kong.

Russia continues to suffer from an image problem in Europe, however. “Spain is the only coun-try in Europe which has exhib-ited a major growth in tourist ar-rivals in Russia,” Tyurina said.

Numbers of inbound tourists were down from every other major European country, includ-ing Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, Austria and Denmark. Yet, ac-cording to Tyurina, the decline in tourist arrivals was smaller in the second half of the year compared to the first, giving hope that the trend may be reversing.

Discounted Ruble Sends More Americans on Russian Vacations

VLadImIr astaFIeVInteRfAx

a U.s. atlas V rocket heads to the launch-pad with a russian-made rd-180 engine.

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Siberian Scientists Use Nuclear Energy to Kill Cancerrbth.com/576353

most read energy security

Petr topychkanov

RUSSia diRECt

cluding on the U.N. Security Council’s March 2 Resolution 2270.

Russia and the West continue to share a common understand-ing of key challenges to the non-proliferation regime. In short, Russians, Americans and Euro-peans do not want new states to acquire nuclear weapons. And they especially do not want non-state actors to have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Moscow, Washington and Brus-sels seem to have accepted the idea that they cooperate when it comes to nonproliferation while, at the same time, they may be confrontational in their relations with each other.

The danger is that the confron-tation between Russia and the West weakens international non-proliferation collaboration. The positive examples of cooperation shouldn’t be misleading. After all, the fact that Russia and the U.S. can agree on the Iranian or North Korean challenge doesn’t mean that their nonproliferation effort is going to work as usual. More-over, lack of understanding be-tween the U.S. and Russia could derail the international nonpro-liferation effort for four major reasons.

First, the U.S.-Russian nucle-ar disarmament partnership is frozen, which sends worrying sig-nals to both nuclear and non-nu-clear states worldwide. Some may interpret this to mean that it is high time to arm, not to disarm.

Second, mutual accusations about the violation of the 1987

it seems clear from recent high-level statements that po-litical leaders from Russia and the West don’t trust each

other. Sanctions, talk of a new Cold War, and the ongoing saber rattling exacerbate the problem. However, there is one area where Moscow does agree with Wash-ington and Brussels — the de-sire to keep nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruc-tion away from terrorists.

That’s one big difference be-tween now and the Cold War. Today there is a universal un-derstanding of common secu-rity threats, although their in-terpretations may be different. In short, the rise of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) has recentered the focus of Russia and the West on the risks of nuclear proliferation.

Russia doesn’t agree with the U.S. on how to deal with either North Korea or Iran, but the Kremlin and the White House have found common ground on addressing the nonproliferation challenges and threats posed by these countries. For example, the Kremlin and the White House succeeded in resolving the Iranian nuclear problem and signed the Iranian nuclear deal.

Likewise, Russia and the U.S. were able to agree on sanctions against North Korea for its nu-clear testing and attempts to ac-quire nuclear technologies, in-

ViewPoint

Success of Nonproliferation Requires More Cooperation Between Russia and the West

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (I.N.F.) Treaty lead to ques-tions raised by other members of international community about the responsibility of Russia and the U.S., their adherence to their commitments, and their ability to negotiate effectively.

Third, the lack of communica-tion channels between political, military and intelligence commu-nities of Russia and the West leave them without important ways to detect proliferation threats and cooperate in counter-prolifera-tion.

Fourth, the aggressive rhetoric of some Russian and American politicians and top military lead-ers sets a bad example for other leaders, who might switch to using the same rhetoric.

Despite several success stories in the field of nonproliferation, Russia and the West are creating conditions for new proliferation threats to be born, and leave themselves with limited instru-ments to anticipate and see these threats clearly, as well as to stop them.

The domination of confronta-tional approaches in the relations between Russia and the West will continue to weaken the nonpro-liferation regime. And even mod-est attempts to change confron-tational approaches to cooperative ones will have a long-term posi-tive impact on the nonprolifera-tion regime.

The author is an associate in the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Nonproliferation Program.

Russia will not be in attendance at the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, taking place March 31–April 1 in Washington, D.C. Moscow’s conspicuous ab-sence, however, should not un-dermine its commitment to co-operation with the international community under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.), its interaction with the United States within the Global Initiative to Combat Nu-clear Terrorism and efforts to en-hance the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.

an issue of control Russia’s decision not to attend this week’s summit has its roots in events from the past summit, held two years ago. At the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit, held in the Hague, a group of 35 coun-tries signed the Joint Statement on Strengthening Nuclear Secu-rity Implementation. This state-ment proposes that the signing parties would providing guidance through recommendations to the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.).

The move was viewed in Mos-cow as an attempt by certain countries to influence the agenda of not only the I.A.E.A. but also of the U.N., Interpol and the Global Initiative to Combat Nu-clear Terrorism.

Russian authorities took the signing of the initiative as a way for a select group of nations to place weapons-grade stocks of fissible material belonging to other countries under their “in-ternational” jurisdiction.

In November 2015, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement detailing its reasons for staying away from the Nucle-ar Security Summit in Washing-ton, placing emphasis on the pro-cedural regulations that granted privileges to the host nations of previous summits at the expense of other participants. These ex-cessive rights would have pre-vented divergent opinions to be taken into account in the formu-lation of the summit’s resolutions, the statement read.

Russia’s position has been that the I.A.E.A. should coordinate ef-forts to improve nuclear security, and the organization should not be subjected to additional over-sight. Moscow recently praised the organization’s monitoring ac-tivities, which resulted in the first

international the last in a series of four high-level meetings on nuclear security will take place this week

report in late February on Iran’s implementation of its responsi-bilities under the nuclear deal concluded last year.

Russia was instrumental in crafting the deal, which required 12 years to hammer out a sus-tainable and acceptable solution for all parties. U.S. President Barack Obama praised Russia’s role in securing the agreement, particularly at a time when rela-tions between Moscow and Wash-ington were suffering over Rus-sia’s involvement in Ukraine.

still open to cooperation In response to the news that Rus-sia would not attend the summit, a White House official confirmed that Russia continues to work “constructively with the United States” on projects aimed at re-trieving nuclear materials from third-party countries. Russia is currently cooperating with the U.S. on repatriating highly en-riched uranium (HEU) from Ka-zakhstan and Poland.

Over the past five years, Rus-sia has been directly involved in

the gradual removal of highly en-riched uranium, helping to reduce the number of countries with weapons-grade nuclear material from 32 to 24.

The Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return program also has been a success. More than 60 re-moval operations from 14 coun-tries resulted in the repatriation to Russia of almost 2,160 kilo-grams of highly enriched urani-um originally supplied to foreign countries by the Soviet Union. Highly enriched uranium has

been completely removed from 10 out of the 14 nations that had received the material. The nucle-ar waste removal program is now conducted by Russia in coopera-tion with the United States and the I.A.E.A.

Russia has shown its commit-ment to nuclear nonproliferation in other ways as well. One of the most significant actions by Rus-sian nuclear fuel removal special-ists began in 2003, when Hun-gary requested assistance in the retrieval and subsequent repro-cessing of irradiated fuel assem-blies at Unit 2 of the Paks Nu-clear Power Plant.

The fuel assemblies at the plant had been damaged in the course of a cleaning operation. The event was rated Level 3 on the Inter-national Nuclear Events Scale, a “serious incident.”

It took nearly four years for Russian experts to complete the recovery operation. It was finished in January 2007, and Hungary was

able to resume the commercial operation of the power plant.

Looking to the futureRussia continues to apply state-of-the-art technologies to the pro-cessing of nuclear materials. A plant owned by Russian state atomic agency Rosatom in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, which previously specialized in weapons-grade plutonium, has begun manufacturing an inno-vative fuel for nuclear power plants with fast neutron reactors. The production facility will use regenerated uranium and pluto-nium received after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to create the new fuel type.

The advanced technology al-lows Russia to reprocess 34 tons of plutonium deemed “excessive” for defense needs. The reprocess-ing is required under the Pluto-nium Management and Disposi-tion agreement, signed with the U. S. in 2000.

nuclear Cooperation Continues

a worker inspects the reactor hall of the Leningrad nuclear Power Plant near st. Petersburg.

despite choosing not to attend this meeting, moscow remains committed to nuclear nonproliferation and securing radioactive waste.

nadezhda dombrowskayaSpECial to RBth

3 1 In the past five years, Russian efforts to re-

move highly enriched ura-nium and separated plu-tonium from third-party countries has reduced the number of countries with weapons-grade nuclear material from 32 to 24.

2 Russia has repatriat-ed more than 4,700

lbs. of highly enriched uranium provided to for-eign countries by the So-viet Union. Ten of the 14 countries provided with the material are now nu-clear-waste free.

3 Russia played an im-portant role in the

negotiations over the nu-clear deal with Iran, which requires Tehran to pro-vide extensive access to its nuclear facilities and dismantle two-thirds of its centrifuges.

WayS RUSSia iS MaKiNg thE WoRld SafER

technology New procedure could lead to cleaner energy

Low-Waste Nuclear Fuel Production Launched

An intergovernmental agreement between Russia and the U.S. to convert weapons-grade plutoni-um into mixed-oxide nuclear fuel has resulted in the construction of a new production unit in Si-beria. This production facility for new-generation nuclear MOX fuel for fast neutron reactors began operations last fall in the city of Zheleznogorsk, in Kras-noyarsk Territory.

This new fuel-production tech-nology can reduce the volume of

radioactive waste and represents a major step towards a waste-free nuclear industry.

“Colleagues from France who recently visited our plant praised what they saw,” said Pyotr Gavrilov, director of the Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC), where the production facility is based. “They even said that they attribute our technology not even to the third, but to the fourth gen-eration.”

new solutionsThe opening of the MOX fuel pro-duction facility in Zheleznogo-rsk was an important and sym-bolic event. The city is the home of the underground Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC), which was created in an atmosphere of

secrecy in the mid-1950s for the production of weapons-grade plu-tonium. The construction of the facility required digging several miles of tunnels and the creation of underground workshops. Three industrial reactors and a complex radiochemical production facil-ity where installed underground.

For many decades, the MCC’s three underground reactors pro-duced plutonium-239, which was used to create Soviet nuclear weapons. But after a series of agreements between the United States and the Soviet government, and later the U.S. and Russian governments, the decision was made for both countries to grad-ually stop producing plutonium.

The intergovernmental agree-ment also required the United States to work with Russia to con-vert weapons-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide nuclear fuel. This aspect of the agreement is what led to the conversion of the underground workshops in Zhe-leznogorsk into a facility for the production of MOX fuel.

The creation of a MOX facility and a power unit with a fast neu-tron reactor — known as BN-800 – was the most difficult of the Russian-American agreement’s obligations to carry out. Russia now has carried out its part of the deal and expects the U.S to do the same.

The plutonium disposition agreement comes into effect in 2018.

a siberian plutonium-production facility has been converted into a site for the creation of modern nuclear fuel under an agreement between the U.s and russia.

henry kennetSpECial to RBth

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thirty years of fast reactorsThe Soviet Union invested signifi-cantly in nuclear technology and developed a number of fast nuclear reactors for both research and in-dustrial purposes. One of these, the BN-600 (600 megawatt) reactor, which has been in operation at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant since 1980, is the only fast neu-tron reactor in the world that gen-erates electricity on an industrial scale. The BN-600 is also the most

powerful fast neutron reactor in the world in operation. Russia inherited this scientific know-how, and Rus-sian physicists have already planned for the BN-600’s successors. In ad-dition to the BN-600 reactors, BN-800 reactors have been constructed on the territory of the Beloyarskaya nuclear plant. Today there’s under work the lat-est fast nuclear reactor in the series, the BN-1200.

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At the end of February 1903, a grand costume ball was held at the Winter Palace in St. Peters-burg. Although the host, Emper-or Nicholas II, couldn’t have known at the time, the party was to be the last grand ball of Im-perial Russia. The two-day event, dedicated to the 290th anniver-sary of the Romanov dynasty, was the most opulent ever held dur-ing Nicholas II’s reign. The first day featured feasting and danc-ing, and the formal masked ball was held on the second day.

All 390 guests were asked to come in traditional Russian 17th century dress. Court ladies were

History A 1903 party in the Winter Palace provided the inspiration for modern playing cards as well as Hollywood costume designers

the final costume ball of the romanov court has lived on in unexpected ways, thanks to the photograph album produced for the event.

the Last Ball of the romanov dynasty

aLexander KoroLev sPeciAl to RBtH

In chilly late October 1910, 82-year-old Leo Tolstoy unexpect-edly left his estate in Yasnaya Polyana and set off into the night. Three weeks later he died of pneumonia at a little rural rail-way station. What made the au-thor run away and where exact-ly was he planning to go?

These are the mysteries that Pavel Basinsky’s book “Leo Tol-stoy: Flight from Paradise” spends 500 pages unravelling, recon-structing the past through letters and diaries.

The inaccurate image of Tol-stoy leaving home on foot, with cane and knapsack, is surprising-ly persistent. With his peasant smock and flowing grey beard, looking “like a character from a fairy tale,” the elderly writer walked out of his family home straight into the realm of myth.

A legend in his own lifetime, Tolstoy’s story comes to us through a polyphonic chorus of

On March 3, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft presided over a ceremony returning 28 histor-ical documents dating from the 18th–20th centuries to the Rus-sian government. The artifacts

Literature Biographer takes readers into the writer’s last daysdiplomacy transfer a sign of ongoing U.s.-Russia cooperation

Pavel Basinsky’s award-winning book about tolstoy, now available in english, examines how those near him saw his last decisions.

objects removed from russian state archives in the 1990s were returned by U.s. officials in the first such ceremony since U.s.-russian relations soured in 2014.

friends, relatives, secretaries, bi-ographers and disciples. Some of them are concerned for their own posterity, while others see the writer as “a new Christ.”

Despite Basinsky’s years in the archives, some details of those last days remain obscure. As the writ-er’s wife Sofia later wrote in her diary: “What happened is incom-prehensible, and will forever be beyond our understanding.”

were stolen from Russian ar-chives in the 1990s and 2000s and were later discovered by De-partment of Homeland Security officials. The documents had been sold at auctions, shown in art galleries and held in private col-lections.

The documents included: four imperial decrees obtained by the Russian Ministry of Culture from the Leonard Auction, which had been stolen in 1994 from the Rus-sian State Historical Archive by

Lost in translation?It sometimes feels almost as much of a mystery, to a non-Russian reader, how this dryly enthusias-tic tome of research should have been so successful, winning Rus-sia’s prestigious Big Book Prize in 2010. The answer lies in its mythopoeic qualities, some of which are lost in translation; Ba-sinsky writes of elements in Tol-stoy’s myth being “deep-seated in the Russian consciousness.”

The English edition has a tell-ing recommendation on the blurb: “‘Flight from Paradise’ will be of particular interest to internation-al researchers studying Leo Tol-stoy’s life and works,” with a vague hope that it will reach a “broader audience.”

The 2009 film “The Last Sta-tion” transmitted one version of the Tolstoy-death story to Anglo-phone filmgoers, with a focus on the pressures of fame and suc-cess. Elif Batuman’s chapter on “Who killed Tolstoy?” in her 2010 book,“The Possessed,” opens an entertaining window into on-go-ing Tolstoyan scholarship.

Basinsky shows how the idea of departure had haunted Tol-stoy’s life and work for many de-cades before his death.

the Vladimir Fainberg group and illegally transported to the U.S.; 17 drawings made by architect Yakov Chernikhov, stolen between 2003–2006 from the Russian State Literature and Art Archive in Moscow and subsequently seized by U.S. authorities at an Ameri-can antiques market; and a de-cree to the People’s Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union signed by Joseph Stalin on March 14, 1944, that was removed from the Russian State Military Ar-chive in Moscow then obtained in 2012 from the Nate D. Sand-ers Auctions in Los Angeles.

William Stevens, spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said that such events attest to the fact that despite the current down-turn in political relations, coop-eration between the two coun-tries on practical matters continues.

“Russian officials often com-plain about the U.S.’s extraterri-torial implementation of its law, but in this case it is the U.S. that is implementing Russian laws on its territory,” Stevens said. “The Russian government presented us with information stating that cer-tain valuables were illegally taken out of their country and brought into ours, and we have helped them return the stolen property.”

Traditionally, ceremonies in which cultural valuables are re-turned from the U.S. to Russia take place every year or so, but the last ceremony was held on June 13, 2013, before the down-turn in U.S. Russian relations.

Retracing Tolstoy’s Final Steps Through His Friends

U.S. Returns New Set of Stolen Historical Documents to Russia

Pavel Basinsky’s award-winning biography of Leo tolstoy.

U.s. ambassador John tefft (left) examines the returned documents.

PHoeBe taPLinsPeciAl to RBtH

igor rozinRBtH

attired in sundresses embroidered with precious stones, and many wore the traditional Russian headdress, the kokoshnik. Gen-tlemen boasted richly decorated caftans and boyar-style fur hats. Nicholas II was robed in the gold-en brocade of his ancestor, 17th century Russian tsar Alexey Mikhailovich. His wife, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna appeared in a brocade dress decorated with silver satin and pearls topped by a diamond-and-emerald-studded crown — the raiments of Alexey Mikhailovich’s first wife, Empress Maria Ilinichna. The empress also wore a huge emerald. The choice of this gem, as with all the other jewelry worn by the royal family, was made by court jeweler Carl Fabergé.

gathering clouds The ballrooms of the Winter Pal-ace never saw such splendor

again. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich later recalled: “While we were dancing, work-ers’ strikes were happening in St. Petersburg, and clouds were gath-ering over the Russian Far East.”

The Russian-Japanese War broke out a year later, followed by Russia’s 1905 Revolution. The subsequent global economic cri-sis marked the beginning of the end for the Russian Empire.

imperial legacyBut memories of that last ball in 1903 did not die, even during the Soviet era, primarily because the entire event was captured in a photo album.

A special edition pack of play-ing cards was produced in 1913 honoring the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. Many of the figures took their inspira-tion from the images of the album. The jack of clubs was copied from

Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrov-ich’s costume, and the jack of di-amonds was modeled after Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich. The queen of clubs was largely bor-rowed from the dress of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna, and the queen of hearts resembles the emperor’s sister, Ksenia Alexan-drovna, dressed as a boyar’s wife.

These “Russian Style” playing cards were reprinted even after Bolshevik revolution and they be-came the most popular pack of cards in the Soviet Union. Mil-lions of Soviet citizens were un-aware that they were holding a memory of the imperial age in their hands.

The ball’s influence even ex-tends to modern pop culture. “Star Wars” costume artist Trisha Big-gar was inspired by the Russian-style dresses of the ladies with kokoshniks when designing the gold costume of Queen Amidala.

" [My wife,] Ksenia, was dressed as a boyar’s wife; her costume was richly deco-

rated and sparkling with jewels that suited her well. I was wearing the clothes of a falconer, which con-sisted of a white-and-gold caftan with black golden eagles sewn on the chest and the back with a pink silk blouse, light-blue wide trousers and Moroccan boots.”

tHe QUote

Alexander MikhailovichGRAnd dUke, nAvAl oFFiceR, exPloReR And BRotHeR-in-lAW oF eMPeRoR nicHolAs ii

all 390 guests at the 1903 ball wore costumes from the early years of the romanov dynasty. their finery was captured in a special photo album produced for the event.

emperor nicholas ii in the robes of tsar alexey mikhailovich.

Ksenia, the wife of emperor nich-olas ii’s brother-in-law, dressed as a boyar’s wife.

grand duke alexander mikhailov-ich as a falconer.

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