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This week’s R&D covers recent Russian provocations. Over the past week, Russia has added to global anxieties by testing an anti-satellite weapon – causing the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) to seek cover from space debris – and massing troops on its border with Ukraine. France and Germany warned Russia earlier this week that harming Ukraine’s territorial integrity would met be met with “serious consequences.”
Earlier this week, Russia tested a direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile against a satellite target, scattering thousands of pieces of orbital debris and heightening the risk of collisions between objects in space.@nktpnd explains what happened: https://t.co/AWeT1fMl3C
— Carnegie Endowment (@CarnegieEndow) November 18, 2021
Ukraine says Russia is massing as many as 114,000 troops to the north, east, and south of the Donbass, a mostly Russian-speaking region where Russian-backed separatists have fought government forces since a pro-western revolution in Kyiv in 2014 https://t.co/fmDQ8RduBL pic.twitter.com/vk064wbSHB
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) November 16, 2021
Russia poses a significant geopolitical threat to Ukraine, not only in terms of the energy sector but across the political, economic, and security spectrums, writes Eugene Chausovsky.https://t.co/xnaBpYqtYn
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) November 18, 2021
The assassination of Russian political activist Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on February 27 shocked elements of the Russian dissident community. Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister in the late 1990s, had been active in protesting Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian civil war, and he was a vocal critic of the authoritarian tactics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some of his supporters allege that Putin was to blame for the assassination. They contend that Putin may not have ordered the killing, but his nationalistic rhetoric that has labeled dissident Russians as “traitors” and “fascists,” created the atmosphere that led to Nemtsov’s death. The Russian government argues that Putin is not responsible for the crime, saying that Nemtsov’s fellow opposition leaders, radical Islamists, or a scorned lover in Nemtsov’s past – or that of his young Ukrainian girlfriend Anna Durytska – were to blame. American and European officials condemned Nemtsov’s killing, arguing that it shows that Russia is continuing to veer away from democratic processes and growing increasingly intolerant of dissenting views as its economic situation worsens.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany 
Russia’s decision on January 5, 2009 to cut gas supplies to European consumers via pipelines in Ukraine has sent shockwaves throughout the European energy community. The dispute between the two countries, centering upon geopolitical issues on Russia’s western border, has plunged some European nations into a new discussion about the safety and security of Europe’s energy policy of relying on Russia for natural gas. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are still trying to test the West’s resolve against a somewhat resurgent Russia and are acting more aggressively now that some spots of protest has risen against their rule at home in light of the current economic problems facing the world.
By Sebastian Pyrek