0645GMT//Putin meets Iran's foreign minister; anti-gov protests flare in Siberia; monogorods funding cut
IRAN: Vladimir Putin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the Kremlin on Monday. He condemned the Israeli and US bombing strikes against Iran as "unprovoked and unjustified". (COMMENT: These comments felt pro forma. More importantly, Putin didn't actually offer up any concrete actions to support Iran – supposedly a core ally. Iranian sources later told Reuters that they have been unimpressed with Russia's reaction to the US-Israeli bombing attacks.)
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence unit, complained through Russian media that the US had not tipped off the Kremlin about its plans to strike Iran's nuclear base with bunker bombs. (COMMENT: Naryshkin seems to imply that the US owed it to Russia to tip it off about the bombing run.)
Donald Trump and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, got into something of a social media spat on Monday. Trump criticised Medvedev for claiming that several countries were ready to give Iran nuclear weapons. Medvedev later clarified online that "Russia wasn't about to give Iran a nuclear weapon. (COMMENT: An enlightening online row. Medvedev is used as the Kremlin's attack dog –putting forward often outlandish ideas to get a reaction. On this occasion, he appears to have gone too far and was forced to back down. This is rare from Medvedev who has promised to nuke Britain regularly. Trump didn't waste the opportunity to give a backhanded compliment to Putin. "I guess that's why Putin's 'THE BOSS'," he wrote on social media.)
CROCUS CONCERT ATTACK: Russian prosecutors on Monday said that they had completed their investigation into a gun attack in March last year on the Crocus Hall concert venue that killed 149 people. Unsurprisingly, they blamed Ukraine for the attack. (COMMENT: This is consistent with the Kremlin's line since the beginning. Rather than considering how vulnerable migrants are radicalised in Russia, they blamed Ukraine. Four men from Tajikistan were initially arrested and tortured after the attacks. In total, 19 people have been accused of being linked to the attack.)
CORRUPTION: Russian prosecutors have asked for a 14-1/2 year prison sentence for former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov for corruption. Ivanov was arrested in April 2024. He had become known for his lavish lifestyle despite his modest salary. Also on Monday a deputy governor of Russia's southern Belgorod region, Rustem Zainullin, was sent to pretrial detention for stealing cash earmarked for building defensive structures along the border with Ukraine. (COMMENT: Corruption among Russian officials is rampant. These are just a couple of high-profile examples in one day.)
EU GAS IMPORTS: Hungary and Slovakia on Monday said that they would veto the EU's 18th package of sanctions against Russia. They said that this was in response to the EU's push to ban all energy imports from Russia. (COMMENT: Hungary and Slovakia both import gas through pipelines from Russia, irritating the EU even though Spain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium important Russian LPG. Once again, Hungary and Slovakia are proving to be the Kremlin's most reliable partners in the EU.)
FOREST FIRES: The authorities in the Zabaikalsky region of Far East Russia closed a motorway as forest fires spread. Reports also said that people living in the regional capital Chita were fleeing their homes. (COMMENT: The data is still rough but it does appear that shorter winters and less snowfall in Russia linked to Global Warming are triggering more wildfires.)
PROTESTS: Rare anti-government protests have broken out in Russia's Altai republic against planned changes to local government that will scrap village-level authorities. Protesters have called for the Kremlin-appointed head of the region to resign. (COMMENT: These are localised protests and are wrapped up in a wider row over large Russian companies and oligarchs setting up mines in Altai and extracting profit without investing in local communities, but in the context of modern Russia these are important. The Kremlin has virtually banned any protests in Russia. Video showed several hundred people at the protests.)
MONOGORODS: Russia's government wants to whittle down its official list of 'monogorods' – single industry towns – from 321 to 218, media reported on Monday. The potential changes to the rules will reduce government spending as monogorods in Russia receive special state support. (COMMENT: This is a cost-cutting exercise to save money so that Russia's war in Ukraine can be prosecuted. The biggest change to the rules around monogorods is focused on isolation. Monogorods will now have to be more than a 1-1/2 hours drive from another sizable city to be given an official status.)
NEWS MATRIX:
Three important stories this morning – Putin meeting Iran's foreign minister but not offering much help; the Kremlin cutting funds for monogorods and the anti-government protests in Altai region. Putin's meeting with the Iranian minister was not a surprise nor, also, is the stripping of funds or 'monogorods', although it can be argued that the scale of the cut backs is.