0745GMT//Kremlin 'bribes' Moldovan voters; Russia begs UN for spare parts for planes; Putin (sort of) offers US a nuclear olive branch
TRASHING MOLDOVAN DEMOCRACY: Police in Moldova said that they have raided 250 sites across the country to stop Russia-backed sabotage plans against parliamentary elections this weekend. Maia Sandu, Moldova's president, accused Russia of sending "hundreds of millions of euros" to "subvert the country's democracy". (COMMENT: The Kremlin views Moldova as a soft target inside Europe. It launched a mass bribery programme in Moldova ahead of the presidential elections in 2024. Previously part of the Soviet Union, Moldova is home to a large ethnic Russian minority that predominantly speaks Russian and looks to the Kremlin for political support. Transnistria is a Kremlin-backed region of Moldova.)
DEFENCE SECTOR WAGES FALL: The average salary advertised for defence sector jobs in Russia has dropped by 10% in the past year, the Novaya Gazeta Europe newspaper has reported. It said that its reporters reviewed 600,000 job adverts in 1,200 companies in the military-industrial complex to come up with the analysis. (COMMENT: This is an important indicator that even Russia's military-industrial complex is beginning to slow. Russia's economy is on the slide.)
SPARE PARTS FOR AVIATION SECTOR: Russia has asked the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to help ease sanctions on spare parts for its airlines because of safety concerns. Reuters quoted a document sent to the ICAO by Russia as saying that the ban on spare parts for its aviation sector "violates the human right to freedom of movement". (COMMENT: The core of Russia's aviation fleets is made up of Boeing and Airbus planes. Even its own 'Russia-made' planes need sophisticated parts made in the West to fly. This has meant that the West's sanctions on selling spare aviation parts to Russia have been one of its most effective.)
NORTH KOREAN WOMEN TO WORK IN RUSSIA: A St Petersburg recruitment company is openly advertising thousands of North Korean women to work in Russian factories. On a job recruitment website, the staffing agency Startaff said that it can supply North Korean women to work in garment factories, on farms and for decorating and painting projects. (COMMENT: This is more evidence that North Korea is flooding Russia with workers. One of Russia's biggest economic problems is a shortage of labourers. North Korea has officially supplied tens of thousands of workers to rebuild the destroyed Kursk region, the focus of fighting in Russia between Russian and Ukrainian forces, and also to work in farms in Far East Russia, but this is the first time that women workers from North Korea have been openly advertised. Reports have said that North Korean workers are treated like slaves, kept in terrible conditions, with their salaries withheld.)
NUCLEAR POSTURING: Vladimir Putin said that Russia would adhere to the START treaty, which limits nuclear warheads in Russia's and the US' arsenal, for another year after it expires in February 2026. START was signed in 2010 by Russia's then-president Dmitry Medvedev and then-US president Barack Obama. (COMMENT: This feels like Putin is playing the 'peace Tsar' once again. This is a piece of propaganda designed for his domestic audience to show that he is serious about peace rather than simply waging war. It sounds like a grand gesture, but it is actually about posturing. There has been no US reaction.)
IRAN FLIES IN TO SIGN NUCLEAR DEAL: Mohammad Eslami, the Iranian vice-president and nuclear chief, arrived in Moscow on Monday evening to sign a deal with the Kremlin for Russia to build eight nuclear reactors. The deal has been delayed since 2014, when it was first announced that a verbal agreement had been made. (COMMENT: Russia has defended Iran's right to build a nuclear power capability. Central to this project are Russia-made reactors. Russia has already built a nuclear power station in Iran, despite objections from the West and Israel. Iran and Russia have fallen out this year over the Kremlin's indifference to Israeli bombing runs on Iran. Some Iranian officials have gone further and accused the Kremlin of giving Israel the coordinates of its air defence systems. Still, Iran needs Russia for its nuclear power programme.)