0716GMT/April 23 2025
>> US DIPLOMACY: Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Putin, says that Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's personal envoy, will visit Moscow this week. Earlier in April, Witkoff met with Putin in St Petersburg. (COMMENT: Witkoff turning up in Russia does now appear to be a signifier that progress is being made on a peace deal for the war in Ukraine. He has already met with Putin three times and may well meet him again this week.) (NOTE: Witkoff and Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, have declined to attend peace talks in London on Wednesday between Ukraine, Britain and France, although Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, is still expected to attend.)
>> PUTIN'S PEACE OFFERING: FT now reports that Putin told Witkoff at their meeting in St Petersburg that he would be willing to stop the war in Ukraine along the current frontlines. Quoting sources "familiar with the matter", the FT reported that Putin is prepared to end the war in return for recognition that Crimea and other occupied areas are now part of Russia. (COMMENT: This is the first sign that Putin has given that he may be open to a negotiated settlement, rather than insist on pursuing his "maximalist" agenda to capture all of Ukraine.)
>> RUSSIA CELEBRATES TRUMPS: Russian schools and media are celebrating the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. Vladimir Medinsky, a senior aide to Putin and one of the main organisers of Russian schools' curriculum, said that Trump's efforts to find peace in Ukraine will be noted and celebrated in school textbooks. (NOTE: Medinsky has overseen a rewrite of Russia's education curriculum and textbooks to promote Putin's version of his invasion of Ukraine.) (COMMENT: It's not surprising that the Kremlin is promoting Trump's first 100 days as US President. He has been a God-send for Putin, pushing to rehabilitate Russia, cutting off intelligence sharing and weapons to Ukraine, blaming Ukraine and Zelensky for the war.)
>> KREMLIN FLATTERY: CNN has been given an exclusive look at a "mystery portrait" that Putin gave Trump in March. The portrait shows Trump immediately after the assassination attempt last summer, blooded but with his arm raised in defiance. In the background are the US flag and the Statue of Liberty. The Moscow-based artist, Nikas Safronov, told CNN that the Kremlin commissioned the portrait and that Putin rang him up to tell him that the portrait was "an important step" to improving bilateral affairs with the US. (COMMENT: Clever Kremlin tactics, again playing to Trump's ego.)
>> RUSSIA'S ARAB CHARM OFFENSIVE: Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman, visited Putin in the Kremlin for the first time on Tuesday. (NOTE: This follows a visit by the leader of Qatar last week. These meetings show the esteem that much of the Arab World still holds Putin in. Putin is planning a large Russia-Arab League summit later this year.)
>> RUSSIAN ARMY RECRUITMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA: In Osh, south Kyrgyzstan's largest city, police have arrested an employee of Russia House and three other people for illegally recruiting men into the Russian army and its war in Ukraine. (NOTE: Like other Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan has banned men from fighting in Russia's war in Ukraine and sends veterans of the war to prison.) (COMMENT: This is the first case of a Russian official actively recruiting for the Russian army from inside a Central Asian country. Usually, Kyrgyz men end up fighting in Russia's army in Ukraine because they have been pressured and bullied into it in Moscow – a major pull for labour migrants from former Soviet Central Asia. The Kremlin uses its Russia House cultural centres in cities around the world as spy dens.)
>> AMMO DEPOT EXPLOSION: An ammunition depot in the Vladimir region, 150km east of Moscow, exploded on Tuesday, scattering debris over a 5km radius. Four people were injured. Russian officials blamed a "violation of safety rules" and not a Ukrainian drone. (NOTE: This ammunition depot is the base of the 51st arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of Russia's Defence Ministry. It stores and sorts artillery shells, bombs and other rockets received from factories before sending them out to military units. Russian media said that in 2009 at least, the base had the capacity to store more than 4,000 wagons of ammunition.)
>> YOUTH GROUP BUDGET INCREASED: The budget for the Kremlin's youth military-patriotic unit Yunarmiya will double to 1 billion roubles (around $12 million) this year, a Russian opposition media group has reported. (NOTE: Yunarmiya, which organises official parades and flag-bearing units for Russian teenagers, is designed to indoctrinate young Russians and to encourage them to join the military. The Russian Ministry of Defence set up the Young Army Cadets National Movement, or 'Young Army', in 2016 and has expanded it aggressively since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Last year it claimed to have 1.4 million members. Putin loves this sort of early indoctrination movement and regularly hands out awards to members. Britain has sanctioned Yunarmiya. It has been criticised as a 'Hitler Youth Movement.')
>> POSTAL DELAYS: Russian Post has blamed chronic delays on Western sanctions because it hasn't yet managed to replace Western equipment with Russian equipment in sorting centres. Broken machines cannot be repaired because Russia can't access spare parts. Reports have said that Russia's largest sorting centre outside Moscow is currently sorting letters by hand. (NOTE: Russians have complained that even a letter posted within one region can now take up to a month to arrive.) (COMMENT: This highlights the impact of Western sanctions and the far-reaching impact on Russian society.)
>> AN ALL-RUSSIA JET: The Kremlin now claims that it has test-flown a Superjet SJ-100 passenger aircraft only made with Russia-manufactured parts in Russia's Far East region. (NOTE: Russia's aviation sector has suffered from a lack of spare parts from Western manufacturers since the start of its war in Ukraine.)