What the news held on 1 September 2020 about Russia
Two reports from the closing days of August 2020 show Russia's relations with France and Azerbaijan under strain.
What was the picture of Russia's foreign relations as 1 September 2020 began? Two reports from the preceding days pointed to friction with France and with Azerbaijan.
On 30 August 2020, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly revealed that a lieutenant-colonel of the army, stationed at a NATO base in Italy, had been arrested and indicted on charges of espionage on behalf of another government. He was reported to have supplied sensitive documents to an officer of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency.
A day earlier, on 29 August 2020, a senior advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Russia of arming Armenia since the start of the recent border clashes.
The two accusations concerned different countries and different circumstances, but both put Russian military and intelligence activity at the centre of public disputes in the final days of August 2020.
