Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday threatened (Moscow Times) to “take appropriate retaliatory military-technical measures” if Western countries continue their “aggressive stance” regarding Russia’s military buildup on its border with Ukraine. High-ranking officials from the United States and Russia said the two countries will discuss Moscow’s demands for security guarantees during talks expected to begin next month (AFP). U.S. diplomat for the region Karen Donfried warned that some of Russia’s security demands were “unacceptable.”
 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia will also hold separate talks (AP) with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries. Meanwhile, European gas prices hit a record high after a pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe reversed its flow (Reuters). Some Western politicians have accused Russia of withholding gas for political ends, a claim Moscow denies.

More than 4,200 people have fled across the border (AP) in the past week due to clashes between government forces and guerrilla fighters from the Karen ethnic group, a Thai army official said.
 
CFR’s Joshua Kurlantzick explains how Myanmar’s collapse could threaten its neighbors.
 
China: A U.S. jury found Harvard University Professor Charles Lieber guilty of lying (WSJ) about his participation in a program to attract foreign experts to China and of hiding payments from the program. The case was part of a Department of Justice effort to combat alleged theft of U.S. technology and trade secrets by the Chinese government.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, more than two hundred media outlets have closed and over 80 percent of women journalists have lost their jobs, according to Reporters Without Borders and the Afghan Independent Journalists Association.
 
India: A yearlong ban on futures trading in farm commodities has caused inventory cuts (Reuters) and uncertainty among food traders. The ban was meant to reduce inflation.

The vote, originally set (WaPo) to take place on Friday, will be delayed by at least a month due to disputes about the election process and certain candidates’ eligibility. The United Nations had pushed for the election to occur on December 24 (Guardian) to help bring peace to Libya after years of civil war.
 
Israel: The country will begin giving fourth doses (Times of Israel) of COVID-19 vaccines to people over sixty, as well as some at-risk groups and health-care personnel.

UN monitors received reports that thirteen women and girls were raped (VOA) by members of Sudan’s security forces during demonstrations in Khartoum on Sunday.
 
South Africa: New reported COVID-19 cases in South Africa dropped (AP) from nearly 27,000 last Thursday to 15,424 on Tuesday, potentially signaling that the country’s omicron variant–driven surge passed its peak.

Three Russians and a Ukrainian are charged (Reuters) with shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014, killing 298 people.

Amid a surge in migration toward the United States, three times as many people applied for refugee status in Mexico (Al Jazeera) this year than in 2020, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard said.
 
Mexico: Regulators greenlit a Chinese firm’s takeover (Al Jazeera) of a large lithium-mining project despite President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plans to nationalize Mexico’s energy sector. 

Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research plan to officially announce the development of the vaccine in the coming weeks, Defense One reported.
 
This In Brief looks at a year of COVID-19 vaccine progress and inequity.