RBTH: Syrian rebels ask U.S. for arms to defend against Russian strikes

Syria Map

Representatives of “moderate” rebel groups in Syria opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad have asked the U.S. to supply them with surface-to-air missiles to counter Russian air strikes, American media have reported. Russian observers say this is unlikely but caution that arms may be supplied by the key regional sponsors of Syria’s opposition, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. (Russia Beyond […]

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RIA Novosti: Ex-finance minister forecasts more mass layoffs, fall in incomes in Russia

Alexei Kudrin file photo

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, October 4, 2015) Former Russian Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin believes that the situation on the labour market in the Russian Federation is not improving so far and forecasts that the period of layoffs will continue for some time. “It has now become clear that the situation is not improving, and mass layoffs are starting in the […]

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RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#194 :: Tuesday 6 October 2015

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#194 Tuesday – 6 October 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL […]

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NEWSLINK Militarytimes.com: “U.S. vs. Russia: What a war would look like between the world’s most fearsome militaries. Vladimir Putin’s brazen moves in Syria and Ukraine raise new questions about America’s contingency plans. Russia has big ambitions, growing capabilities”

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US-style cops win points in Ukraine’s regions while other reforms drag

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG: Sergei Kuznetsov in Lviv – October 5, 2015) After the successful launch of a new patrol force in Kyiv in July, the Ukrainian authorities have begun rolling out the initiative in the country’s regions. But while the new-look cops are receiving a cordial welcome, they are still the only visible result of […]

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Ukraine Is Being Told to Live With Putin

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – October 5, 2015) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has long had trouble understanding that the Western support of his government is conditional. Now the leaders of France and Germany have told him that in no uncertain terms: The ceasefire agreement for eastern Ukraine has just been recast to put the onus on Poroshenko, rather […]

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Moscow Opera Season Preview: A Great Year

Bolshoi Theater file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Raymond Stults – October 5, 2015) The 2015-16 season of opera in Moscow enjoyed a rousing start last month when Novaya Opera Theater brought to its stage a new version of Richard Strauss’ “Salome” that came as close to getting everything right – singing, conducting, orchestral playing and staging – as any local production of […]

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Medvedev: Russia must cut dependence on oil revenues

Oil Wells File Photo

Speaking at a forum in Sochi, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has revealed that oil and gas revenues have provided for less than half of the federal Russian budget for the first time, and said the country must focus on reducing its dependence on oil through reforms, stimulating domestic manufacturing and cutting spending. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]

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Spelling out Putin’s UN speech in a ‘word cloud’

UN Building file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – MOSCOW BLOG: Ben Aris in Moscow – October 5, 2015) President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the UN on September 28 – the first time he has personally appeared there for a decade and probably his most significant speech since 2007 – clearly shows the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals and how it is trying to […]

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Russian prime minister warns of tough financial situation, back to 3-year budget

Dmitri Medvedev file photo

(Interfax – October 2, 2015) The Russian government faces a difficult task in putting together a budget which will be very tough, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 2 October. “The economic situation in the country has changed a great deal in the last year; clearly, living in conditions of 50 dollars […]

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RBTH: Parties satisfied with latest talks on ending Ukraine conflict

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Russian observers are voicing cautious optimism after another round of talks between the leaders of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine aimed at resolving the Ukrainian conflict. The issue of local elections in the Donbass remain the main stumbling block on the path to finding a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]

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[From 1993:] Russia Mourns Victims of Uprising

File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anne Barnard, David Filipov – October 8, 1993) Moscow mourned the human cost of this week’s political bloodshed Thursday, as President Boris Yeltsin suspended the Constitutional Court he has accused of complicity in the violence. Several thousand friends, strangers and comrades in arms filed past the coffins of six policemen killed last Sunday and Monday […]

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UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#193 :: Monday PM 5 October 2015

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#193 Monday PM – 5 October 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org […]

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RUSSIA – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#192 :: Monday AM 5 October 2015

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#192 Monday AM – 5 October 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org […]

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RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#191 :: Friday 2 October 2015

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#191 Friday – 2 October 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL […]

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Fragile calm holds in East Ukraine before four-way peace talks in Paris

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – October 2, 2015) Hopes for an end to 18 months of fighting in eastern Ukraine hinged on a meeting of the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia in Paris on October 2, with breakthrough prospects enhanced by a recent ceasefire and withdrawal of tanks and other weapons from […]

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Russians Start Filing for Bankruptcy as New Law Enters Force

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anastasia Bazenkova – October 2, 2015) Russian courts received their first personal bankruptcy petitions on Thursday, as the country’s first ever law allowing individuals to declare themselves bankrupt entered into force. On the eve of the law’s arrival, analysts warned that courts could be overwhelmed by a flood of applicants unable to pay debts accumulated […]

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Goldman Sachs finally trusts Russians to run its Moscow operations

Cash, Calculator, Pen

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Jason Corcoran in Moscow – October 1, 2015) Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s most profitable investment bank, has finally decided to trust Russian financiers to run its operation in Moscow. After reshuffling the deck, the bank said its business in Russia will now be now by Sergei Arsenyev and Dmitri Sedov, along with Tim Talkington, […]

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Putin urges Russian businessmen to support rights NGOs

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Interfax – Moscow, October 1, 2015) Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on businessmen and entrepreneurs to render financial support to Russian human rights non-commercial organizations. “I fully and completely join the call and believe that we all together and I personally must urge, here, right now, I’m urging our citizens, all our business structures to render support to non-commercial […]

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Putin Promises to Rewrite ‘Foreign Agents’ Law

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – October 2, 2015) President Vladimir Putin met with the presidential Human Rights Council on Thursday and promised to rewrite the so-called “foreign agents” law requiring that all NGOs which receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activity to register as “foreign agents,” a term widely associated in Russia with espionage, […]

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Oil money, conflict and the age of diminished expectations in Russia

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Yuval Weber of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics – September 30, 2015) At the mid-June opening of Russia’s “military Disneyland” – officially titled “Patriot Park” – President Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to announce that 40 new intercontinental missiles would be added to Russia’s nuclear forces and that the theme park itself would be […]

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Moscow Times: “Putin’s Use of Force In Syria Unlikely to Go Beyond Airstrikes”

Middle East Map

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – September 30, 2015) By providing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military with material and logistical support, Moscow has committed itself to protecting his embattled regime, which has suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of the Islamic State and U.S.-backed opposition forces. But it remains unclear just how far Russian President Vladimir […]

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RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#190 :: Thursday 1 October 2015

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#190 Thursday – 1 October 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL […]

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