(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – September 2, 2016) Vladimir Putin said #Russia and the U.S. are close to striking a deal on fighting terrorists in Syria, potentially a major step toward ending a civil war that’s flooded Europe with refugees and helped give rise to Islamic State. “We’re gradually, gradually heading in the right direction,” the Russian president said in an […]
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To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#163 Friday, 2 September 2016 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 1, 2016) Most Western discussions about countering Russian disinformation have focused exclusively on unmasking the ever-growing number of lies and other formers of obfuscation Russian government propagandists and their surrogates are putting out and identifying the chief sources of such duplicity. But it is important to recognize and then think about […]
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Russia’s higher education sector is at a crossroads. A few universities are trying to raising their game in the hope of international ranking, but most are barely surviving staff and funding cuts. (opendemocracy.net – Tatyana Dvornikova – September 2, 2016) Tatyana Dvornikova is a Moscow-based journalist. She works with Colta, Kommersant and Radio Mel. Russia’s higher education sector is braced […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eva Hartog – September 2, 2016) With little over two weeks left until Russia stages a parliamentary vote, ruling party United Russia is struggling to reverse a downward trend. A survey published Thursday by the independent Levada Center pollster showed support for United Russia had dropped from 57 percent to 50 percent in August compared […]
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(Kremlin.ru – September 2, 2016) [More complete Russian text here: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52796] On September 1, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to the international media company Bloomberg in Vladivostok. John Micklethwait: Mr President, thank you very much for talking to Bloomberg. We are in Vladivostok, at the border of Russia, practically the Pacific Coast is its border, and this is already the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov, John Micklethwait, Henry Meyer – September 2, 2016) Vladimir Putin blasted both Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s tactics on the campaign trail but refused to publicly take sides in a U.S. presidential race in which he’s been accused of secretly favoring the New York real estate billionaire. “They’re both using shock tactics, just each […]
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Hidden behind rabble-rousing rhetoric, pragmatic conservatism is what really keeps Russia’s political maverick in place. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eva Hartog – September 2, 2016) Vladimir Zhirinovsky runs his hand over a CD of 50 songs composed by a fan in his honor. He is clearly pleased. “All of humanity knows me,” he says. “My name is in encyclopedias, […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, August 28, 2016) It remains unclear whether Moscow intends to launch a full-scale military attack on Ukraine, Pavel Felgengauer says; but if it plans to, there are compelling reasons – deteriorating weather in the fall and the new round of the Russian military draft in October – to think that it will […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff – August 29, 2016) [Charts here bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-29/a-year-after-18-billion-debt-deal-ukraine-is-hardly-better-off] A year after Ukraine averted default by reaching an agreement with creditors to restructure $18 billion of debt, the country’s bond market is again beginning to veer off course. After outperforming all of emerging Europe in the first seven months of the year, some of those gains […]
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Andrew S. Weiss [Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment, Russia and Eurasia Program], on twitter at @andrewsweiss, “retweets” the New York Times article “How Russia often benefits when Julian Assange reveals the West’s secrets,” commenting: “Nicely done esp Assange’s little-noted parroting of Russian narrative on #Ukraine, proxy attacks on Moscow’s rivals” The “tweet” should appear below, although it might take […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ksenia Galouchko – September 1, 2016) The cost of insuring Russian debt using credit-default swaps fell to a three-week low as tensions with Ukraine eased, offering relief from mounting political risk that had weighed on assets last month. Five-year CDS contracts declined seven basis points this week to 219, the lowest since Aug. 10 when Russian […]
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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – David Ramseur – August 31, 2016) A former journalist, David Ramseur is writing a book on Alaska-Russian relations for the University of Alaska Press, scheduled for publication in Fall 2017. He worked to melt the Alaska-Russian “Ice Curtain” as a top aide to Alaska Governors Steve Cowper and Tony Knowles and U.S. Senator Mark Begich. […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Elena Mazneva, Stephen Bierman – September 1, 2016) Russia sees no need for talks with other major oil exporters on freezing output with prices at around $50 a barrel, according to the Energy Ministry in Moscow. If prices fall, then Russia will consider resuming discussions, the ministry’s press service cited Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying. […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 1 (Interfax) – The Russian economy an expect slow, unsteady recovery in the next few quarters, the Central Bank’s Research and Forecasting Department said in its latest Talking Trends bulletin. The Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said in an initial estimate that GDP had fallen 0.6% year-on-year in Q2 2016. The Central Bank’s analysts said Rosstat’s data imply […]
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To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net [check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#162 Thursday, 1 September 2016 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs […]
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