Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#135 :: Thursday 9 July 2015

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#135
Thursday 9 July 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.
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RUSSIA

1. Vice.com: Nadya Tolokonnikova, The Pussy Riot Column: It’s Up to You to Make Politics Fun Again.
2. London School of Economics and Political Science: Cristian Nitoiu, The ‘Russian threat’ has revived nationalism in the ‘new’ Europe.
3. The Vineyard of the Saker/Odnako: Anatoly Wasserman, The Self-fulfilling Threat: why the NATO arms stockpiles are a danger to Eastern Europe.
4. L’Espresso (Rome): Commentary examines roots of stand-off between Russia, West. (Bernard Guetta)
5. New York Times: It’s a Stretch, but Putin Will Add Yoga to His Repertoire.
6. Moscow Times: Russian Senators Propose Ban of 12 Foreign NGOs, Reining In Civil Society.
7. www.rt.com: Justice Ministry to add Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia NGO to list of undesirable groups – report.
8. TASS: Russian experts call stop list of foreign NGO’s a troubleshooting measure.
9. RIA Novosti: Russian officials express “regret” over closure of prominent “foreign agent” NGO.
10. Reuters: Kremlin critics say ‘climate of fear’ grows in Russia.
11. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Understanding the context of the Kremlin’s post-Crimean ideology. The release of a “patriotic stop-list” of undesirable foreign organizations is just the latest manifestation of the short-term ideological thinking that is currently ascendant in the Kremlin.
12. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Kommersant: Nizhny Novgorod State University offers new job to dismissed American. Kendrick White, a U.S. citizen who was fired as vice rector of the Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University on June 30 after a controversial report on the state-run TV channel Rossiya in which he was openly criticized, is to stay on at the university in a non-managerial role.
13. TASS: Russian economy expected to come out of crisis in Q4 – Former Finance Minister Kudrin.
14. Bloomberg: Russia Signals Tighter Ruble Reins as Economy Braces for Shocks.
15. Oilprice.com: Are The E.U. And Asia Turning A Blind Eye To Russian Sanctions?
16. TASS: Tycoon says Putin strong, Russians resilient, won’t buckle under sanction. (Vladimir Potanin)
17. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Back-to-back Russia-hosted summits put Putin in coveted starring role. Images of a Putin alongside leaders of other large countries, signing economic deals, will reinforce Russia’s argument that it doesn’t need the West. It’s a seductive view, but a superficial one, say analysts.
18. China Daily: Dmitri Trenin, Russia far from isolated in non-West community.
19. Russia Direct: BRICS and the West: Partners or rivals? The annual BRICS Summit in Ufa, Russia this year marks a breakthrough in the development of the group’s political and financial institutions. The big question now is whether these institutions will choose to partner with the West or go it alone.
20. Reuters: Russia woos China before BRICS summit.
21. Reuters: Björn Düben, Why Russia’s turn to China is a mirage.
22. The Vineyard of the Saker: Jeff Brown, The Moscow-Beijing Express: Russian “Oligarchs” versus Chinese Billionaires.
23. www.thestreet.com: Hedge Fund Mgr. Calls Putin ‘Single Greatest Threat to World Peace.’ (Bill Browder)
24. AP: Joint Chiefs nominees: Arming Ukraine is ‘reasonable’
25. Reuters: U.S. Air Force Head Sees Russia as Biggest Threat.
26. Defense One: Pentagon Moves Money to Counter Russia.
27. www.rt.com: ‘Artificially hostile atmosphere’: Moscow blasts US claims of Russian threat.
28. Belarus Digest: David Marples, Failure Of Minsk-2 And The Belarusian Presidential Election.
29. Eurasianet.org: Marianna Grigoryan, Armenia: Evaluating Electric Yerevan’s Impact.
30. Moscow Times: John Freedman, Raikin Touches Audiences in ‘All Shades of Blue’
31. Vox.com: Amanda Taub, Putin is weak. The Russian strongman is terrified of losing control. He should be. (excerpt)

UKRAINE

32. Interfax: Ukrainian Culture Ministry makes list of 117 Russian performers threatening national security.
33. Wall Street Journal: U.S., Ukraine Weigh Expansion of American Training Program. Kiev wants U.S. instruction for its conventional and special-operations forces.
34. TASS: Russia, US to continue consultations on defusing Ukrainian crisis – diplomat.
35. http://newcoldwar.org: The daily count of Ukrainian army war crimes in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.
36. IRIN: Ukraine tightens restrictions on rebel-held east.
37. Interfax: DPR allows for further demilitarization, expecting mirror response from Kyiv.
38. Andrei Liakhov: Re: [UTExpertsDiscGrp] Straight talk about Russian aggression in Ukraine.
39. Kyiv Post: Think tank sees four policy scenarios for Russian-occupied Donbas.
40. The National Interest: Thomas de Waal, The New Siege of Crimea. Western and Ukrainian sanctions are hurting Crimeans while empowering Russia.
41. TASS: Moscow not to change its decision on Crimea – Russian Foreign Ministry.
42. Business New Europe: Sergei Kuznetsov, KYIV BLOG: Parliamentary populism embarrasses Ukrainian government.
43. Russia Insider: Ukraine Nationalist Lawmakers Want to Ban References to Russia as ‘Russia.’ Because the word properly belongs to Ukraine.
44. Business New Europe: Slick new police force takes to Kyiv’s streets.
45. www.opendemocracy.net: Victoria Narizhna, Saakashvili is turning politics upside down in Ukraine. Down on the Black Sea, the newly appointed governor of Odessa (and ex-president of Georgia) Mikheil Saakasvhili is making waves. Is the balance of the Ukrainian state beginning to shift?
46. Atlantic Council: Alexander Motyl, Here’s Why More Ukrainians Admire Nationalists, and Why the West Shouldn’t Freak Out.
47. The Times (UK): Edward Lucas, We help Ukraine best by hitting Putin’s cronies. The way to liberate the country is to freeze Russian money invested in Britain and America.
48. Rezonansi (Tbilisi): Volunteers serving Georgia’s interests in Ukraine, battalion chief says.

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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

 

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