Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#142 :: Monday 27 July 2015

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#142
Monday 27 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. TASS: Ever more Russians are skeptical about growing role of religion in society.
2. The National Interest: Sean Keeley, Obama’s Russia Recalibration. U.S.-Russian cooperation on the Iran deal could signal a change in the wind.
3. TASS: Economic recession in Russia hits bottom – Economic Development Minister.
4. Sputnik: Russian Economy Ready to Thrive Despite Setbacks – Chinese Media.
5. Moscow Times: Most Russians Oppose Renaming Bridge After Nemtsov, Poll Shows.
6. Carnegie Moscow Center: Denis Volkov, How Authentic is Putin’s Approval Rating?
7. RFE/RL: Flurry Of Moscow Activism Hints That Mood For Protest Is Very Much Alive.
8. Interfax: PARNAS supporters holding rally in Novosibirsk over election committee meeting on registering party lists.
9. TASS: Russia’s off-parliament opposition unlikely to drive its slogans home to population.
10. Moscow Times: Devon Tucker, Russia Has Legitimate Concerns About NGOs.
11. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Press Digest: Russia’s mega-rich continue to multiply in spite of crisis.
12. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, IN DEFENCE OF WHATABOUTISM.
13. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Living on Prussia’s ruins, Kaliningraders embrace Germanic past.
14. The Wilson Quarterly: Elizabeth Peet, THE RISE OF SIBERIAN NATIONALISM. What explains the resurgence in Siberian regionalism in recent years, and what does it mean for Putin’s Russia?
15. Moscow Times: Evan Haddad, A Moscow Education, in More Ways Than One.
16. TASS: Revised doctrine asserts Russia’s status of maritime power.
17. Vedomosti: US ABM system does not threaten Russian strategic forces – newspaper.
18. Interfax: Russian Foreign Ministry calls for resumption of Russian-U.S. bilateral cooperation on counterterrorism.
19. Interfax: US may keep sanctions for years, Russia to run economy, trade accordingly – PM.
20. Russia Direct: The US-Russia trade relationship still hasn’t reached its full potential. RD Interview: Aleksander Stadnik, Russian Trade Representative in the U.S., discusses the current state of U.S.-Russia economic relations.
21. Business New Europe: Ben Aris and Nick Allen, Power to the people. As Electric Yerevan showed, governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia will face the risk of social and political unrest when they move to compel their citizens to pay market rates for electricity.
22. Business New Europe: Monica Ellena, Electric Yerevan and the end of apathy. Electric Yerevan may not have been an Armenian Maidan but activists hope and analysts believe it marks the end of the country’s era of apathy.
23. www.rt.com: Neil Clark, Regime change in Russia? Think again, neocons.
24. Washington Post: Anne Applebaum, Helping Russia’s sidelined and exiled journalists tell their stories.
25. Sputnik: Why Neocons Want Putin to Invade the Baltics.
26. Wall Street Journal: Allysia Finley, Living on the Edge of Putin’s Menace. Lithuania dismantles the last Soviet statues, but it needs U.S. help against the Kremlin.
27. The Wilson Quarterly: Mark Davis, WHAT WOULD CHURCHILL DO? Putin isn’t Hitler, and this isn’t WWII. But as Europe is threatened, it’s worth asking: What would Churchill do – and what do the people who invoke him get wrong?
28. London Review of Books: By Sheila Fitzpatrick, Almost Lovable. What Stalin Built. (review of Landscapes of Communism: A History through Buildings by Owen Hatherley)

UKRAINE

29. The National Interest: Olena Lennon, No Time to Wait: Why Reconciliation in Ukraine Must (And Can) Happen Now. “…because internal reconciliation is such a complex task, it need not wait until Ukraine is formally deemed a ‘postconflict’ society.”
30. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Iranian precedent can help to unravel the Ukrainian knot. In this RBTH exclusive, President of the Russian Council on International Affairs Igor Ivanov, who served as Russian Foreign Minister from 1998-2004, explains why the global community should take heed of the lessons learned about effective cooperation in resolving international problems from the example of the recent talks on Iran’s nuclear program, and how this experience can be of use
31. Interfax-Ukraine: If Ukraine fails with applying for EU membership in 2020, this won’t happen even in 25 years – Klimkin.
32. Newsweek.com: Russia’s Medvedev: Ukraine Could Face Yugoslavia-Style Break Up.
33. Government.ru: Dmitry Medvedev’s interview with Slovenian radio and television company RTV Slovenija [excerpt]
34. TASS: Russia stands for Ukraine’s territorial integrity – PM.
35. TASS: Two soldiers in Odessa get prison terms for refusing to fight in Donbas. Almost half of Odessa conscripts have refused to fight in Donbas.
36. New York Times: Michel Kazachkine, An AIDS Crisis in Ukraine.
37. Russia Insider: By Now There’s Overwhelming Evidence Kiev Sniper Massacre Was a False Flag. Canadian scholar Ivan Katchanovski keeps finding new and new publicly available supporting evidence on basically a weekly basis.
38. TASS: Authorities in Kiev crack down on political rivals.
39. TASS: “Poroshenko is turning into Yanukovych,” says leader of Ukrainian radicals.
40. Human Rights in Ukraine: Halya Coynash, Communist party ban will be slammed in Strasbourg, along with original decommunization law.
41. Interfax: Ukrainian PM expects more substantial financial aid from West.
42. Reuters: Ukraine puts new debt restructuring proposals to creditors – minister.
43. Sputnik: Hidden Emergency: Kiev Slammed Over Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis.
44. www.thedailybeast.com: Anna Nemtsova, Can Putin Afford to Keep East Ukraine? The Russian-backed blitz that seemed imminent hasn’t materialized. One reason: confusion about what Moscow and the rebels really want.
45. Chatham House: James Sherr, To Support Ukraine, West Must Go Beyond Sanctions. Providing critical military assistance to Ukraine would devalue Russia’s advantage in negotiations.
46. Voice of America: Ex-Ukrainian Spy Chief: Russian Camps Spreading Chaos. (Valentyn Nalyvaichenko)