RUSSIA – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#162 :: Wednesday Morning 19 August 2015

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#162
Wednesday Morning – 19 August 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. www.rt.com: Russians fear poverty more than war recent poll shows.
2. The National Interest: The Interview: Henry Kissinger. (excerpt re Russia)
3. Kremlin.ru: Answers to journalists’ questions.
4. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with representatives of Crimean ethnic groups’ public associations. (transcript continued)
5. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, China Overtakes US, Russia Overtakes Germany.
6. www.opendemocracy.net: Russian press digest (19 August 2015).
7. Bloomberg: Putin Said Ready to Revamp Inner Circle as Ally Yakunin Goes.
8. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Putin May Be Tiring of His Cronies.
9. Reuters: Rise of new banks helps Kremlin keep Russia’s economy afloat.
10. RIA Novosti: Putin says no need to worry about Russian economy.
11. Interfax: Real incomes in Russia decline 2.0% in July, wages down 9.2% – Rosstat.
12. New York Times: Inflation Robs Russians of Buying Power.
13. TASS: Russia’s import substitution policy to take years to bring noticeable results.
14. Bloomberg: Putin Aide Who Called Shock Rate Cut Sees Pause as Oil Nears $40. (Andrey Belousov)
15. TASS: Lay-offs to leave Hermitage without security police as of November – museum head.
16. Vedomosti: Russian paper weighs pros, cons for opposition barred from regional elections.
17. Komsomolskaya Pravda: Sergey Vladimirov, Democratic Coalition unlikely to last until next year. Nonsystem liberal opposition unable to register a single list in four regions.
18. TASS: Daughter challenges refusal to question Chechen leader over Nemtsov death.
19. http://readrussia.com: James Pearce, What Siberia Needs Is a Cosmopolitan.
20. Russia Beyond the Headlines/RBC Daily: Which countries have benefited from Russia’s food embargo? Some nations have seen exports boom thanks to Moscow’s ban on Western food imports.
21. TASS: Putin plans to take part in UN General Assembly session – Lavrov.
22. Simon Saradzhyan: Response to Dr. Mark Galeotti’s article on Russia Strategy in Foreign Affairs.
23. http://readrussia.com: Mark Galeotti, Why Russia Is Not an Existential Threat for the West?
24. Interfax: Russia ready to discuss new CFE treaty with NATO – Foreign Ministry.
25. Russia Direct: Galiya Ibragimova, Inside the latest Russian maneuverings on Iran deal. A month after the signing of the Vienna agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran met in Moscow to discuss the actual implementation of the plan.
26. Russia Beyond the Headlines: High-level Iranian and Saudi visits to Moscow raise speculation. Recent visits to Moscow by the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, alongside talks with representatives of the Syrian opposition, have raised speculation that Russia could be acting as a mediator between Iran and Saudi Arabia as the lifting of sanctions on Tehran leave the situation in the Middle East in a state of flux.
27. www.rt.com: Americans are not enemies of Russia – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova.
28. AP: Alaska village seeks to reunite with Russian relatives.
29. Russia Direct: Eugene Bai, How Russia views Donald Trump’s presidential bid. While Donald Trump has established himself as a presidential front-runner, the Russian expert community might soon begin to view him as the American analogue of Vladimir Zhirinovsky rather than the savior of U.S.-Russian relations.
30. Washington Post: David Ignatius, Is Donald Trump an American Putin?
31. Belarus Digest: David Marples and Uladzimir Padhol, Lukashenka’s 2015 Election Strategy.
32. Financial Times: John Thornhill, Fear Vladimir Putin’s weakness not his strength/ It would be rash to equate the president with Russia and declare new cold war.
33. The Times (UK): Mark Franchetti, The last days of an oligarch. (Boris Berezovsky)