RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#156 :: Friday, 28 August 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#156 :: Friday, 28 August 2020
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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1. rt.com: Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine gives good immune response, critics don’t understand how it works – Health Ministry expert – rt.com/russia/499288-russia-vaccine-good-response/
2. TASS: Spread of COVID-19 in Russia is controlled, top sanitary doctor says.
3. TASS: Majority of Russians prefer Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine, poll shows.
4. Interfax: NES rector Ruben Yenikolopov: Negative impact of pandemic might be far greater than just drop in GDP. (excerpt)
5. Asia Times: Pepe Escobar, Definitive Eurasian Alliance Is Closer Than You Think. Beijing-Moscow is already on; Berlin-Beijing is a work in progress; the missing but not distant link is Berlin-Moscow
6. TASS: Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Washington sees Russia and China as a common enemy.
7. rt.com: As Russia & China get ever closer, Beijing invites Moscow to form ‘Soybean alliance’ as it looks to reduce reliance on US.
8. Bloomberg: Russia’s Battered Ruble Could Be About to Make a Comeback.
9. The Conversation: Yerzhan Tokbolat, Belarus protests: beleaguered economy underpins anger at Lukashenko government
10. TASS: Size of Russia’s backup law enforcement unit set up to aid Belarus ‘reasonable’ – Kremlin.
11. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Belarus Sitrep 6: Reserve OMON – unz.com/akarlin/belarus-sitrep-6/
12. The Spectator: Mark Galeotti, Putin prepares to send in the troops
13. Moscow Times: Nikolai Petrov, Putin’s Undying Support for Autocracy. Polls show that the average Russian is also unwilling to let go of Aleksander Lukashenko.
14. Riddle: Russia’s response to Belarus crisis: possible lessons from Abkhazia. Neil Hauer finds Russia’s reactions to popular uprisings in Abkhazia a compelling historical indicator of how Russia might react to the anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus – ridl.io/en/russia-s-response-to-belarus-crisis-possible-lessons-from-abkhazia/
15. New Cold War: Dmitriy Kovalevich, August update: Belarus crisis through the lens of Ukraine – newcoldwar.org/august-update-belarusian-crisis-through-the-lens-of-ukraine/
16. rt.com: Protest fatigue? Russians lose interest in Khabarovsk rallies: Internet searches drop 82% as numbers on streets dwindle – rt.com/russia/499228-interest-khabarovsk-protests-drops/
17. AP: Hospital: Russia’s Navalny still in coma but improving.
18. Intellinews: Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office says no need to open criminal case into Navalny’s poisoning
19. The National Interest: Diana Kadi, What Was Really Behind Navalny’s Poisoning? The question must be asked: who would really benefit from the death of the opposition leader?
20. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian daily traces Navalny’s route prior to ‘poisoning’
21. The National Interest: Nikolas Gvosdev, The Navalny Case Won’t Change Russia’s Relations With the West. Will there be much of a reaction at all?
22. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Comment says in Russia’s interests to discover what happened to Navalny. (Mikhail Rostovsky)
23. The Economist: The uprising in Belarus and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Together they reveal the weakness of Russian autocracy.
24. Interfax: Russian patrol team, itinerary in Syria were agreed with U.S. military – Russian military.
25. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, HARASSMENT – irrussianality.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/harassment/
26. Russian International Affairs Council: Pavel Karasev, Cybersecurity and NATO’s Nuclear Capability – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/cybersecurity-and-nato-s-nuclear-capability-/
27. Smithsonian Magazine: Russia Declassifies Video From 1961 of Largest Hydrogen Bomb Ever Detonated. The blast was over 3,000 times bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
28. Russia Beyond: Did Stalin speak Russian with a thick Georgian accent? – rbth.com/history/332634-stalin-georgian-accent
29. abkhazworld.com: Wikileaks: Caucasus Experts Presage Causes and Consequences of Recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia. (Re 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict)
30. Le Monde diplomatique: Marlene Laruelle, Central Asia’s time of choice. The successors of the first generation of leaders who came to power with the fall of the Soviet Union face pressure from their young, unequal societies which now threaten Arab Spring-type rebellion.
31. Russia Matters: Arthur Martirosyan, The Role of Russian Espionage in Re-Shaping the West. (Re Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West by Luke Harding)
32. https://yasha.substack.com: Yasha Levine, America and Russia in the 1990s: This is what real meddling looks like. It’s hard to imagine having more direct control over a foreign country’s political system – short of a straight-up military occupation.
https://yasha.substack.com/p/america-and-russia-in-the-1990s-this

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