RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#167 :: Monday, 14 September 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#167 :: Monday, 14 September 2020
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1. TASS: Izvestia: Voters turn out to be the biggest winners on Russia’s Unified Election Day.
2. Meduza: Russia’s weekend regional election results, in a nutshell.
3. rt.com: Pro-Kremlin regional heads leading in Russian elections, Navalny allies & far-right win city council seats in Siberia & Tambov – rt.com/russia/500639-russia-regional-elections-results-navalny/
4. Intellinews: Navalny’s smart voting scores rare successes in Russia’s regional elections.
5. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ELECTION REPORTING.
6. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Communists & Nationalists poised to make gains in Russian regional elections, but Western-leaning liberals unlikely to prosper – rt.com/russia/500569-russian-election-communists-nationalists-liberals/
7. Paul Goble: Stability at Top of Russian Political Pyramid Promoted by Shocking Flexibility in Elections, Inozemtsev Says.
8. Moscow Times: Ben Noble, The Meaning of Victory in Russia’s Sept. 13 Elections.
9. Russian and Eurasian Politics: Gordon Hahn, Once More About Soft Authoritarianism in Russia.
10. Intellinews: Mark Galeotti, Whatever is happening to Putin? Has something changed since the referendum on changing the constitution? Russia’s FSB has become more aggressive and Russian president Vladimir Putin seems to be turning into a bad tempered old dictator who is simply steamrolling all his problems
11. Paul Goble: If Putin Regime Collapses, Power More Likely to Fall to Bandits than to Liberal Opposition, Shaburov Says.
12. PONARS Eurasia: Maria Snegovaya, Russia’s Crumbling Power Vertical: Decreasing Disposable Income Drives Discontentment.
13. Times Higher Education (UK): Katarzyna Kaczmarska and Dmitry Dubrovsky, Russia’s limits on critical thinking are hitting its academic performance. Stricter political and administrative controls on what can be said have led to the creation of a pioneering ‘free university’
14. The National Interest: Jeffrey Burt, James Hitch, Peter Pettibone, and Thomas Shillinglaw, The Number One Priority in Setting a New Course with Putin’s Russia. The horizon for changing the strategic framework for the United States and Russia may be closer at hand than many surmise.
15. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, With or without Lukashenko, ‘Belarus will never be the same again’. Alexander Lukashenko has ruled a largely static Belarus for 26 years, and his people have had little expectation of change. But a month of protest has reshaped Belarusians’ vision of what their country should be.
16. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/64031
17. AFP: Putin Backs Lukashenko as Belarus Leader Vows Closer Ties.
18. rt.com: Lukashenko meets Putin in Sochi as western-backed Belarusian opposition figure Tikhanovskaya threatens to cancel any agreements.
19. Wall Street Journal: After Weeks of Pressure in Belarus, Protesters and Lukashenko Locked in Dangerous Stalemate. More than 100,000 people protest; country’s longtime leader set to meet Putin on Monday.
20. TASS: Media: Belarusian society getting tired of ongoing demonstrations.
21. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Belarus Sitrep 7 – unz.com/akarlin/belarus-sitrep-7/
22. Vedomosti: Paper says many Russians support Lukashenko thanks to TV coverage.
23. The National Interest: Jason Ditz, America vs. Russia: Brinksmanship With Nuclear Bombers Risks Starting a Disastrous War. B-52s vs. Russian jets in the Black Sea could start a crisis that spark a war no one would ever want.
24. The National Interest: Giuseppe Maria Del Rosa, Why Are U.S. and Russian Forces Clashing in Syria? Run-ins between the U.S. and Russian forces have increased following President Donald Trump’s short-lived decision to withdraw 1,000 U.S. personnel-after which he changed his mind, agreeing to keep a smaller force in a more confined area to protect “the oil.” The subsequent U.S. forces’ reposition led Russian forces to expand their footprint across northeastern Syria, placing the two factions in close and recurring contact.
25. South China Morning Post: Border dispute: what’s at stake for Russia as it tries to mediate between China and India? – scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3101252/border-dispute-whats-stake-russia-it-tries-mediate-between
26. Valdai Discussion Club: Yaroslav Lissovolik, Eurasia as a Platform. This year Russia celebrates the 100th anniversary of Eurasianism, a school of thought that emphasised the uniqueness of Eurasia as a continent characterised among other features by extreme distances of its inland regions from coastal lines and trade routes – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/eurasia-as-a-platform/
27. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, The Sino-Russian Alliance Comes of age – Part 1
28. TASS: Navalny’s health improving, he can leave bed for short periods of time.
29. rt.com: Germany claims French & Swedish labs ‘confirmed’ Navalny’s Novichok poisoning, as Macron labels incident ‘attempted murder’
30. rt.com: Confusion reigns as Navalny associate accused of evading Russian police questioning says investigators never tried to contact her.
31. Reuters: Nord Stream 2 should not be used to punish Russia, says German state leader.
32. rt.com: Karin Kneissl, Will the alleged Alexey Navalny poisoning sink the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? It might, but it shouldn’t – rt.com/op-ed/500503-navalny-nord-stream-pipeline
33. gilbertdoctorow.com: Gilbert Doctorow, More on the Navalny case: Putin and the Opposition blogger are just balls in play – gilbertdoctorow.com/2020/09/12/more-on-the-navalny-case-putin-and-the-opposition-blogger-are-just-balls-in-play/
34. Dances With Bears: John Helmer, GERMANS NOW CLAIM GOD POISONED NAVALNY – THAT’S THE GOD OUT OF THE MACHINE – johnhelmer.net/germans-now-claim-god-poisoned-navalny-thats-the-god-out-of-the-machine/print/
35. Reuters: Exclusive: Russian paramedics’ accounts challenge Moscow’s explanation for Navalny’s coma – sources.
36. The Atlantic: Dominic Tierney, How Putin Got Into America’s Mind. He learned the art of destabilizing his opponents from the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police