RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#178 :: Friday, 2 October 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#178 :: Friday, 2 October 2020
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1. Kremlin.ru: Message to President of the United States Donald Trump – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/64143
2. rt.com: Creator of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine offers to help White House staff after U.S. President Trump contracts virus – rt.com/russia/502356-covid-vaccine-offer-white-house/
3. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Russia’s diminishing crises waves. Russia has had five major crises but each one does less damage than the last.
4. TASS: Kremlin says coronavirus lockdown in Russia not being considered.
5. Bloomberg: How Russia Shortened the Covid Vaccine Race to Declare Victory. Putin’s bold claims for Sputnik V put Russia’s vaccine on the map. Western scientists remain skeptical.
6. New York Times: Russians Were Urged to Return to Normal Life. Except for Putin. The Russian leader claims to be conquering the pandemic, but he inhabits a virus-free bubble, rarely leaving home. The few people he meets must quarantine first.
7. Financial Times: A nasty tax surprise for Russia’s mining tycoons. Outraged oligarchs get sharp rebuke as Kremlin looks to plug $50bn deficit caused by the pandemic.
8. Oilprice.com: Nord Stream 2 Nears Completion After Clearing Another Hurdle
9. rt.com: Russian combat strength is at post-USSR peak after decade of investment, says military industry bankrolled British think tank.
10. Wall Street Journal: Russia Rebuffs Trump’s Arms-Control Proposal. Moscow dismisses U.S. pressure for an election-year deal to extend the old nuclear arms-control treaty while negotiating a broader, new one.
11. Slate.com: Don’t Bring Out the Nukes. Trump’s unnecessary, self-defeating plan to rev up a nuclear arms race with Russia – slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/trump-new-start-russia-nuclear.html
12. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Paper details Putin’s proposal for cyber cooperation with US.
13. Kennan Institute: William Hill, Rethinking U.S. Policy for Russia – and for Russia’s Neighborhood.
14. Asia Times: M.K. Bhadrakumar, Russia’s foreign policy enters new China-aligned phase. Moscow is redefining its relations with Germany, Europe and the wider world in sight of its alliance with Beijing.
15. The National Interest: Jeffrey Mankoff, How Will Russia Respond to the U.S.-China Cold War? On the most basic level, the interests of Putin’s Russia are more aligned with those of China than with those of the United States, and the prospect of a deeper and more enduring U.S.-China confrontation will enhance the importance of that entente in both Beijing and Moscow.
16. Meduza: Why Nagorno-Karabakh? The history (both ancient and modern) that fuels the deadly conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
17. Russian International Affairs Council: Andrey Kortunov, Recep Erdogan in a Russian Minefield – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/recep-erdogan-in-a-russian-minefield/
18. Washington Post: Gerard Toal, John O’Loughlin and Kristin M. Bakke, The fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh is about local territories and wider rivalries. We surveyed people in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia about land and geopolitics.
19. Intellinews: Imagine Caucasus as “another Syria” cautions Armenia’s president as conflict with Azerbaijan rages on. The fighting appears to be the most intense since the Nagorno-Karabakh War ended in 1994.
20. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 1 – indianpunchline.com/the-time-of-troubles-in-transcaucasia-part-1/
21. thesaker.is: The Saker, Russian options in the Karabakh conflict – thesaker.is/russian-options-in-the-karabakh-conflict/
22. Bloomberg editorial: Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Is Russia’s Problem to Solve. The U.S. can’t resolve every global conflict. And in this case, trying could do more harm than good.
23. Antiwar.com: Danny Sjursen No Dog in the Fight: Nagorno-Karabakh’s Conflict Isn’t About Us (or Russia) – original.antiwar.com/Danny_Sjursen/2020/10/01/no-dog-in-the-fight-nagorno-karabakhs-conflict-isnt-about-us-or-russia/
24. New Cold War: Dmitriy Kovalevich, September update: the sound of war drums over Ukraine – newcoldwar.org/september-update-the-sound-of-war-drums-over-ukraine/
25. Meduza: More than half of Russians do not believe Alexey Navalny was poisoned, Levada Center poll says.
26. Der Spiegel: “I Assert that Putin Was Behind the Crime”. For the first time after his poisoning, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny discusses his near-death experience, Putin’s alleged responsibility and Merkel’s visit with him in the hospital.
27. rt.com: ‘Put the proof on prime time TV, you have my permission’: Navalny to sue Putin’s spokesman over CIA allegation.
28. New York Times: Yuri Orlov, Bold Champion of Soviet Dissidents, Dies at 96. A prominent physicist, he founded the Moscow Helsinki Group to hold his government accountable after serving time in prison and in exile.