RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#179 :: Monday, 5 October 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#179 :: Monday, 5 October 2020
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1. Moscow Times: Russia Sees Warmest September in Recorded History.
2. The National Interest: Dimitri Alexander Simes, Why the 2020 Election Has Become a Geopolitical Russian Roulette. How does Russia plan on dealing with a potentially unpredictable United States over the next four years? One option is to continue strengthening relations with China.
3. TASS: Izvestia: Virologists await second wave of COVID-19 in Russian regions.
4. Wall Street Journal: Russia Fast-Tracks Second Coronavirus Vaccine. Approval is expected by mid-October, as the number of infections grow and Moscow pushes to raise its profile abroad.
5. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with Rector of Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration Vladimir Mau – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/64144
6. TASS: Russia’s GDP decline may be 4-5% in 2020.
7. The Bell: Ruble falls firmly out of favor – thebell.io/en/russian-online-giants-plot-u-s-ipos/
8. Valdai Discussion Club: Andrey Sushentsov, Science of Victory: International Academic Rankings and Russian Science Policy –  valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/science-of-victory-international-academic-rankings/
9. New York Times: A Toxic Alien Is Taking Over Russia. The giant hogweed isn’t just an invasive plant. It’s a metaphor for what is happening to much of this country.
10. TASS: New START ‘will die’ because of unilateral US actions – Lavrov.
11. Arms Control Today: U.S., Russia Hit Impasse on New START.
12. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 2 – indianpunchline.com/the-time-of-troubles-in-transcaucasia-part-2/
13. Indian Punchline: M.K. Bhadrakumar, The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 3 – https://indianpunchline.com/the-time-of-troubles-in-transcaucasia-part-3/
14. TASS: Izvestia: Following week-long clashes, Yerevan and Baku still nowhere near negotiations.
15. Intellinews: Armenia, Azerbaijan edge closer to outright war
16. Asia Times: Pepe Escobar, Explosive stakes on Armenia-Azerbaijan chessboard. Pulling Russia back into the Nagorno-Karabakh morass means more Turkish freedom of action in other war theaters.
17. Russian International Affairs Council: Nana Gegelashvili, Nagorno-Karabakh: Will the Landscape Change following the Latest Unrest? – russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/nagorno-karabakh-will-the-landscape-change-following-the-latest-unrest/
18. Eurasianet: Laurence Broers, New Armenian-Azerbaijani war forces Russia to make tough choices. The violence in the South Caucasus poses challenging questions of both Russia’s capabilities and its vision for itself.
19. Russia Matters: Michael Kofman, Armenia-Azerbaijan War: Military Dimensions of the Conflict.
20. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Karabakh War 2020: Taking Stock 5 Days In. (excerpt) – unz.com/akarlin/karabakh-war-2020/
21. Moscow Times: Domitilla Sagramoso, Why the Stakes in the Nagorno-Karabakh War Are So Much Higher This Time Round. Radical changes in the dynamics of the region over the past 25 years mean international actors have divided interests.
22. Intellinews: Crowds in Minsk disable water cannons at Sunday rallies, call for release of political prisoners
23. Foreign Affairs: Yauheni Preiherman and Thomas Graham, Don’t Put Belarus in the Middle. The West Needs to Balance the Interests of Moscow and Minsk.
24. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Putin Reads Blog? Russia to Rein In Jack & Zuck? – unz.com/akarlin/will-russia-block-jack-and-zuck/
25. Washington Post: Inside Room 239: How Alexei Navalny’s aides got crucial poisoning evidence out of Russia
26. Awful Avalanche: Navalny Goes Va Banque – Part I –  awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/10/03/navalny-goes-va-banque-part-i/
27. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexander Baunov, The Kremlin Takes On a Resurrected Navalny