RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#182 :: Thursday, 8 October 2020

St. Basil's Domes

To inquire about a subscription to the full Johnson’s Russia List e-mail newsletter, e-mail David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net

Support the JRL: russialist.org/funding.php
Donate Online: click here for direct link at GWU

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter]

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#182 :: Thursday, 8 October 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.
JRL Home: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi
Support for JRL is provided in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the George Washington University and by voluntary contributions from readers.

1. Meduza: The joys of grandparenthood. What Putin revealed in the long-awaited finale of his ‘TASS’ interview, in brief.
4. Russia Beyond: How Vladimir Putin spends his birthdays – rbth.com/lifestyle/332819-how-vladimir-putin-spends-his-birthdays
5. Sarah Lindemann-Komarova: What Do Siberian Millennial and the Perestroika Generation Professionals Have in Common?
6. rt.com: Russia’s ‘Sputnik V’ Covid-19 vaccine may prove effective, but don’t expect it to instantly end pandemic, Lancet author tells RT.
7. TASS: Coronavirus cases among children on the rise in Russia, expert says.
8. Foreign Policy: MARIA SNEGOVAYA, DENIS VOLKOV, STEPAN GONCHAROV, What It Would Take for Russia’s Millennials to Topple Putin. Younger Russians are dissatisfied with the regime but are generally apolitical. Here’s how to change that.
9. TASS: Poland’s fines for Nord Stream 2 will affect neither project nor partners, analysts say.
10. rt.com: Paul Robinson, Turmoil in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, & Ukraine shows that, three decades on, the Soviet Union’s still collapsing – rt.com/russia/502946-post-soviet-countries-turmoil/
11. Wall Street Journal: Putin Loses His Footing in Russia’s Backyard. Washington has watched Russia expand its global influence, but along its borders, Moscow is losing its monopoly on power.
12. New York Times: Putin, Long the Sower of Instability, Is Now Surrounded by It. Fueled by the pandemic, uprisings in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan and a war in the Caucasus region are undermining the influence of the Russian leader.
13. Moscow Times: Simon Saradzhyan, Time For Russia and Other Great Powers to Move From Words to Actions to End Karabakh War. Russia should use its formidable leverage to bring Azerbaijani and Armenian diplomats to the negotiating table.
14. Valdai Discussion Club: Will the Fire of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict Spread to the Middle East? Valdai Club expert Vitaly Naumkin proposes several scenarios for managing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would be useful for external players to keep in mind, as without their help the conflicting parties are unlikely to be able to find a way out of an acute and dangerous situation for the international community. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/will-the-fire-of-the-armenian-azerbaijani-conflict/
15. History Today: Jo Laycock, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Myth of Ancient Hatreds. The Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan is sometimes explained as a result of ‘ancient hatreds’. In reality, it is nothing of the sort, despite both sides using history to bolster their claims to the region. – historytoday.com/miscellanies/nagorno-karabakhs-myth-ancient-hatreds
16. Bloomberg: Hal Brands, Little War in the Caucasus Has Big Lessons for U.S. and Russia. What’s going on in Nagorno-Karabakh? Maybe a dress rehearsal for a major-power conflict.
17. TASS: Izvestia: Russia has no plans to interfere in Kyrgyz political crisis.
18. BBC: Abdujalil Abdurasulov, Kyrgyzstan election: Euphoria turns to insecurity as mob rule spreads.
19. Carnegie Moscow Center: Alexander Gabuev and Temur Umarov, The Scramble for Power in Kyrgyzstan.
20. Sputnik: No Criminal Cases Against Tikhanovskaya Launched in Russia.
21. AP: ‘Catastrophically short of doctors’: Virus wallops Ukraine.
22. rt.com: Former German chancellor Schroeder to sue tabloid Bild over Navalny accusation that he receives ‘shadow money’ from Putin.
23. TASS: There were no toxic substances in Navalny’s body when he was in Russia – intel chief.
24. TASS: Aides who accompanied Navalny in Tomsk have many questions to answer – investigation.
25. Awful Avalanche: Navalny Goes Va Banque – Part III – awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/navalny-goes-va-banque-part-iii/
26. The American Conservative: Ted Galen Carpenter, Paranoia About Trump And Russia Is Dangerous For Our Foreign Policy. The consequences of the last McCarthy era were steep and lasted a generation; we can’t afford a repeat.
27. Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Intelligence Chief Releases More Than 1,000 Pages of Documents. John Ratcliffe says material is being used to support a probe of origins of investigations into Trump ties to Russia.
28. Antiwar.com: Dave DeCamp, Former Intel Officials Try To Downplay Ratcliffe’s Russiagate Releases – original.antiwar.com/Dave_DeCamp/2020/10/07/former-intel-officials-try-to-downplay-ratcliffes-russiagate-releases/
29. Consortium News: Ray McGovern, Trump Orders Russiagate Documents Declassified. The current kerfuffle began a week ago when the director of national intelligence dropped a bombshell on the Senate Judiciary Committee. – consortiumnews.com/2020/10/07/ray-mcgovern-trump-orders-russiagate-documents-declassified/
30. TASS: US could be destabilized following elections, says Russian intelligence chief.
31. Reuters: Russian elite celebrate Bolshoi’s lavish revival

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Map of CIS Central Asia and Environs

Eurasia Map

Comment