RUSSIA NEWS & INFORMATION – Johnson’s Russia List contents & links :: JRL 2020-#147 :: Monday, 17 August 2020

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2020-#147 :: Monday, 17 August 2020
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1. rt.com: ‘No new elections, unless you KILL ME’: Defiant Lukashenko confronts enraged workers as key industrial sites erupt in strikes – rt.com/news/498191-lukashenko-workers-strike-protests/
2. Reuters: Lukashenko Says He Is Ready to Share Power in Belarus as Protests Mount
3. TASS: Vedomosti: Lukashenko supporter rally fails in Minsk as protests grow.
4. TASS: Experts says Belarusian protests can last for several months.
5. Carnegie Moscow Center: Dmitri Trenin, Game Over for Lukashenko: the Kremlin’s Next Move. The Kremlin has had enough of Lukashenko, but it cannot allow Belarus to follow the path of Ukraine and become another anti-Russian, NATO-leaning bulwark on its borders.
6. Intellinews: Ben Aris, Will Russia invade Belarus? Russia has a lot more to lose than to gain from an annexation of Belarus. But it will be hard to lose anything in a post-Lukashenko Belarus.
7. Atlantic Council: Anders Aslund, Why Vladimir Putin is unlikely to invade Belarus
8. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, CIVILIZATIONAL CHOICE – irrussianality.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/civilizational-choice/
9. Facebook: Fred Weir, Belarus and Russia.
10. The National Interest: Nikolas Gvosdev, Belarus in Crisis: What Happens Now? Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s long-serving leader, gambled that his attempt to do the “Eurasian shuffle” would allow him to secure yet another installment in power. He seems to have miscalculated-and is hoping that brute force can keep his regime from being overthrown.
11. rt.com: Katya Kazbek, Minsk protests similar to Moscow & Kiev before them; neoliberals & nationalists calling the shots, socialist voices muffled – rt.com/russia/498140-minsk-protests-similar-kiev-moscow/
12. craigmurray.org.uk: Craig Murray, Belarus – craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/08/belarus/
13. The Sunday Times (UK): Tom Parfitt, Belarus protests: Kremlin’s concern will be state of its backyard, not Lukashenko.
14. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Shadow Zmagarists – unz.com/akarlin/shadow-zmagarists/
15. Moscow Times: Anna Arutunyan, Putin Doesn’t Want to Intervene in Belarus. That’s an Opportunity for the West. It’s certainly not too soon for Moscow and Brussels to learn from past mistakes.
16. Intellinews: Mark Galeotti, Moscow is not Minsk, but it is in its shadow
17. TASS; No consensus of opinion about of Sputnik V vaccine’s readiness for mass use.
18. rt.com: Head of Russian team behind world’s 1st registered Covid-19 vaccine says Western countries want to ‘lure away’ his scientists.
19. Financial Times: Russia vaccine thrusts little-known state research unit into spotlight. Gamaleya Institute says it has been developing the science behind its breakthrough for decades.
20. rt.com: Work on Ebola and MERS helped Russia create Covid-19 vaccine in just 5 months – top official behind Sputnik V to RT – rt.com/russia/498057-vaccine-ebola-mers-covid-19/
21. National Geographic: Nanna Heitmann, Surreal scenes inside Russia’s battle against the pandemic. Patients continue to fill hospitals as rumours and cynicism spread about a vaccine.
22. Valdai Discussion Club: The Macro Dilemmas of Dealing with the Pandemic. Russia’s recovery pattern may indeed prove to be more extended in time and less emphatic than in largest economies of the world, but it may turn out to be more sustainable in case the macroeconomic stability is firmly secured, writes Yaroslav Lissovolik, Programme Director at the Valdai Discussion Club. – valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-macro-dilemmas-of-dealing-with-the-pandemic/
23. rt.com: Russia on track to have one of its largest-ever grain harvests – rt.com/business/498184-russia-record-wheat-harvest/
24. Financial Times: Dimitri Simes, China and Russia ditch dollar in move towards ‘financial alliance’. Greenback’s share of neighbours’ trade falls below 50% for first time.
25. Antiwar.com: Doug Bandow, Defend America, Not Ukraine: Treat Kiev as a Friend Rather Than an Ally – original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2020/08/16/defend-america-not-ukraine-treat-kiev-as-a-friend-rather-than-an-ally/
26. Awful Avalanche: How the USSR Tried To Create Alternative to Molotov-Ribbentrop – Part VI – awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/how-the-ussr-tried-to-create-alternative-to-molotov-ribbentrop-part-vi/
27. Awful Avalanche: How the USSR Tried To Create Alternative to Molotov-Ribbentrop – Part VII – awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/08/15/how-the-ussr-tried-to-create-alternative-to-molotov-ribbentrop-part-vii/
28. Awful Avalanche: How the USSR Tried To Create Alternative to Molotov-Ribbentrop – Part VIII – awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2020/08/16/how-the-ussr-tried-to-create-alternative-to-molotov-ribbentrop-part-viii/
29. strategic-culture.org: Patrick Armstrong, The Abyss of Disinformation Gazes Into Its Creators – strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/17/the-abyss-of-disinformation-gazes-into-its-creators/
30. Foreign Affairs: Alina Polyakova, The Kremlin’s Plot Against Democracy. How Russia Updated Its 2016 Playbook for 2020.