RUSSIA & UKRAINE: Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#114 :: Wednesday 10 June 2015

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#114
Wednesday 10 June 2015
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.
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RUSSIA

1. Wall Street Journal: Holman Jenkins, Putin’s Survival Strategy. Russia’s president clearly seems to be lifting strategies from the Hitler playbook, likely deliberately so.
2. Paul Goble: ‘Russians are the Soviet Slaves of Today,’ Panfilov Says.
3. Euromaidan Press: Tatar historian: ‘Russians are no more European than are the Tatars’
4. Interfax: Putin: Russia has no relations with G7 but ready to cooperate with its members bilaterally.
5. Moscow Times: Oxana Filipchuk, Russian Brides and the Econometrics of Love.
6. www.opendemocracy.net: Rodric Braithwaite, The uses and abuses of history. History is nowadays not only written by the victors, but by anybody who wants to use history for their own ends.
7. Sputnik: Inflation Expected to Reach 11.8-11.9% in Russia for 2015
8. Business New Europe: Mark Galeotti, Pluralism – just not as we know it.
9. Bloomberg: Leonid Bershidsky, Putin Is No James Bond Villain.
10. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia’s image problem puts a damper on international tourism. The fall of the ruble at the end of 2014 made travel to Russia cheaper than ever, but not many Western tourists are willing to make the trip.
11. Interfax: Russians think their country is most hospitable, foreigners disagree.
12. Moscow Times/Reuters: U.S. Wants Pope to Condemn Russia’s Ukraine Policy at Meeting With Putin.
13. CNBC.com: Russia: Time to invest despite sanctions threat?
14. Wall Street Journal: Expats Leave Moscow Amid Russia’s Economic Downturn and Ukraine Crisis.
15. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, World’s economic centre of gravity continues shift east.
16. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Expert views Islamic State threat to Russia. (Vitaliy Naumkin)
17. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Kommersant: Vitaly Naumkin, Could Islamic extremism prompt Russia and the U.S. to closer cooperation?
18. Russia Direct: Yury Barmin, Is Russia finally turning its back on Assad? Media reports that the government in Damascus may fall, combined with changing Russian rhetoric and signs of high-level diplomatic meetings between Russia and the U.S. on Syria, could augur a major foreign policy change for Moscow.
19. New York Times: Survey Points to Challenges NATO Faces Over Russia.
20. Sputnik: Germans Overwhelmingly Declare They Want Russia Back in G8.
21. The American Interest: Lilia Shevtsova, Swimming with Sharks. The Kremlin is sending a message to the West’s Russia experts: if you want to talk to us, you need to toe the line.
22. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, Obama’s Stupid Propaganda Stuff.
23. Interfax: Moscow demands answers from USA on alleged plans to place missiles in Europe.
24. Wall Street Journal: Putin and the Doctrinal Definition of Threat. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey looks at today’s Russia.
25. www.buzzfeed.com: Jeb Bush’s Anti-Putin Republican Primary Tour. To win the GOP nomination these days, strong opposition to the Russian president is practically a prerequisite. Bush will visit three countries most agitated by Russian power – and use the trip to speak out sharply against Putin.
26. Washington Times: Hillary Clinton’s hawkish position on Russia troubles both sides of aisle.
27. The Vineyard of the Saker: Sakari Linden, Karelia: The unknown hotspot of the new Cold War.
28. Valdai Discussion Club: David Lane, Is the Russian Federation a Threat to the International Order?

UKRAINE

29. TASS: UN: More than 870,000 Ukrainians flee the country because of armed conflict.
30. Interfax: Ukraine starts water supplies to Luhansk Republic.
31. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ‘SEPARATE REGIONS WITH SPECIAL STATUS.’ (re Minsk-2 agreement)
32. TASS: Self-proclaimed republics’ proposals make compromise in Ukraine possible – diplomat.
33. Izvestia: Russian parliament ready to grant Putin right to use troops abroad, daily says.
34. TASS: Donetsk notes movement of heavy weapons in Artyomovsk, Krasnogorovka.
35. http://voxukraine.org: Anders Aslund, Ukraine Needs a Smaller and More Humane State.
36. The Nation: Alexander Reed Kelly, Ukraine Is In Crisis. Here’s Why the West Can’t Save It. A video roundtable explains why the IMF, Europe, and Western corporations don’t have the country’s best interests at heart.
37. www.foreignpolicy.com: Suzanne Nossel, It’s Time to Kill the Feel-Good Myth of Sanctions. Isolating bad actors is a mainstay of U.S. foreign policy. But it hasn’t worked against Putin – and in an increasingly connected world, it’s less and less likely to make a dent.
38. Euromaidan Press: 12,000 pages of laws should be passed to align Ukraine with EU legislation.
39. Sputnik: Der Spiegel Apologizes to Readers over Coverage of Bellingcat MH17 Report.
40. Kyiv Post: Thomas Grant: Ukraine has to craft a more comprehensive strategy to get Crimea back.
41. New York Times: Adrian Karatnycky, Putin’s Warlords Slip Out of Control.
42. The Asian Age (India): S. Nihal Singh, Ukraine’s troubled geography.