RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#206 :: Thursday 22 October 2015

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#206
Thursday – 22 October 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. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, RUSSIA’S MISSING LIBERALS. [and one comment]
2. Financial Times: Behind the gloss Moscow is a sad city. Falling oil prices and western sanctions mean life is hard in the Russian capital, writes Guy Chazan.
3. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Inside the Kremlin’s velvet grip, Russia’s civil society struggles to survive. Workers at Memorial, Russia’s leading human rights monitor, live under constant, unyielding pressure from the government, which is trying to stymie dissent.
4. www.rt.com: Putin’s approval rating hits new historic high of almost 90%.
5. The Guardian: Angus Roxburgh, The main problem with understanding Putin? The language barrier. The difficulty of learning Russian is an obstacle to dealing with the Kremlin. There can be serious ramifications if the political will is not there to truly understand.
6. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, Has Russia’s economy turned the corner?
7. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Russian Inflation Has Mostly Leveled Off.
8. Interfax: Russian MinFin adjusts revenue for 2016 budget to 13.74 trln rubles, spending to 16.1 trln rubles.
9. Paul Goble: Moscow’s Spending Cuts Undermining Russians’ Health and Reducing Life Expectancy.
10. Russia Direct: Dmitry Dokuchaev, Russia’s unemployment rate resilient to economic crisis. Even with the economic crisis, the unemployment level in Russia is still not as high as once predicted. However, the labor market faces a number of structural weaknesses, such as growing youth unemployment.
11. www.rt.com: Analyze this: EU bans research & consulting on Russian companies.
12. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, How to get Russia’s best technologies out of the lab and into the economy. As part of a nationwide innovation push, Russia is trying to create a favorable environment for commercializing cutting-edge academic research at universities. But that’s easier said than done, say technology insiders.
13. Moscow Times: Moscow State University Tops Emerging Countries Ranking Rating.
14. Moscow Times: Russian Academia Divided Over FSB Vetting of Research Papers.
15. www.opendemocracy.net: Gleb Belichenko, Russia’s secret treason investigations. In Russia, the number of state treason cases is rising. Secret service tactics mean we know less and less about who is under investigation.
16. Sputnik: Putin Orders Changes in Russia’s National Security Strategy.
17. The Arab Source: U.S. Accuses Russia of Bombing the Moderate Rebels in Homs While They Behead Syrian Soldiers.
18. Russia Direct: Yury Barmin, Assad in Moscow: A sign of nearing talks on Syria’s future. The sudden appearance of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Moscow is a likely sign that Russia is attempting to work out what a post-Assad Syria would look like.
19. AP: Shift possible after Assad-Putin meeting. Diplomatic push may be under way to end 4-year strife.
20. Russia Insider: Alexander Mercouris, Assad in Moscow and More Secure Than Ever Since Start of War. US insistence Assad must relinquish power before any negotiations can start has hardened Russian support for him.
21. The Real News Network: Does Russia-U.S. Disagreement Over Assad Benefit ISIS? Sergei M. Plekhanov, Associate Professor of Political Science at York University, says regional solutions are only possible if Russia and the United States stop pursuing their respective Middle East interests as a zero-sum game.
22. Politkom.ru: Russian expert looks at dangers of being drawn into “Syrian trap.” (Tatyana Stanovaya)
23. The Independent (UK): Patrick Cockburn, Isis in Iraq: Shia leaders want Russian air strikes for battle against militant threat.
24. Pando.com: Gary Brecher, The War Nerd: Bombed Stupid.
25. Wall Street Journal: Aaron David Miller, Five Takeaways From Bashar al-Assad’s Secret Visit to Moscow.
26. Vedomosti: Pavel Aptekar, Afghanistan as new Syria. What does Russia’s ostentatious activity in Central Asia signify?
27. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Moscow not ready to accept South Ossetia, despite calls for unification. The president of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia has announced plans to hold a referendum on the unification of the territory with Russia. However, sources close to the Kremlin say Moscow is currently ready for such developments.
28. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, Putin’s Bipolar Disorder.
29. Cory Welt: New Russian-Language Journal of Politics & Society “Counterpoint.” (Kontrapunkt)

UKRAINE

30. Michael McFaul handles a hard question.
31. Human Rights in Ukraine: Ukraine’s only trial over Maidan killings under threat.
32. Russia Insider: Bad News for Ukraine – Historic Cold Expected This Winter.
33. Interfax: Kremlin chief of staff sees little progress in implementation of Minsk agreements on Ukraine.
34. The Guardian: Shaun Walker, Ukraine elections: high stakes and dirty tricks in hotly contested vote. Local elections are both a referendum on Petro Poroshenko’s rule and a jostle for power and influence among country’s oligarchs.
35. Kyiv Post: Poll: Most Ukrainians don’t understand how to vote in Oct. 25 elections.
36. Buzzfeed.com: Max Seddon, Washington’s Man In Ukraine Can’t Stop His Country’s Corrupt Cronies. Ukraine’s Western allies backed Arseniy Yatsenyuk when he became prime minister and vowed to “wage a war” on graft. But as the country’s fight against corruption stalls, many in Kiev see his government as part of the problem.
37. Russia Insider: Ukraine Buys 40,000 Tons of Coal a Day from ‘Russian Terrorists’
38. Moscow Times: Vladislav Inozemtsev, A Struggling Ukraine Is Bad News for Russians.
39. http://newcoldwar.org: New survey of Ukrainians: More than half say country is headed in ‘wrong direction’
40. Wall Street Journal: U.S. to Ship Modified Radar Systems to Ukraine. Modifications would prevent Ukraine from snooping on Russia.
41. Euromaidan Press: Ukraine at ‘final stage of saying goodbye to Soviet past,’ Kyiv expert says.
42. UAPOST.US Ukrainian American Media: New Film Exposes Russia’s Mass Murder of Ukrainians, Aggression that Continues Today.
43. Ruslan Pukhov: Brothers Armed: Military Aspects of the Crisis in Ukraine. Second edition.