RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#233 :: Wednesday, 2 December 2015

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#233
Wednesday, 2 December 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. TASS: Putin preparing for state of the nation address to Federal Assembly.
2. Interfax: Three-quarters of Russians stand for normalizing relations with West.
3. www.rt.com: Russians’ attitude to Western nations continues to deteriorate – poll.
4. Moscow Times: Got a Diplomatic Dilemma? Send in the Clowns.
5. Russia Direct: Understanding Russia’s approach to climate change and global warming. According to experts, climate change is occurring in Russia much faster than globally on average. This might potentially have a significant impact on the country’s energy sector. What is the Kremlin doing to address the issue? Find out in the new RD report.
6. www.opendemocracy.net: COP21: a diary from Paris. oDR correspondent Angelina Davydova is in Paris attending the UN climate conference COP21, where she’s keeping her eye on the Russian side of things.
7. Russia Insider: Jacob Dreizin, Putin Has a Massive Corruption-Fighting Record You’ve Never Heard Of. Mr. Putin is tackling corruption, whereas his predecessor embodied it. But you wouldn’t know it from the Western press.
8. Gazeta.ru/Interfax: Influential ex-finance chief may soon join Putin’s administration – sources. (Aleksey Kudrin)
9. Izvestia: Mooted NGO lobbying body seen as ex-minister’s political comeback bid. (Kudrin)
10. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, A LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE (with comments). (re Soros and NGOs)
11. www.opendemocracy.net: Natalia Antonova, We’re right here. Building a society inclusive of autism in Russia involves battling with myths, superstition and the Soviet legacy. But civil society is forging ahead.
12. www.rt.com: Russia continues record oil production – energy ministry.
13. TASS: Progressive tax regime a double-edged sword for Russia. (DJ: An example of a complex substantive issue in Russia.)
14. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Debt repayment falters as ruble stays unsteady. Amid continuously falling incomes, debt help groups thrive as Russians turn to different solutions to repay loans.
15. Moscow Times: Russians Turn to Bartering in Economic Recession.
16. AP: Chechnya Holds Classes to Counter IS Propaganda.
17. Wall Street Journal: Russia Agrees to ‘Road Map’ for Doping Testing. Russian authorities say they would take action on the plan and work to re-establish the country’s credentials with international partners.
18. Reuters: NATO invites Montenegro to join alliance, defying Russia.
19. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, Another Russian ‘Friend’ Readies For NATO, But Corporate Scandals May Prove Costly.
20. New York Times: U.S. Plans to Counter Arms Breach by Russia.
21. Russia Direct: Some you win, some you lose: Russia’s foreign policy in 2015. To understand the results of Russia’s foreign policy this year, Russia Direct sat down with Mark Galeotti, professor of global affairs at New York University and a specialist on Russian security affairs.
22. Reuters: Russian jet hit inside Syria after incursion into Turkey: U.S. official.
23. Los Angeles Times: Downing of Russian warplane shines a light on Turkey’s shadowy links to extremists
24. Russia Beyond the Headlines: ‘Change of regime’ needed for Moscow and Ankara to start talking. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to meet at the UN climate summit in Paris, but made a number of harsh statements, which, Russian commentators say, have left the two leaders with no chance of reconciliation.
25. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Vzglyad: ‘It is possible that Turkey will leave NATO altogether.’ According to Alexander Vasilyev, a Russian expert on Turkey, while there is no current danger of a full-blown military conflict breaking out between Ankara and Moscow, Turkey is keen to develop a truly independent foreign policy and has ambitions to become a modern nuclear power in order to make this a reality.
26. Reuters: Russia says it has proof Turkey involved in Islamic State oil trade
27. www.rt.com: By ‘covering’ Turkey politically, NATO took responsibility for downing of Russian Su-24 – envoy.
28. Washington Post: Steven Mufson, Bush saw Putin’s ‘soul.’ Obama wants to appeal to his brain.
29. The Guardian: Giora Eiland, Russia is right: fighting Isis is the priority for us all. Moscow foresaw the threat posed by Isis and knows that only a united front can defeat it. Turkey’s motives are murkier, however
30. New York Times: Thomas Friedman, Putin’s Syrian Misadventure.
31. www.rt.com: Catherine Shahdom, Poking the Russian Bear – How terror collaborators are hiding behind media slander.
32. Russia Insider: William Dunkerley, Why SU-24 Shoot-down News Reports Went from Fact to Fiction. A look at day one in the life of the SU-24 story
33. Brookings.edu: Samuel Charap and Jeremy Shapiro, The danger of Russian and Turkish competitive machismo in Syria.
34. Consortiumnews.com: Ray McGovern, The US-Russia Proxy War in Syria

UKRAINE

35. AP: UN: Polio Outbreak in Ukraine Is a State of Emergency.
36. Euromaidan Press: Ukrainian society presents demands to President, Prime Minister, and Co.
37. Bloomberg: Old Guard Clinches Mayoral Race on Edge of Ukraine’s Eastern War.
38. Interfax-Ukraine: Most Ukrainians against granting “special status” to Donbass – poll.
39. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Poll re Donbass.
40. http://eu.eot.su: “Right Sector” Neo-Nazis forced three Odessa judges to resign during court session.
41. Interfax: DPR intelligence exposes Ukraine’s military equipment movements near contact line – Basurin.
42. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Ukrainian refugees in Russia: Did Moscow fumble a valuable resource? Russians have warmly welcomed more than a million pro-Moscow Ukrainian refugees in the past 18 months. But the state bureaucracy hasn’t followed suit.
43. Wall Street Journal: Talks With Russia on EU-Ukraine Trade Deal Fail to Reach Compromise. Moscow makes new demands over bilateral accord set for Jan. 1.
44. TASS: Problem of power supply to Crimea will be fundamentally solved in nearest future – PM.
45. Sputnik: Ukrainian Nationalists Vow to Continue Crimea Blockade.
46. Deutsche Welle: Dark days on Crimea: Russia and Ukraine rattle sabers. Electricity cables cut, no trade between Ukraine proper and the Crimean Peninsula, no gas supply: Once again Ukraine and Russia seem headed for confrontation. The US and Europe fear for the future of the Minsk Protocol.
47. New York Times: Months After Russian Annexation, Hopes Start to Dim in Crimea.

 

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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

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