RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-101 :: Thursday, 2 June 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#101
Thursday, 2 June 2016

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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1. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Anna Novikova, How to be a Russian? A user’s manual. For the foreigners out there wondering what it takes to be a Russian, check out our simple guide on how to imitate typical Russian behavior and avoid standing out.
2. Interfax: Demographics expert: Russian men live 11 years less than women.
3. TASS: Obesity problem is as acute in Russia as in United States – Russian Health Ministry.
4. TASS: Lavrov seldom smokes but believes anti-smoking campaign in Russia is excessive.
5. www.rt.com: Russians list US, Ukraine & Turkey as country’s main enemies in latest poll.
6. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, Stalin Resurgent, Again. Russia has long been deeply divided over Stalin’s role in history, with pro-Stalin sentiments surging in times of domestic hardships or perceptions of foreign threats.
7. New York Times: Reviled by Many Russians, Mikhail Gorbachev Still Has Lots to Say.
8. Russia Direct: Ivan Tsvetkov, What did Putin pray for on Mount Athos? Amidst deepening economic worries at home and concerns about the post-Crimea geopolitical environment, Russian President Putin’s visit to Greece was fraught with special significance.
9. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrey Pertsev, United Russia Primaries Open Pandora’s Box
10. Yezhednevny Zhurnal: Russian opposition coalition collapse “predictable.” (Dmitry Oreshkin)
11. Russia Insider/Komsomolskaya Pravda: ‘Merkel, Be Tough! Don’t Give up! Don’t Lift the Sanctions!’ – Russian Farmer. Ten more years of import restrictions will consolidate the recovery of Russian agriculture.
12. TASS: Three-fourths of Russians receive officially registered wages – poll.
13. US-Russia Business Council: OECD Revises Its Russia Forecast Downward.
14. US-Russia Business Council: Russia’s Manufacturing Sector Stabilizing.
15. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Russia Exits Recession. Indicators for first quarter and for April point to a strengthening recovery.
16. Sputnik: Keep Calm and Buy Russian: Jittery Investors Desert EU’s Risky Dollar Bonds.
17. www.project-syndicate.org: Anatole Kaletsky, The Limits of Oil’s Rebound.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Why is Russia’s biggest gas pipeline being built on an uncompetitive basis? Contracts for laying the Power of Siberia pipeline from Russia to China are being dished out mainly without tenders and are often handed to close friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Russian analysts deny that anything is amiss and insist this is related to Gazprom being afraid of not finishing them on time for its Chinese partner.
19. Wall Street Journal: Yaroslav Trofimov, Chechnya: Russia’s Islamic State? Troubled republic in secular Russia has been thoroughly ‘Islamized’ by staunch Putin ally.
20. International Business Times: EU Unity Crumbles As Russia Sanctions Extension Debate Rages.
21. www.rt.com: ‘Europe turns into region that projects instability outwards’ – Russian FM Lavrov.
22. www.rt.com: One NATO battalion would help deter Russia until allies gather forces – Polish Def Min.
23. BBC: Can Russia and Turkey heal rift?
24. Russia Insider: This US-Financed Syria Outfit Has a History of Making Fake ‘Rescue’ Videos Blamed on Russian Airstrikes. These people aren’t rescuers — they’re actors.
25. The Kremlin Stooge: Mark Chapman, Rope-a-Doper, American Style: Don’t Do As I Do, Do As I Say.
26. http://foreignpolicy.com: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Massive Foreign-Policy Brain Trust. (excerpt re Michael McFaul)
27. www.foreignpolicy.com: Stephen Walt, A New-Old Plan to Save the World…That Has No Hope of Saving the World. Why a big-name D.C.-based think tank’s report on U.S. foreign policy is unimaginative, predictably U.S.-centric, and a recipe for failure.
28. Vedomosti: Maria Zheleznova, Inertia of deterrence against inertia of confrontation. Russian foreign policy remains incomprehensible to world.
29. Intersection: Anton Barbashin, Expensive Dreams of Great Power Status. For Russian foreign policy strategists, the economy is neither so important, nor comprehensible.
30. The Spectator (UK): Boyd Tonkin, The hopeless wasteland of modern Russia. In Second-hand Time, Svetlana Alexievich traces the experiences of ten families since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, revealing how quickly euphoria gave way to despair.
31. Facebook: Ivan Katchanovski, Maidan Shootings.
32. www.news.com.au: She’s been called ‘killing machine in a skirt.’ Nadia Savchenko says she will consider running for President of Ukraine after being released from Russian prison.
33. www.foreignaffairs.com: Isaac Webb, Ukraine’s Uneasy Justice. The Politics Behind the Prisoner Exchange.

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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

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