RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-102 :: Monday, 6 June 2016

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#102
Monday, 6 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. www.rt.com: Ice free Arctic could occur this year, warns expert.
2. Sputnik: Heart of Russia: What Awes and Upsets Foreigners in Moscow.
3. Moscow Times: The Museum of Russian Impressionism Opens in Moscow.
4. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Kommersant: ‘Child-centrism’: Russians’ growing obsession with their children. An increasing number of Russian families are affected with what experts are calling “child-centrism” – a special type of upbringing where all the interests of the family are subjected to a child.
5. Russia Insider: Dance Season in Moscow Is Officially Open! (Video)
6. New York Times: Pilots Find Pride in Russia’s Skies.
7. www.rt.com: Gorbachev warns world of ‘cult of force,’ says all recent conflicts could have had peaceful solution.
8. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Russian experts discuss Putin’s foreign policy options. (re Kudrin)
9. Russia Direct: Moscow’s ties with Tokyo, Russia-West face-off and US elections. Think tank roundup: In May, Russian experts assessed the visit of Japan’s prime minister to Sochi, trends in Russia-West relations, and the potential implications of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
10. www.rt.com: Putin signs NGO bill exempting charities from Russia’s ‘foreign agents law’
11. Center on Global Interests: “We’re seeing a battle of two political agendas:” Director of Russian Polling Center VTSIOM. (interview with Valery Fedorov)
12. Gazeta.ru: Commentary looks at issues posed by Kremlin succession. Andrei Kolesnikov on how the authorities are preparing for a new presidential term.
13. Moscow Times: Russian Election Commission Head Says ‘No One Is Untouchable’ on Violations.
14. Izvestia: Alexei Martynov, The Architecture of Direct Democracy. How the 2016 Parliamentary Elections Differ from the 2011 Elections.
15. Rethinking Russia: United Russia’s Performance at Primaries Demonstrates People’s Trust in Government.
16. Vedomosti: Russian daily analyses failure of opposition primaries. (Fedor Krasheninnikov)
17. The Economist: Russia’s empty elections. United Russia, divided Putin. The president has crushed the opposition, but technocrats and security hawks are fighting for his favour.
18. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Why does Russia want to ban officials from using WhatsApp and Skype? Russian legislators are even worried about encrypted communication systems, since IT security experts believe they may contain backdoors to which secret services may have access.
19. US-Russia Business Council: Kudrin’s Presentation To Putin’s Economic Council.
20. Financial Times: Mary Dejevsky, Vladimir Putin is not ready to toast Brexit.
21. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russian envoy to NATO discusses crisis in relations. (Alexander Grushko)
22. BBC Monitoring: Russian TV show guests split on scale of NATO threat.
23. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, Russia ‘Will Never’ Attack A NATO Country, Unless Provoked.
24. Russia Direct: Pavel Koshkin, Here is why Russia’s pivot to the East still hasn’t taken place. Despite a lot of buzz about the Kremlin’s turn to the East in Russian political and media circles, there are some important challenges that would appear to hinder the future development of Russian-Chinese relations.
25. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Kommersant: Putin-Xi friendship driving Russia-China ties – expert. Alexander Gabuev, Director of the Moscow Carnegie Center’s Asian Program, has modest expectations from the Russian President’s visit to China in the end of June.
26. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, 1% of Russians Approve of US Leadership.
27. Vedomosti: Poll on Russians’ attitude to other countries summed up.
28. Moscow Times: Clinton Says Kremlin ‘Will Celebrate’ If Trump Becomes U.S. Leader.
29. www.rt.com: US refuses to discuss missile defense, seeks security at cost of others – Russian Defense Ministry.
30. Brookings.edu: Steven Pifer, Missile defense-Would the Kremlin pitch a deal?
31. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Russia Prepares to Bomb the Rebels in Aleppo Again. Evidence is mounting that the Russians are cranking up to resume large scale bombing in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo.
32. Wall Street Journal: Pentagon Raises New Concerns About Ending Use of Russian Rocket Engines. Russian-built RD-180 engines power many U.S. military rockets.
33. Valdai Discussion Club: Ivan Timofeev, RUSSIA AND THE WEST: AN INFORMATION WAR? Why are independent media and blogs often much more aggressive than state-owned networks? Why are people eager to spread propaganda at their own free will without any coercion, producing a multiplier effect?
34. Paul Goble: One Book Putin Could Have Written and Three That He Did.
35. TASS: Kremlin says publishing books about Putin is logical.
36. The Japan Times: Gregory Clark, Distorted news on Russia.
37. Facebook: Boycott Russia Today: BRT reading list of critical online articles about RT, 2010-2016.
38. http://akarlin.com: Nils van der Vegte, A Short Guide to Lazy Russia Journalism.
39. Consortiumnews.com: Robert Parry, MH-17 Probe Relies on Ukraine for Evidence.
40. New York Times: Andrew Kramer, Branded a ‘Terrorist’ for Reporting Two Sides of Ukraine’s War
41. The Unz Review: Anatoly Karlin, Rosa Luxemburg on Ukraine.
42. www.opendemocracy.net: Oles Petik and Halyna Herasym, Critical thinking at (the) stake: Ukraine’s witch hunt against journalism. In the two years since Ukraine’s Maidan protests, Ukrainian society has become increasingly politically active – with unintended consequences.

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

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

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