RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-105 :: Thursday, 9 June 2016

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Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#105
Thursday, 9 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. Bloomberg: Putin Is Growing Organic Power One T-34 Tank-Tomato at a Time. Backed by billionaires’ cash, Russian food exports are now worth more than Kalashnikovs and all other military hardware combined.
2. Wall Street Journal: U.S. Carrier’s Moves Send Message to Russia.
3. The Weekly Standard: Defense Official: Russia Could Destroy NATO in 60 Hours or Less. But it will be harder to do in a year.
4. The Daily Telegraph (UK): Putin must be stopped now or Russia will advance to ‘border with Poland or Germany’ says Nadia Savchenko.
5. www.rt.com: UK media hail Navy’s ‘intercept’ of Russian sub…which was not hiding.
6. Intellinews.com: PROFILE: Is the party over for Russia’s ‘Great Gatsby’ oligarch? (Mikhail Prokhorov)
7. Moscow Times: Five Foreign Organizations Declared ‘Undesirable’ in Russia This Year.
8. Interfax: Grant policy should counterbalance ‘foreign agents’ – Russian human rights ombudsman.
9. Transitions Online: Putin Says ‘Nyet’ to State Meddling in Media. Governments should not automatically label as propaganda news reports that rub them the wrong way, Russian leader urges.
10. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Jailed for a repost: The definition of extremism in Russia gets ever looser. Russia has seen a dramatic rise in criminal prosecutions on charges of internet extremism over the last few months. Yet most of these cases concern not the creation of extremist content but retweeting, liking or reposting it. RBTH found out more.
11. www.opendemocracy.net: Mikhail Ugarov, Russia’s young people aren’t angry, they’re furious. Five years after Russia’s protest movement turned sour, young people are still frustrated with the status quo.
12. AP: EU Businesses Anxious to End Russia Sanctions.
13. www.rt.com: ‘US should not dictate to EU regarding Russian sanctions – but it has been’
14. Intellinews.com: World Bank improves Russia’s recession outlook to 1.2% for 2016.
15. US-Russia Business Council: Economists Continue To Raise Their Outlook For Russia’s Economy.
16. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Russia Gears Up to Cut Interest Rates on Friday. As weak inflation falls to zero, the Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates on Friday.
17. www.rt.com: Russia tops Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil exporter.
18. TASS: Russian PM signed Strategy of SME development till 2030.
19. Rethinking Russia: Ovanes Oganesyan, Economic Crisis as an Opportunity to Invest in Russia.
20. www.rt.com: Government drafts fresh bill seeking to curb corruption in Russian state tenders.
21. AP: Russia demands all Olympic retests thrown out.
22. Interfax: Anti-doping rule breakers will be harshly punished – Mutko.
23. TASS: Russian Orthodox Church studies preparations to Pan-Orthodox Council.
24. Russia Beyond the Headlines: What has Russia become for Germany: Rival, partner or challenge? A new draft of Germany’s “white book,” the country’s security doctrine, has ruffled feathers in Russia over the description of Moscow as a rival instead of a partner. Opinions vary drastically: Some say this is “absolutely no sign of confrontation,” while others believe Berlin is embarking on a strategy of “military antagonism” with Moscow.
25. Valdai Discussion Club: Dmitry Suslov, A PIVOT TOWARDS ASIA, INTEGRATION AND MEGA-REGIONS. BALANCING RUSSIA’S APR POLICY.
26. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia and China – unfulfilled potential of complementarity. Despite excellent political ties between Russia and China, bilateral trade stands at just $68 billion. This, obviously, makes both countries look for new sources of growth. A Skolkovo analyst shares her views on how Moscow and Beijing can fulfill their trade potential. (ANASTASIA BELOSTOTSKAYA)
27. Izvestia: Russian analyst warns against revoking INF Treaty. (Boris Shmelev)
28. Interfax: Cyber terrorism, new precision-guided weapons may cause mistaken launches of ballistic missiles – expert. (Vladimir Lukin)
29. AP: Georgian, Ukrainian Officials Push for NATO Membership.
30. Russia Direct: Sumantra Maitra, Why retrenchment is the best US policy toward Russia. The next American president, whether it is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, will have to decide which course of action to follow with regard to Russia. Realist political theory suggests that taking a step back from increasing hostility would be a good starting point.
31. The National Interest: Andreas Umland, Russia’s Strategy: Look Scarier Than You Are. Western fears play into Putin’s game.
32. Russia Beyond the Headlines: U.S. elections: Does Moscow really care if it’s Clinton or Trump? Hillary Clinton has warned that should her opponent, Republican maverick Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential elections, “They’ll be celebrating in the Kremlin.” Is she right? And does this mean that a Clinton presidency would be perceived as a disaster in Moscow?
33. Paul Goble: Ordinary Russians Mistakenly Placing Their Hopes in Donald Trump, Bykov Says.
34. Moscow Times: Deconstructing Moscow’s Constructivist Legacy.
35. Moscow Times: Soviet Nostalgia: 5 Moscow Exhibitions That Hark Back to the USSR.
36. The Nation: Stephen Cohen, War With Russia Without Public Debate? NATO is continuing its military buildup and “exercises” on Russia’s borders, Moscow is taking “counter-measures,” while the US mainstream media remains silent.
37. Newsweek.com: Pavel Baev, WHY HAS PUTIN PUT HIS MILITARY AGGRESSION ON HOLD? (Brookings scholar)
38. Russia Insider: William Wedin, Masha Gessen’s Twisted Barbs and the Real Putin. Competing analyses of the character and personality of Putin.
39. The New York Review of Books: Jack Matlock, Russia: A Big Part in the Big Change. (re Alexander Yakovlev: The Man Whose Ideas Delivered Russia from Communism by Richard Pipes)

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