RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-132 :: Thursday, 14 July 2016

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter]

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#132
Thursday, 14 July 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.
JRL homepage: russialist.org – JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist – JRL on Twitter: @JohnsonRussiaLi
Support for JRL is provided in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the George Washington University and by voluntary contributions from readers.
Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php – Donate Online: direct link

1. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Helping Russia’s broken women to get back on their feet. Dozens of crisis centers operate in Russia to help women caught up in desperate situations and left without help from their families. Some of them have nowhere to live, while others are trying to get away from their alcoholic, wife-beating husbands.
2. Kremlin.ru: Meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and Priority Projects.
3. Intellinews.com: Nearly three quarters of Russians feel they have no influence over country, poll finds.
4. Moscow Times: Large Parties Expected to Dominate Duma Election – Report.
5. Russia Direct: Dmitry Polikanov, Understanding the real impact of Russia’s new anti-extremism law. The recently signed package of anti-extremism amendments (collectively known as the Yarovaya Law) aims to combat terrorism in Russia. Instead, it gives Russian law enforcement agencies additional power and mechanisms to clamp down on popular dissent.
6. Moskovsky Komsomolets: Popular daily decries new Russian anti-terror bills.
7. Moscow Times: What Russia’s New Draconian Data Laws Mean for Users.
8. Bloomberg: Putin Peers Into Shadows Where 30 Million Toil on Fringes.
9. New York Times: Russia Looks to Populate Its Far East. Wimps Need Not Apply.
10. TASS: Russia’s budget deficit may exceed forecast in 2016 – IMF.
11. Moscow Times: Reluctantly, Russia Starts Sell-Off of Major State Companies.
12. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Black swans: How political shocks are changing the world financial market. Representatives of the central banks of eight countries, including Russia and China, spoke recently in St. Petersburg about how the unpredictable economic and political events of the last year have influenced their financial policies.
13. The National Interest: Nikolay Pakhomov, Russia’s Regional Master Plan Stretches from Turkey to Indonesia. Seeing Eurasia as a whole has been to Moscow’s benefit.
14. Valdai Discussion Club: RUSSIA-NATO: A CLASSIC SECURITY DILEMMA. NATO’s new troop deployments near Russia aim to create a “tripwire” deterrent to reassure the Baltic States, but at the same time create a security dilemma, as Russia feels pressured to do the same, Paul Saunders, Executive Director of the Center for the National Interest, told valdaiclub.com in an interview.
15. Valdai Discussion Club: RUSSIA-NATO: FORCED OR UNFORCED DIALOGUE? The main thing is to make the NATO-Russia Council operational, to take the Russian authority there seriously, that Russia could communicate with each member-state individually. (Alexander Rahr)
16. Sic Semper Tyrannis: Patrick Armstrong, “NATO, Back in Business at the Old Stand”
17. www.rt.com: ‘If NATO encroaches on nuclear Russia, it will be punished.’ (Sergey Karaganov)
18. Russia Direct: Natalia Burlinova, The NATO Warsaw summit: Back to the future. As long as NATO and Russia keep looking at each other through the lens of the Cold War, it will be impossible to make positive changes in their relationship.
19. AP: NATO considers Russia’s plan to reduce potential incidents over Baltic Sea.
20. RFE/RL: NATO-Russia Council: From High Hopes To Broken Dreams.
21. AP: US Offering Russia Military Pact in Syria.
22. www.thedailybeast.com: Pentagon Resists Obama’s New Plan to Work With the Russians in Syria. The White House is pushing to cooperate with Putin’s forces in the fight against ISIS. But many in the U.S. military are saying: No way.
23. Asia Times: MK Bhadrakumar, Russia-Turkey: Making nice sans trust comes easy.
24. Rethinking Russia: Bryan MacDonald, Brexitstan? How the election of Theresa May as Prime Minister is likely to affect UK-Russia relations.
25. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, THE PERSISTENCE OF BAD IDEAS.
26. AP: Russia detains, deports U.S. propaganda chief before Kerry’s trip.
27. Medium: Dominic Basulto, Russophobia and the dark art of making an anti-Russian magazine cover.
28. New York Times: Serge Schmemann, Review: ‘The Invention of Russia’ Examines the Post-Soviet Path. (Arkady Ostrovsky)