RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-144 :: Friday, 5 August 2016

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#144
Friday, 5 August 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
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1. BBC: Rio 2016 Olympics: Russians ‘have cleanest team’ as 271 athletes cleared to compete.
2. Irrussianality: Paul Robinson, ANOTHER SHOT IN THE PROPAGANDA WAR. (re Edward Lucas and Peter Pomerantsev)
3. Russia Direct: Russia’s national identity through the lens of the Kremlin’s foreign policy. RD Interview: Lev Gudkov, the director of the Levada Center, explains how ordinary Russians and the political elites perceive themselves in the context of the country’s confrontation with the West and its turn to the East.
4. http://theduran.com: Peter Lavelle, The big picture – why Russians like Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin is a traditional Russian conservative in just about every way, reflecting the attitudes and aspirations of the vast majority of Russians.
5. www.rt.com: ‘Reading tea leaves’: Kremlin spokesman Peskov dismisses talk of planned govt overhaul.
6. www.opendemocracy.net: Mark Galeotti, Confessions of a Kremlin conspiracy theorist. Let’s face it: movements inside Russia’s power structures often signal exactly what we want them to.
7. Carnegie Moscow Center: Andrey Pertsev, Following Orders: Putin’s New Strongmen Governors. President Putin has appointed military and security strongmen to be governors in three regions and removed an unpopular local leader in Sevastopol. He wants to tighten control ahead of the parliamentary elections.
8. Vedomosti: Russian election commissions under pressure – watchdog.
9. www.rt.com: 17 Russian parties submit bids for September parliamentary polls.
10. Izvestia: Russian daily analyses parties’ lists ahead of elections.
11. Interfax: Russian voting rights groups’ association to analyze results of its U.S. election monitoring.
12. BBC Monitoring: Russian economy at risk of free fall – Medvedev.
13. Sputnik: Living Within Your Means: US Could Take a Lesson From Russia’s Low National Debt.
14. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Model for prosperity? Russian republic climbs out of backwater status. Ethnically mixed Tatarstan once declared independence from Moscow. But it now receives billions in investment and will be a host city for 2018’s FIFA Soccer World Cup.
15. Russia Direct: What is the future of Russia’s economy with oil under $40 per barrel? Debates: Oil prices could be entering a bear market, with some experts now predicting prices falling to as low as $40 per barrel. What are the implications for Russia’s economy?
16. Science: Russian scientists bracing for massive job losses.
17. Forbes.com: Kenneth Rapoza, American Companies Thriving In Russia: Is There Something To Be Ashamed About?
18. Kremlin.ru: Meeting with CEO of Sberbank German Gref.
19. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Along Russia’s borders: What are the non-NATO security risks? Along Russia’s peripheries lies a string of countries with a track record of domestic upheavals and occasional spasms of aggressive foreign policy. To what extent do they pose a security threat to Moscow?
. To what extent do they pose a security threat to Moscow? 20. Russia Direct: Galiya Ibragimova, The cloud of the Ukraine crisis still hangs over Afghanistan. Despite the obvious incentive for both Russia and NATO to cooperate in the fight against the growing threat of ISIS in Afghanistan, there is litte chance of any coordination in the near future.
21. Rethinking Russia: Russia and the US: Cold War Mentality is a Major Factor. (interview with Michael Slobodchikoff)
22. Russia Direct: Mikhail Mamedov, The post-Soviet monuments war. In countries across the post-Soviet space – from Russia and Ukraine to Armenia and Azerbaijan – there is a struggle to define historical memory through the dedication of new monuments and removal of old ones.
23. www.rt.com: Russian Olympic athletes banned due to ‘words of informant, not a dope test’
24. http://theduran.com: Alexander Mercouris, Russian Olympic doping scandal: McLaren Report ‘sexed up’, implicated clean athletes. Reports circulate of growing criticism of WADA and of McLaren Report by IOC officials.
5. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Putin abolishes the Crimean District. The Russian president has changed the status of Crimea, turning it into an ordinary Russian province. Does this threaten the peninsula?
26. Forward.com (New York): Lev Golinkin, You Want To Name Streets After the Murderers of Ukraine’s Jews?
27. Izvestia Repressive Measures Are on the Rise. Political Analyst Tamara Guzenkova on How the Kiev Authorities Are Dealing With Dissidents.
28. http://www.danielleryan.net: Danielle Ryan, Don’t suffer in silence. Kremlinitis can be cured.
29. www.rt.com: Robert Bridge, No joke: US think-tank suggests cyber-attacks on Moscow Metro, St. Pete power grid, RT offices.
30. The National Interest: Rachel Bauman, Russia, Trump and Manafort: A Test of the News. The media doesn’t mind being an echo chamber.
31. Sputnik: Now Here’s a First: Russia Becomes Focus of US Presidential Campaign.
32. www.foreignaffairs.com: Eugene Rumor, The Kremlin’s Advantage. Why Cyberwar Will Continue.
33. Politico.com: Former CIA chief: Putin recruited Trump as an ‘unwitting agent’ of Russia.