RUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List table of contents :: JRL 2016-152 :: Thursday, 18 August 2016

Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2016-#152
Thursday, 18 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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PUTINOLOGY

1. Washington Post: Michael McFaul, Why Putin wants a Trump victory (so much he might even be trying to help him).
2. Washington Examiner: Examining Politics Podcast: Ambassador on Putin loving Trump, likely behind hacking Dems. (McFaul)
3. Wall Street Journal: Sohrab Ahmari, Don’t Forget Putin’s Pal in the White House. Obama administration policies have done plenty to help a more assertive Russia.
4. New York Post: Benny Avni, Putin is gobbling up whatever he can – while Obama does nothing.
5. Washington Times: John Bolton, Putin Rolls Over Obama – and Everyone Else.
6. CBSNews.com: Robert Gates: Vladimir Putin “playing a very poor hand with great skills”
7. Chicago Tribune editorial: Hacking the Democrats: What is Putin’s real motive?
8. www.thedailybeast.com: Michael Weiss, Here’s How Donald Trump’s Paul Manafort Helped Create Chaos In Ukraine.
9. www.thedailybeast.com: Michael Weiss, The Putin-Trump Mind Meld, A Wondrous Enterprise. In the old days, the KGB fed lies to politicians, then played them back as fact. Today, Putin’s propagandists do the same-and who’s that politician?
10. Atlantic Council: Alexander Motyl, Why Peace Is Impossible with Putin.
11. www.opendemocracy.net: Mark Galeotti, Putin’s incredible shrinking circle. Ivanov’s departure leaves few voices able to speak truth to Putin.
12. Paul Goble: Putin’s Latest Personnel Changes Make a Stable Long-Term Dictatorship More Likely, Pastukhov Says.
13. Paul Goble: Putin’s Regime Stalinist in Form but Not in Content, Shelin Says.
14. RFE/RL: Brian Whitmore, Putin is firing powerful allies and is setting himself up as tsar.
15. Moscow Times/Kennan Institute: Maxim Trudolyubov, It’s Security, Stupid: How Putin Manipulates National Emergencies.
16. Moscow Times: The Weird Science and New Kremlin Chief of Staff. A bizarre article about “spacial scanners” and “registering the unseen” has been linked to the newly appointed top bureaucrat Anton Vaino.
17. Deutsche Welle: Opinion: In Russia, the elites are callous and arrogant. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s statement that Russian teachers should moonlight to make ends meet will hardly hurt his re-election campaign. It is a nation resigned to the arrogance of power, DW’s Juri Rescheto writes.
18. New York Times: Masha Gessen, Did the Soviet Union Really End?
19. Washington Post: David Kramer, Russia is now a threat. The U.S. should treat it like one.
20. Washington Post: Angela Stent, There will be no ‘reset’ with Russia.
21. Newsweek.com: Anders Aslund, COULD PUTIN BE OUSTED IN A KREMLIN COUP?
22. www.mauldineconomics.com: George Friedman, The Crises That Could Bring Down Putin.
23. Central European Strategy Council: Ben Nimmo, Anatomy of an info-war: How Russia’s propaganda machine works, and how to counter it. Russia’s propaganda assault on the West is well-organized and well-funded. However, it is also predictable, and this is its weakness. (excerpts)
24. Washington Quarterly (George Washington University): Theodore P. Gerber and Jane Zavisca, Does Russian Propaganda Work? (excerpts)
25. PONARS Eurasia: Andrey Makarychev and Stefano Braghiroli1, Russia “Understanders” in Europe. (excerpt)
26. The Express (UK): Russia’s secret plan to destroy EU and NATO: Putin funds covert anti-West op across Europe. VLADIMIR Putin is seeking to bring about the destruction of the European Union and NATO through covert funding worth tens of millions of pounds for organisations across Europe that are spreading an anti-Western message, a study has found.
27. The National Interest: Dan Goure, Defeating Russia’s Ambitions In Europe.
28. The Spectator (UK): Nick Cohen, Will Putin target Latvia next?
29. Newsweek.com/Atlantic Council: James Coyle, PUTIN POISED FOR NEW ASSAULT UPON UKRAINE.
30. Ukraine Today (Kyiv): Putin underestimated Ukrainians and overestimated his ability to divide NATO – Pyatt.